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Globe and Mail--Pesticide suicide?
By JOE CROZIER
Wednesday, January 29, 2003 - Page A14
Mississauga, Ont. -- Re West Nile Spraying Only A
Last Measure (Jan. 28): If Toronto sprays mosquitoes with pesticides,
it had
better prepare for more mosquitoes and more West Nile infections.
When two people died of eastern equine encephalitis in central
New York
State, health authorities started annual pesticide spraying at
Cicero Swamp
(near Syracuse), an important habitat of mosquitoes carrying the
EEE virus.
After 11 years of spraying, mosquito numbers had grown 15-fold.
The
reason -- pesticides killed off the mosquitoes' natural enemies.
While the myth persists that pesticides control insect pests,
the reality is that
pesticides strengthen pests and make us sick.
The West Nile virus must cross the blood-brain barrier to cause
encephalitis.
Many of today's favourite pesticides weaken this barrier. In communities
that
have dealt with West Nile by spraying, the possibility thus exists
that, far
from controlling viral outbreaks, pesticides may have worsened
them.
Pesticides will, at best, fail to control mosquitoes. At worst,
they will amplify
West Nile's harmful effects.
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