No Time for a West Nile Virus Panic Attack

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends and Listmates:

Issues related to West Nile Virus made front page news in Cheyenne, Wyoming this weekend. Predictions are that West Nile Encephalitis will arrive in our area, for the first time, this spring. I am sending you a copy of the letter I've just sent to the Editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. This is a good time to have our concerns raised.

I do not mean to downplay the seriousness of the West Nile Virus (WNV). It can prove painfully debilitating or even fatal. Fortunately, it is extremely unlikely that someone will get sick and die from this disease. Out of more than 7 million New Yorkers, 62 people, or less than .0009% became ill with the virus and 7 died. This is a risk of 1 death in 1 million! So this is not time for a WNV panic attack.

Current policies by state and municipal officials that encourage the spraying of toxic pesticides are both dangerous and ineffective. Indeed, these intentional poisons may cause more harm than good. Spraying may even have the paradoxical effect of increasing the mosquito population by altering its genetic makeup (rendering surviving sprayed mosquitoes more resistant and more aggressive) and by destroying natural predators that feed on mosquito larvae and adults. According to Dr. Pimentel, professor of entomology at Cornell University, "In order to work, the insecticide must hit the mosquito directly. I doubt that more than on-tenth of 1 percent of the poison is actually hitting its target." People are more like to contract WNV when the government sprays pesticides than if the spraying is not done at all. "Chemicals break down the blood-brain barrier, allowing chemicals, bacteria, viruses and assorted diseases to invade the brain," said Dr. Mohamed Abou-Donia, head of Cancer Research and Neurobiology at Duke University (Durham, NC).

All of the chemicals used to 'combat' WNV-infected mosquitoes pose significant health hazards for humans, aquatic and wildlife population, and for the environment. Synthetic pyrethroid compounds and organophosphates are neurotoxic, mutagenic, immunotoxic and possibly carcinogenic. Pyrethroids are known hormone disruptors capable of causing breast cancer and lowered sperm counts. Recent studies have found a strong relationship between pyrethroids and childhood brain cancers, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and blood and bone marrow disorders in children.

It's time to develop a comprehensive, non-chemical mosquito control program. To resort to blanketing our areas with poisons would definitely constitute OVERKILL.

Sincerely,

Irene Wilkenfeld

Environmental Health Consultant, Writer, Lecturer, Educator

irw27@...