We never would have thought anyone could be so stupid or cruel as to spray our children with a toxic pesticide without our knowledge or consent....
One of the biggest blind spots in Public Health is the widespread recommendation for mosquito spraying (adulticiding). Part of the explanation lies, I believe, in the siloing of Infectious Disease apart from Environmental Health. Already, Environmental Health is given short shrift. But I find astonishing the simplistic, almost magical thinking that goes into decisions to spray dangerous pesticides for mosquitos across whole cities to reduce levels of infectious disease, while ignoring the obvious significant risks of impacts like cancer, autism, ADHD, lower IQs, birth defects, and other effects, particularly in children.
This is a lesson I have learned in the worst way possible – from personal experience.
We have every reason to believe that mosquito spraying in Warrenville killed our daughter Katherine, who died in 2002 at age eight after battling leukemia for four years. The chemicals used are extremely toxic – linked not only to cancer but to autism, ADHD, lower IQs, and other neurocognitive problems. This has not really been up for debate since 2012, when the American Academy of Pediatrics put out their Statement on Pesticides. We know we are causing harm when we spray, particularly to young children and babies in utero – all to maybe prevent a few cases of West Nile Virus, most of which will not be fatal. We are counting cases of West Nile. We are not counting the deaths and disabilities that abundant evidence shows these ubiquitous chemicals have been causing for decades.
Be sure to call your City and find out if they spray for mosquitoes or treat lawns with toxic chemicals. I am always happy to come help those in the Chicago region with my credentials and PowerPoint if you can get a dozen or so like-minded residents to register their concern. I am on my City’s Environmental Advisory Commission (WEAC), and even I don’t always hear about initiatives to spray. Unelected mosquito abatement districts can wield a great deal of power, and they, as well as county health departments, are often influenced by those selling the pesticides. For now, my City’s policy is to not spray or treat lawns, ever since I went before them in tears when I realized to my horror that my children, one with cancer, had been exposed.
We have known at least since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring came out in 1962 how dangerous exposures like this are. But I suppose it feels easier to just wish away the invisible, often delayed harms, mostly in order to quiet complaints about nuisance mosquitoes.
There is no doubt there will be increases in mosquitoes – as well as ticks – with climate change. But I have read at least four articles about this in just the last week, and they all mentioned increasing the use of pesticides, even though this is a vicious cycle. I can’t help but wonder about the influence of the pesticide industry, just like so many of the corporations destroying human health and polluting public discourse for profits in the US and globally.
Given the injunction in Medicine and Public Health to first, do no harm, such exposures should never occur involuntarily, particularly at the high levels we experienced first in an apartment, and then in our City.
What can you do to protect your family? The first and best thing to do is focus on mosquito and tick prevention. If you need to use some other remedy, make it the least impactful. Here are some suggestions, listed from least to most risky.
Empty bird baths and other receptacles that collect water – mosquitoes only need a few tablespoons and a few days to make babies.
Consider promoting bird, bat, fish, frog, and toad populations – a healthy ecology can naturally reduce mosquito populations.
Cover up to avoid mosquitoes and ticks, and avoid the outdoors at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are most active.
Use larvicides like Bacillus thuringiensis for standing bodies of water like detention ponds.
Try repellents with natural plant extracts like citronella and lemon eucalyptus.
Some populations, like older people who are particularly susceptible to West Nile, may want to consider use of DEET.
Pesticides like organophosphates (chlorpyrifos, MosquitoMaster, other names) and pyrethroids (pyrethroids, Sumithrin, Prallethrin, other names) should almost never be used except in cases of real Public Health emergency. Just because applicators say they are using “ultra low volumes” does not mean you will not experience harm – our whole family was made sick. And keep in mind that chemicals like piperonyl butoxide, which are not labeled as active ingredients, are still toxic.
Never have private spraying done, and if your neighbor hires pesticide applicators, you have the right in many states to register for advance notice from the applicators.
For more help in protecting your family from environmental hazards, see the Toolkit for my forthcoming Poisoning Our Children as well as the highly recommended Midwest Grows Green (https://midwestgrowsgreen.org/what-you-can-do/all-resources/) and the EPA’s Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit toolkit (https://wspehsu.ucsf.edu/curriculum-tools/pediatric-environmental-health-toolkit/). I also highly recommend Pesticide Action Network at https://www.panna.org/resources/ and the Children’s Environmental Health Network at https://cehn.org/
The book I have worked towards for more than 20 years, Poisoning Our Children, is now available for pre-order at https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/54124/poisoning-our-children?srsltid=AfmBOoom9b8VL_44YjXIzfJkCpIVzRaVnN1lcpFkbURbYYGufR4-avTi#book__reviews
Pre-orders are hugely important, as they affect whether bookstores stock the book, how algorithms surface it, and how seriously publishers take it. Your support matters more than you know. All author proceeds will be donated to Environmental Health non-profits.
