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to investigationsDaily News 9/9/2000
Artist: I'm A Victim Of Skeeter Spraying
"She wanted to make a phone call. Instead, a Manhattan woman standing near
a phone booth on Eighth Ave. Sunday ended up in the hospital after she said
she was drenched, point-blank, with a blast of pesticide intended to kill
mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus. "It burned. It itched. I was coughing,
I was choking," said the woman, an artist who lives in Inwood but asked
that her name be withheld. "My vision is blurry. I have terrible nausea. I
threw up three days in a row," she said. It was "a straight shot into
my
face, my eyes, my nose, my mouth - drenching me. I really thought I was
going to die."
Daily News 9/8/2000
Asthma-Like Illness Spurs Spray Probe
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
"Four cases of reported pesticide poisoning in New York State are being
investigated to see whether they may be linked to spraying for mosquitoes
carrying the West Nile virus, state officials said yesterday...The state
probe comes as the city Health Department is quietly beginning its own
survey that will examine whether the pesticide has sickened New
Yorkers...The city's survey seems in contrast with the repeated assurances
from Mayor Giuliani, as well as many medical experts, that the pesticides
being used to kill mosquitoes are safe...The city declined to disclose any
information gathered so far for the study. Since the virus appeared in New
York last year, this is the first time the city has undertaken a study to
assess the potential health risks of pesticides. As of late August, more
than 860 gallons of Anvil had been sprayed in New York."
8/31/2000
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
"Helicopters that city officials said would only spray over
"unpopulated
areas" instead spewed their pesticide cloud over surprised and frightened
Islanders yesterday. Hundreds of children playing on football and baseball
fields in Travis had to dodge the mist...The city has said that helicopter
spraying takes place during daylight hours so pilots can avoid populated or
environmentally sensitive areas. How they failed to recognize a golf
course, youth ball fields and the residential area near High Rock Park --
all areas where people claimed choppers doused them last night -- remains
unclear..."The helicopter flew by four times. I think the borough president
needs to get a call," said Kathleen Collins of West Brighton, who was
watching her 8-year-old son, Michael, play. She said she sat in her car,
cradling her 1-month-old daughter, Kayla, during the dousing. "This is a
field full of children -- and many of them aren't even playing." It was
unclear last night who in city government, if anyone, is responsible for
notifying specific youth leagues or public recreation areas -- like
city-owned LaTourette Golf Course, where complaints from pesticide-covered
golfers were heard -- that they are in or near a spray zone...But Borough
President Guy V. Molinari said the Health Department "never asked us to
notify anyone." He said the notion of contacting every league is
"outrageous." "We just don't have the resources and staff to do
this," said
the borough president. "All we can do is take information from the Health
Department and relay it to the public."
5/4/2001 NY Post
W. NILE TACTICS SHIFT AWAY FROM JUST SPRAY
-- The city's war against the West Nile virus will rage on this summer -
with less pesticide spraying, but stiff fines for those who let mosquitoes
breed. Mayor Giuliani and city officials unveiled their battle plan
yesterday, announcing that emergency regulations enacted last year making
water accumulations a public health nuisance will be vigorously enforced.
The first summons - fines range from $200 to $2,000 - has been issued to a
contractor on the old Alexander's site on East 59th Street. Officials said
warnings to remove a standing pool of water there - a breeding ground for
the disease-spreading mosquitoes - were ignored.
For the last two years, officials have rushed to blanket neighborhoods with
a pesticide haze any time a dead bird infected with the mosquito-borne
virus turned up. Pesticides were used to cover a two-mile radius, about as
far as a mosquito could fly. But City Health Commissioner Dr. Neal Cohen
said new data indicates a one-mile spraying radius is sufficient - and even
that would be a last resort. "We have to not look to spraying as a panacea,
but look to prevention," Cohen said. The city's top health official said
when infected birds are detected this year, rapid response teams would move
in to "take all preventive and reduction measures," such as spreading
larvicide and removing pools of water. Only if the population of
human-biting mosquitoes increases would the city begin spraying in
"targeted" green areas, such as parks and golf courses.
"While last year we had a formulaic and somewhat reflexive approach . . .
this year we're going to look very carefully to determine where the
greatest risk to people is," Cohen said. He insisted the change was made
"based upon the science. It doesn't have any bearing whether certain
individuals are pro- or anti-spraying."
