Student Anti-Pollution Bus Campaigner Joins Forces with Ex-Mayor Urging
Miami-Dade To Ban Toxic and Ineffective Mosquito Chemicals
Miami, October 26, 2021 – School bus campaigner Holly Thorpe, 15, whose science project persuaded Miami-Dade County to replace its diesel-powered school buses with pollution-free electric ones, has launched a petition (https://www.change.org/p/miami-dade-county-mosquito-control-division-ban-toxic-and-ineffective-mosquito-chemicals-in-miami-dade-54b2b40a-e73a-4b46-804d-78910bdfd871) with South Miami’s former mayor, Dr. Philip Stoddard, Professor of Biological Sciences at Florida International University, in calling for Miami-Dade County to cease spraying residents with broad-spectrum insecticides in its war against mosquitos.
These chemicals are toxic to humans, harmful to the environment, and published studies show they are ineffective at controlling either mosquito populations or the diseases mosquitoes can carry. Safer, more effective, methods can and must be implemented.
While Dr. Stoddard was mayor of South Miami (2010-2020), the city banned use of synthetic chemical insecticides in public spaces because of mounting scientific evidence that not only were they dangerous to human health as well as other wildlife, but that they actually made the problem worse. New York City passed a similar law in April.
“The synthetic chemical pesticides sprayed by the County – malathion, chlorpyrifos, deltamethrin – are all neurotoxic, especially to children because their brains are still developing and they are more sensitive” said Dr Stoddard. “These chemicals are not even effective in controlling the mosquitos, whose populations recover rapidly following a spray application, in part because their natural predators, like spiders and dragonflies, are incapacitated by the insecticides.”
Holly Thorpe, a ninth-grader at MAST Academy, said: ““The trouble is that people just don’t realize how dangerous these chemicals we spray are to our environment, animals, and us. No one likes getting bitten by mosquitoes but there are better ways to deal with mosquitoes rather than by spraying toxic chemicals that cause more harm than good.
“Unfortunately, most people don’t care about the spiders and dragon flies, never mind the butterflies, bees or the birds, whose populations are plunging. Do we humans want to end up living on the planet alone?!”
As for the impact on human health, Dr. Stoddard points to the mountains of laboratory and epidemiological evidence showing how the chemicals used to kill the adult mosquitos (“adulticides”) are mutagenic, cause brain damage, and are associated with autism, disrupt our endocrine systems, and can cause cancer. “Of course, toxicants sprayed on land also run off into Biscayne Bay in stormwater where they harm marine life. If we are trying to save the Bay, does it make sense to flush insecticides into these precious waters?”
He adds: “The trouble is that the chemicals industry fiercely resists independent scientific studies and for years has prevented the Environmental Protection Agency from banning these pesticides. At last the EPA has been forced by a court order to ban chlorypyrifos from food production – but unfortunately it has decided to allow it to continue to be used for mosquito control even though it is sprayed directly onto our homes!
“And just because a product is authorized by the EPA does not mandate Miami-Dade County to use it. Nor does EPA approval mean a chemical is safe: It only means that at the time of initial EPA approval, insufficient evidence was presented or included to indicate the chemical’s hazards.”
While aquatic life exposed to insecticides may die quickly – even Bayer’s own warning for its deltamethrin insecticide says it is extremely toxic for fish, and many residents’ fish have died after its spraying – in mammals the results often take many years to manifest.
Unborn babies, infants and adolescents are especially susceptible. In a landmark 2012 study, the American Academy of Pediatrics, wrote: “Children encounter pesticides daily and have unique susceptibilities to their potential toxicity. Acute poisoning risks are clear, and understanding of chronic health implications from both acute and chronic exposure are emerging. Epidemiologic evidence demonstrates associations between early life exposure to pesticides and pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems.” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23184103/)
And while the national cancer rate for children and teenagers has surged 45% since 1975, the Miami-Dade pediatric cancer rate is another 32% higher than the national average, and rising.
Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician, public health physician and epidemiologist thanks to whose crusading efforts lead was removed from our gasoline, and who currently serves as Director of the Program in Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College, proved that children are uniquely susceptible to adverse effects of pesticides in a 1993 study for the US Senate, Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children.
In 2020 testimony urging Maryland to ban chlorpyrifos, Dr. Landrigan wrote: “Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate insecticide, a member of class of chemicals deliberately engineered to be toxic to the brain and nervous system. It is through injury to nervous system that organophosphate insecticides kill insects, and it is also through injury to the brain and nervous system that these chemicals cause acute and chronic poisoning in humans.
“Chlorpyrifos is highly toxic to the developing brains of infants and young children. Infants in the womb are especially vulnerable. When a pregnant woman is exposed to chlorpyrifos, the chemical moves immediately from her bloodstream into the bloodstream of her unborn child to cause fetal brain damage.”
