"Dallas plans spraying to fight virus" Associated Press, August 17, 2012
DALLAS — The last time Dallas used aerial spraying to curb the mosquito population, Texas’s Lyndon Johnson was in the White House, Mission Control in Houston was launching Gemini missions, and encephalitis was blamed for more than a dozen deaths.
So which chemical companies hold the contract$ in your $tate?
But on Thursday, for the first time in more than 45 years, the city and county planned to resume dropping insecticide from the air to combat the nation’s worst outbreak of West Nile virus, which has killed 10 people and sickened at least 200 others.
‘‘I cannot have any more deaths on my conscience because we did not take action,’’ Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said.
Although commonplace in other major cities, the efforts are provoking a debate in the Dallas area between health officials trying to quell disease risk and people concerned about insecticidal mist drifting down from above.
Nearly half of all West Nile cases in the United States so far this year are in Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The hot, dry weather across the nation’s midsection has created ideal conditions for some species of mosquito.
Both the mayor and Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins have declared a state of emergency and voiced their support for an aerial defense.
Yet even with the threat of infection, the mosquito spraying has sparked widespread opposition from people who fear the chemicals could be harmful.
They are, and just because the government says they are not doesn't mean it's true -- and the people obviously know it based on their reaction.
--more--"
Related:
Worst year ever for West Nile in Texas; 43 dead
So many other things kill so many more people, so WTF i$ with the agenda?
Mosquitoes spreading fear, new challenges
Who was spreading the fear?
Also see: Nighttime Spraying of the Boston Globe
Child is state’s 3d EEE case this season
Amesbury woman dies from EEE
You have anything for bees?
"A 40-year-old warehouse worker has been stung more than 300 times after accidentally disturbing a massive colony of Africanized bees in Central Texas."
