Risk Assessment Paper

Malathion has been introduced to our City Council here in Wilhelmville. We as a community are looking for a pesticide to kill these insects destroying our crops, however in reviewing information found and presented to us and our council we have a split decision. Below is what we have been presented with by concerned citizens of the community. When presenting this information to the members of the council will assist me and others in our decision whether this is the pesticide that we need to use here in our community.

The one thing that could keep me inside on a nice summer’s day is the threat of mosquitoes. Where they bite me, I swell up and itch for days afterwards. It’s a hard choice between slathering myself in nasty smelling insect repellant or staying inside. Sometimes even with the insect repellant I still get bit. To add insult to injury, they sometimes get in the house and attack me. They seem to be an annoyance I can’t escape. I’m lucky that the mosquitoes that bite me don’t carry dangerous diseases like the ones in other counties. Daniel Engber who wrote the article “Let’s Kill All the Mosquitoes” has the solution to our problem. He makes a great argument to kill the dangerous mosquitoes and it’s very well supported with credible sources.

From EPA: https://blog.epa.gov/blog/2012/05/mosquito-management-how-to-avoid-mosquitoes-in-your-backyard/ “Prevention is rather simple but must be maintained throughout the year. Check all unused fountains, puddles, etc. Identify locations and sizes of all stagnant water bodies, including areas with open cisterns, water barrels, basins, catchment basins, storm drains, blocked roof gutters, and all water retaining containers. These are all important mosquito larval

Man can capture an elephant, train a lion, and totally obliterate a species from this earth. If man can do all that surely he will have dominion over something as small and meek as a mosquito. The Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 proved this notion to be false as this disease, transmitted solely by the bite of a female mosquito, wiped out one tenth of Philadelphia’s population in four months. Some make the mistake of seeing this as an isolated event but this epidemic was as far-reaching as the disease itself since it forever changed America’s Government, public health system and African American community.

Although I feel that malathion, when correctly regulated, is perfectly safe for humans, I do not feel that it’s worth the impact it will have on the environment. Being highly toxic to important insects and fish will negatively affect the surrounding ecosystem. Once we began to deplete that, then there definitely won’t be any mosquitos left to worry

DDT is an insecticide that is known to be particularly effective in controlling the spread of malaria-bearing mosquitos. However, the use of DDT is also controversial because of its negative effects on the environment and the potential risks to human health, which were brought to attention in Rachel Carson’s hugely influential Silent Spring (1962). DDT has been banned in the United States for over thirty years, largely due to the response Silent Spring incited in the public (Bailey, 2004). Malaria remains an issue that is especially prevalent in developing countries; it is also these countries that often rely on foreign aid, and that aid occasionally comes with the condition that the use of DDT be banned.

Within Delaware there has been strong alertness for organized mosquito control for over 75 years. In 1950-1960 state owned reservoir confinements were first constructed for the benefit of mosquito control. Since then the mosquito control continues to run and Delaware recently had its 19th annual National Mosquito Control Awareness week which occurred on June 21 to 27. Today, DNREC is putting in place the states new spray notification system. All that has been done in the past to present time is to reduce the swarm within Delaware.

1Malathion is a broad-spectrum insecticide used in both agricultural and residential setting to help control outdoor insects. In this short presentation I will go over some facts about malathion and hopefully show everyone here why we should use it to help contain the mosquito problem we are facing and the subsequence west nile virus outbreak that could result. Most of the information contained herein was gathered from the NPIC’s malathion technical fact sheet and can be researched further there (npic.orst.edu, 2009). Moving forward let’s begin by Identifying some of the hazards involved with using this product and the circumstances therein.

The worry that is surrounding the spread of the Zika virus is spreading throughout the United States as the first cases of Zika have been discovered. Yet, the preemptive measures to ward off the disease are having costly back lashes. Florida, along with many other states, has begun aerial spraying to kill off mosquitoes on contact. Yet, this has had a costly effect on another population in the area…bees. The Social Environmental Impact Assessment will evaluate the long lasting affect that aerial spraying may have on the bee population of Florida and subsequent wildlife and plant life.

Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide, its chemicals abstract service number is121-75-5. Malathion is an amber colored liquid with a skunk like odor used for agricultural andresidential control of mosquitos, fruit flies, and weevils. One form of Malathion is also used inshampoo used for head lice.The identified side effects of Malathion although mainly considered a low toxicity are asfollows. Changes in blood pressure, elevated or lower heart rate, head ache, confusion andinsomnia. The more severe symptoms include decreased respiration depth, convulsions andcoma. Children show variety of symptoms including excessive salivation, lethargy, contractedpupils, muscle weakness, and coma.A number of studies determined Malathion to be non-carcinogenic

This includes many of the precautionary steps taken with Malaria as stated before. Check any travel plans, or even where you live because WNV is commonly found in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America and West Asia. WNV is maintained in nature in a cycle involving transmission between birds and mosquitoes (West Nile Virus, 2011). Also, since WNV outbreaks in animals precede human cases, the establishment of an active animal health surveillance system to detect new cases in birds and horses is essential in providing early warning for veterinary and human public health authorities. In the Americas, it is important to help the community by reporting dead birds to local authorities (West Nile Virus,

Malaria is a major public health problem in most of the tropical regions of the world including Papua New Guinea (PNG). As stated by Allen et al., 1996 “In many tropical and sub-tropical regions, malaria remains a major cause of mortality” (Allen et al., 1996: pg1). In Papua New Guinea, being at the risk of getting infection is very high because studies reported that 90% of the total population are at the risk of being infected (Pulford, 2012: pg1). As a result, the highest out patients complains reported in PNG is malaria and is one of the leading cause of deaths, even it’s a preventable and curable disease (Pulford, Mueller et al., 2012: pg1). It will take a long time to eliminate malaria in PNG because of the geography of the country. There are a lot of swampy areas creating an environment conducive for the anopheles mosquito to breed. Therefore, malaria can only be controlled. Control measure such as vector control and personal protection have been carried out in the last eight years by the PNG National Department of Health (NDoH) under the Global Fund to fight AIDs, tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) program (Hetzel, Gideon et al., 2012: pg2) however, there seem to still be a need for increased net usage across the country. Therefore, is the intervention in encouraging Insecticide Treated mosquito nets usage among febrile patients in PNG effective?

Malathion spray being used for mosquitoes in our community isn’t good for our health or the environment. If you are exposed to the fumes of the spray it can cause you to get headaches, muscle weakness, vomiting and other symptoms. It may work on the mosquitoes but is very harmful to everyone else breathing it. You can also be affected from Malathion from drinking water and food. It breaks down faster in water and will eventually go away. Our children stand a high risk of catching symptoms from the spray. Our kids are always outside and if you have a truck rolling by your neighborhood spraying for mosquitoes they are more likely to catch something from that. This types of mosquito spray hasn’t even been proven effective so why should it be used.

Fortunately, Paul lives in an area where the probability of contracting a mosquito-borne illness, disease carried by organism, is relatively low. So the consequences of a mosquito bite is usually nothing more than a nuisance. However, many underdeveloped countries continue to struggle from the presence of mosquito-borne diseases caused by mosquitoes. Multitude of methods have been invented to combat mosquitoes, but not all those methods produce ideal results. Few methods involve either localized eradication, or

Climate change, natural disasters, and international travel have contributed to the development and rapid transmission of several infectious diseases. One of the many infectious diseases is West Nile Virus, which wasn’t introduced into the U.S population until 1999 (NRDC, nd). In the year 2005, there were over 16,000 cases of West Nile virus in the United States reported (NRDC, nd) and the disease continues to spread nation wide. West Nile is an infectious disease that is spread to a host by a vector – a mosquito bite. Mosquitoes thrive and are high in population in areas that contain water, extreme temperatures, and humid weather. Local governments have created preparedness strategies to combat infectious vector-borne diseases during times of climate change such as increasing disease surveillance, increasing outreach education, and heightening the response when a disease outbreak occurs (NRDC, nd).