Trucks from Miami-Dade’s Mosquito Control Division routinely spray adulticides from our streets in the middle of the night every couple of weeks during the summer. Simon Strong, a Miami Beach resident and founder of The Oliver Foundation, focused on the pediatric cancer prevention, said: “They warn us to keep 100 feet away but our gardens start a few feet from the street. Each time we are sprayed with the adulticides our dragonflies vanish and the few birds around seem to back off, their berries and caterpillars poisoned.
“And neighbors report an increased incidence of illnesses afflicting our cats and dogs – so we worry for our cat as well, who inevitably will pick up the pesticide on his coat, bring it into the house, clean himself and ingest it. Cats cannot detoxify commonly used insecticides such as deltamethrin. As for us humans, we ingest the pesticides by bringing them in on our shoes, on our hands from the handles of our cars, from our mailboxes, from our swimming pools, and – in the case of our children – from the ground.”
“The County argues that dosage levels are nominal for both humans and wildlife but insecticides are tested on rodents, not children, who live much longer, allowing mutations to manifest as cancers long after a lab mouse or rat would have died of old age,” said Strong. “Further, lab rodents are not tested for cognitive damage or autism following pesticide exposure. And, of course, some insecticides accumulate inside us with repeated exposure.”
Melissa Beattie, president of the Venetian Islands Homeowners Association and Miami Beach Commission 3 candidate, said: “We place our trust in our officials and agencies to prioritize the safety of our children, our pets and our environment. These findings are troubling. With precedent from South Florida and New York, an alternative, safer path is available. Our county should strongly consider taking the necessary steps in following suit.”
Dr. Stoddard says blood tests have shown that Miami residents who avoid using insecticides in their homes still show measurable levels of pyrethroid insecticides. And he points out that the mosquito adulticides do not even work to control mosquito-borne disease.
“Mosquitos may carry nasty diseases – malaria, dengue, West Nile Virus, and Zika – but not only are these rare in Miami, but growing evidence shows that these chemical pesticides are actually making the problem worse,” he said. “Following adulticide application mosquito populations recover in a few days, expanding faster than they could before. The rapid recovery suggests that a natural control has been lifted. Mosquito predators such as dragonflies (which hunt in the evening and at night) and particularly spiders are rendered incapable of hunting effectively, even by sub-lethal insecticide exposure.
“The same effect was seen in Miami following attempts to control Zika with adulticides. A 2019 paper in the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association shows that spraying of adulticide insecticides has no effect on the number of gravid/egg-bearing mosquitoes or indeed egg production. The spraying temporarily knocks down the number of host-seeking mosquitos, but they bounce right back in higher numbers than before, while gravid/egg-bearing females are entirely unaffected.”
Dr. Stoddard said that in some areas, like Miami Beach itself, chemical resistance was also a problem. The mosquito that carries dengue and Zika, Aedes aegypti, has evolved high resistance to synthetic pyrethroids, while black salt marsh mosquitoes in the Florida Keys have evolved resistance to a number of adulticides including organophosphates such as malathion.
He said: “Miami-Dade must ban use of these ‘adulticides’ and focus instead on using natural biocides to kill the larvae. Bacterial larvicides are targeted, effective, and present none of the synthetic chemicals’ wider health risks. Although the County does deploy these ‘larvicides’ as well, their usage needs to be much more comprehensive, extending to storm drains where urban mosquitoes breed.
“At the same time, the County should engage in a more effective public relations campaign to promote sensible and practical prevention techniques, such as continuing to urge people to remove bromeliads and other water collectors, to cover up in the evenings, and to use non-toxic repellants and air fans.”
For Holly, it is a matter of society getting its priorities right: “For us, it is a matter of society getting its priorities right: Do we want a society that is science-based, public health-oriented, occupational safety focused, children-concerned, ecologically protective or one that allows the use of toxic pesticides that are unnecessary to achieve environmental management and quality of life?
“Do we want to continue to poison our planet and at the same time poison ourselves? If New York and South Miami can ban these chemicals and still achieve reasonable mosquito control, then why cannot Miami-Dade ban them from the whole county?”
Signed:
- Simon Strong
- Holly Thorpe
- Dr. Philip Stoddard
- Melissa Beattie (President, Venetian Islands Homeowners Association)
- Emmanuel Sebag
- Michael Krieger
- Dr. Sam Gershenbaum
- Andrea Metjova
- Monica Tracy
- Jennifer Samway
- Herb Frank (Founding Director, Miami Beach United)
- Suzette Siblesz
More Information from: Simon Strong (simon@thereasonswhy.us)
Petition:
https://www.change.org/p/miami-dade-county-mosquito-control-division-ban-toxic-and-ineffective-mosquito-chemicals-in-miami-dade-54b2b40a-e73a-4b46-804d-78910bdfd871
Scientific Papers
Pesticide exposure in children American Academy of Pediatrics, 2012
Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children, National Academy of Sciences, 1993
A Ban on Chlorpyrifos Will Safeguard the Health of Maryland’s Children, Dr. Philip Landrigan, 2020
Statutes