Professor of Biology
Pace University
Pleasantville, New York
As of August 13, 2000
Three humans in Staten Island have been confirmed to have been infected with the west nile virus:
78-year old man
63-year old man
64-year old woman
All victims were hospitalized and have recovered.
The title of this page is Environmentalists versus Health Departments and Politicians. All newspaper and other reports have become an us versus them presentation.
From the Health Departments and Politicians point of view the west nile virus is a deadly killer and mosquitoes must be destroyed.
From the Environmentalists point of view the reaction by spraying is premature and exposing too many citizens with a potentially carcinogenic or otherwise harmful insecticide.
In the state of Florida, a 25 year baseline with St. Louis encephalitis, has been established states Jonathan Day (an entomologist at the University of Florida in Vero Beach) in an article in the New York Post (Sunday 8/13/2000 page 7 and 20).
"Florida authorities have devised a careful step-by-step procedure for when a medical emergency is indicated. When a chicken, bird or mosquito shows up infected.
First there is a medical advisory, then a medical alert, and finally spraying. In this county, about 40% of our sentinel chickens (showing they've been infected) triggers spraying."
In New York City, none of the sentinel chickens located at 14 monitoring spots around the city have tested positive for the virus. Thirty-three wild birds have died of the disease, most on Staten Island, and several mosquito trappings around the city have turned up bugs infected with West Nile.
The effectiveness of ground spraying is being debated. The environmentalists feel about 1% of the mosquitoes may be killed while the Health Department officials and others feel as many as 30% may be killed.
WE DO NOT HAVE ANY DATA TO SUBSTANTIATE EITHER SIDE'S NUMBERS.
A review of the literature on the possible carcinogenicity of piperonly butoxide is again unclear as to its safety.
Polls of the public in Westchester County show a vast majority of citizens favor spraying.
Is this position based on the fear of the "VIRUS" created in the media?
Is the position of the environmentalists on erring on the side of caution - gaining more information about the dangers of Anvil and Scourge - while possibly having people die - reasonable?
The debate will go on. The sides have lined up and the public is in the middle.
My position in this matter is very unambivilent. The usual preventative measures should be used: sentinel chickens, larvicides and spraying (ground or aerial) only when actually needed.
The latter point is important because the only effective way of killing mosquitoes is with aerial spraying.
If we truly have an epidemic developing then spraying over wetlands, ponds, reservoirs, etc., must be done.
One cannot simply spray 300 feet from roads and expect to kill a substantial number of mosquitoes.
Unfortunately, with each new human case that is found the officials responsible for spraying decisions may panic and bombard communities like never before.
The Health Departments and Politicians would be wise to check with local hospitals and private physicians to determine if any increase has occurred with asthma cases in areas sprayed.
If there is no increase in severity or numbers of cases PUBLICIZE this information.
