The cure is worse
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While it is always compelling to hear individual
anecdotes of the suffering caused by West Nile virus, the danger
posed by this disease has been blown out of proportion in the
United States (HCN, 11/12/07). In Colorado in
2006, for example, there were 724 suicides, 609 deaths due to
influenza and pneumonia, 226 deaths from drunk driving, and 1,888
deaths from accidental injuries. These certainly overshadow the six
fatalities and few dozen disabling cases of West Nile virus. Yet,
because of fear, partly magnified by the news media and pesticide
companies, the response is often out of proportion and unhelpful.
Take Sacramento, Calif., where a few cases of West Nile virus in
2005 prompted wholesale, repeated aerial spraying of permethrin
over large areas of the city. Permethrin kills only adult
mosquitoes - often a futile tactic, as the adult population
rebounds within a few days. Permethrin, classified as a possible
carcinogen, has been increasingly identified as an immune, nervous
and endocrine system disruptor in mammals. It is likely that more
people will be sickened by preventative adulticide sprayings than
would be in danger of suffering the more severe forms of West Nile
disease. Measured, integrated pest management programs that rely on
larvicides, public education and the removal of breeding habitat
are a much better and more reliable method of combating West Nile.
Claude Ginsburg
Director, No Spray Zone
Seattle, Washington
Claude Ginsburg
Director, No Spray Zone
Seattle, Washington
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"It is likely that more people will be sickened by preventative adulticide sprayings than would be in danger of suffering the more severe forms of West Nile disease." So writes Claude Ginsburg in his letter.
This is undeniably true, but ... we are dealing with humans here, and they are not always so rational.
Anyone contracting West Nile knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was caught through a mosquito's bite. A mosquito represents a very small, but obvious visible threat. There is a direct known 100% cause-effect relationship there.
Not so with carcinogenic chemicals. A person suffering from cancer is almost never aware of how exactly he got it. Even if an omniscient God knows it came from exposure to Permethrin on such and such a day, causing a specific cell to go awry, no one, not even the most knowledgable scientist can verify that. For all anyone knows, it could have been triggered by any of dozens of events. Likely we will never know this to the detail that this God can.
And so, irrational man will take out the thing he knows while ignoring that which he does not. We're stuck with that, especially in a democracy where our elected officials do what the masses choose them to do. If they don't spray, they'll be replaced by those who promise to do so.
Education will help, but it took 50 years to get us where we are with respect to tobacco and the threat it poses to our health. But let's keep at it - in time we'll get it right.