NY Times 5/4/2001
City to Look Beyond Spraying for West Nile
"To reduce the reliance on pesticides in the battle against West Nile
virus, the city will use a more conservative, concentrated approach to
spraying this summer, officials said yesterday. Last year, the city
generally sprayed pesticides within a two- mile radius of any location
where infection was found in birds or mosquitoes. This year, officials
said, the city plans to emphasize monitoring, public education and
prevention. For example, it will enforce a ban on standing water and use
larvicide to reduce mosquito populations...Dr. Neal L. Cohen, the city's
health commissioner, said they could not predict how prevalent the virus
would be. "We do know that all these preventive measures make a very
important difference," he said, "and we really have to not look to
spraying
as a panacea, but look to prevention as the way to minimize the need to
spray." Instead of spraying widely wherever the virus is detected, Dr.
Cohen said, team will investigate communities where dead birds or infected
mosquitoes are found to determine whether spraying is necessary."
Daily News 1/26/2001
Victims of Anvil Spray Had No Place to Hide
by
Juan
Gonzalez.
On the night of Sept. 11, a work crew from the city Department of
Transportation was
spray-painting new double-yellow lines along the middle of 53rd St. near
Flatlands Ave. in
Brooklyn.
Around 11 p.m., one of the spray nozzles on the painting vehicle became
clogged, so crew
member Ricardo Rosa, who was directing traffic, walked over to clear it.
As he finished, he noticed a police car approaching slowly. Its top lights
were flashing,
and a pickup truck was trailing behind.
He realized too late that the second vehicle was a mosquito-spray truck.
"Before I could even stop them, they passed right by and sprayed
us," Rosa
said. "The cops
never said a thing on their bullhorn."
The men in the crew shrugged and kept painting stripes. Because they were
headed in the
same direction as the truck, they drove into foul clouds of Anvil mist for
several blocks.
The next day, Rosa, who is 39 and physically trim and loves to work out, went to play his
weekly round of paddleball.
"I noticed I was short of breath," he said. "All my stamina
was gone. After a couple of
games, I had to quit." The problem persisted, so Rosa visited his primary-care doctor in early
October and was
shocked to learn he had asthma. "I'd never had asthma before," he said. "I don't even smoke
cigarettes or
drink alcohol."
All this made him suspicious about the spray used against the West Nile virus. So he went
to Mount Sinai Medical Center's Irving J. Selikoff Occupational Health Clinical Center.
"Occupational asthma" caused by exposure to the pesticide Anvil,
the doctors concluded
after analyzing results of the pulmonary function and stress tests. They recommended that he be approved for a partial disability by the state
Workers'
Compensation Board.
Rosa, who has been employed at DOT for 10 years, now carries two asthma
sprays. He has kept
working on the street crews but says: "I can't work as hard as I used
to." Most people would be surprised that a one-time exposure to a pesticide can
bring on chronic
asthma. But it doesn't surprise Dr. Irwin Berlin, chief of pulmonary medicine at
Trinitas Hospital
in Elizabeth, N.J.
Several of the ingredients that help make Anvil effective are "skin
and lung
allergens and
can cause respiratory reactions," Berlin said. The pesticide, in effect, can trigger asthma in people who may be
predisposed to the
disease, said Dr. Mitchell Rubin, assistant director of medicine at
Metropolitan Hospital
and an expert in childhood asthma.
As this column reported Wednesday, at least six men who worked in the
city's
Anvil spraying
campaign last summer say they've been plagued by ailments that include
fatigue, severe
headaches, difficulty breathing, loss of hair,
nausea and even sexual dysfunction.
The men charge Clarke Environmental Mosquito Management, the city
contractor
that hired
them, didn't train them in how to spray the pesticide and failed to protect
them.
The company says it followed state and federal requirements in the
training
and supervision
of its crews.
Meanwhile, state officials have confirmed investigating at least 14 cases
statewide of
people who reported poisoning from exposure to pesticides, mostly Anvil. That
also happens
to be the number of people who got sick from West Nile virus last year.
While safety officials and the medical experts continue to investigate
these
very real
concerns, we have Mayor Giuliani casually dismissing the whole matter.
"Anvil is very safe," Giuliani said Wednesday. "Obviously,
it's not safe if
you go right up
next to it and breathe it in. ..."
Ricardo Rosa, like many people in this city, didn't have much choice in
the
matter.