David Savitz
“Spraying may well be justified as the safest and wisest course of action.”Whenever we consider spraying pesticides in
residential areas, the question naturally arises regarding whether the
benefits of spraying outweigh the potential risks. While pesticides
are toxic by design, the potential for harm to humans has been minimized
by selecting agents that are as specific to the intended organisms as
possible and using pesticides that degrade very quickly following
application. The threat of West Nile Virus is real, as indicated by the
outbreak in Texas. If the judgment is made that spraying reduces the
risk of viral disease and poses little or no threat to human health,
spraying may well be justified as the safest and wisest course of
action, but that assessment has to be made on a location-by-location
basis based largely on how serious the threat of West Nile virus is.
August 20, 2012
401-863-1862
In Dallas, Southeastern Massachusetts, and elsewhere public health
officials are deciding to suppress populations of disease-carrying
mosquitoes using aerial pesticide spraying. David Savitz, professor of
epidemiology and obstetrics and gynecology, says deciding to spray is a
judgment call, but that because the pesticides have been designed to be
harmful only to mosquitoes, the harm to human health has been
minimized.
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