New Director / New Direction: Depends on Us

Indian River County in Florida has a new Mosquito Control Director, Sherry Burroughs.

March 11, 2021

Dear S. Burroughs Director of I.R.C.M.C,

Please pass this down the chain of command to the person who returned my frantic call on Tuesday afternoon February 23^rd 2021out of pure concern for myself and all of us living in the community of V.L.E.!

I would like to thank you for your kind words, saying I would be spared from the consequences of the fog truck. But the reality of it all, your words were what they were, just empty words! I was not spared one bit from the consequences that transpired after all fogging events.

My blood pressure shot up close to twenty points, my sinuses are burning and extremely irritated, a measurable difficulty in breathing, with a burning sensation in my lungs, eyes, nose and throat, muscle cramps that include my heart muscles (it is like multiple mini heart attacks that surely over the years of exposure has weakened the overall function of my heart), hence my concern of eventually having one last big fatal heart cramp!

My fibromyalgia pain is over the top, feeling nauseous, dealing with restless leg syndrome at night keeps me from a much needed good nights sleep! All because of your fog truck and Permanone 30-30, and no the symptoms are not from Covid-19!

On Wednesday February 24^th, I woke up to a calm predawn morning and went outside to properly greet the new day. Only to be engulfed in the acrid bitter chemical smells left behind by your fog truck. With no rain in the forecast, I left town so I could gain some sort of relief from the effects of toxic fumes assaulting me in our community!

I returned in the late afternoon on March 6^th 2021 only to be assaulted for the second time by the lingering toxic fumes spewed from your fog truck, almost two weeks prior!! We are still looking at several more weeks of suffering that so many are experiencing, (very few people can identifying with the source of their discomfort) only to be repeated (upon your whim) when you choose to send out the fog truck, yet again!

Your fogging operation on Tuesday evening on February 23^rd 2021 has been by far the worst fogging event to date! We have been told the operation is computer controlled, but computers cannot compensate for dumb ass human error, anywhere along the way in preparing the full formulation or programing the computer!

Your number one go to reason for sending out the fog truck has been an avian virus that RARELY infects a human, only a few that have an already weakened and compromised immune system, are at a slight risk!

The health risks associated with the insecticides you use are well documented in published unbiased peer-reviewed data!

I send to you a copy of an alert about the intent to Aerially spray for mosquitoes. What is posted at the bottom of the page is paramount, because it explains how to protect YOURSELF from biting mosquitoes if you are afraid of the one in a million chance, if ever in your life time of getting sick from a mosquito bite!!

This data needs to be integrated into becoming the greater part of your effort in controlling mosquitoes instead of fumigating our entire community/county!

This data is paramount in educating all residents (and the swarm of newcomers) in our county! What is detailed in the contents of the data is far more preferable than dealing with the certainty of the health risks associated with the use of insecticides!! Because I am, to date, living in the midst of a nightmarish reality concerning many of those health risks!

Dr. V. Beth Simon will gladly volunteer to guide a representative from your office, with her recommendations in selecting the safest product and where to spray to better control pesky biting mosquitoes, out here in VLE!

Thank you for your time.

[FloridaVet63]

April 16, 2021

Dear S. Burroughs Director of I.R.C.M.C.,

One can sometime only assume (with a great deal of hope) that with a change in directorship, could the change possibly lead to a more prudent and more knowledgeable approach in your methodology while carrying out the duty of controlling mosquitoes! Not the total annihilation of them as we have seen in the past along with many other indigenous species!

The biased material supporting the insecticides you use is massive compared to the published peer-reviewed data that contains the truth. Most of the products you use are approved with results that are tagged with the statement of needing more research, or is below the EPA’s health risk criteria, or falls into the protected trade secrets and inert categories of non-disclosure for ingredients! Supported by this too often repeated statement there are no acceptable levels of exposure to any man-made chemical formulation!

I send to you the data (mentioned in my previous e-mail) that explains what I personally endure for weeks after the fog truck passes anywhere close to my home out here in V.L.E.

I am trying to get you to understand what this one insecticide’s formulation is capable of and is doing to all community members from the youngest to the oldest! Sadly most are ignorant of these facts, therefore most are not able to associate the connection with insecticides being the cause of their discomfort, including medical professionals!!

As of now, I am dealing with prostate cancer, here is data showing your product Permanone 30-30 used in our community. Because it is a pyrethroid class insecticide makes it highly suspect in, if not the leading cause for my diagnosis! I have been informed that I have an eighty five percent chance of testing positive for prostate cancer!

THE MOST important data is the fact sheet on PBO Piperonyl Butoxide! Because of the health risks associated with this one ingredient places it in the must-read category for all personnel!

The data describes word for word what symptoms I am now experiencing because of repeated long term chronic low dose exposures to Permanone 30-30!!

Because of chronic low dose exposure, which sad to say we are all dealing with daily, it is my most grievous concern considering the possible multiple health risks.

We have not even begun to review the damage to us all from the many neurological effects from the full formulation, from any of the products used for controlling mosquitoes!

Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic your ulv fogging of Permanone 30-30 into any community is simply the worst case scenario for everyone!

The health risks we face (daily) from all the different insecticide formulations used in your effort in controlling biting mosquitoes is by far the greater risk to us humans and our environment!

Remember this, percentages, everything is related to percentages and we humans are now losing!

Via e-mail I would be more then happy to share with you my ideas for better practices for controlling mosquitoes in VLE and throughout the county!

Please understand my concern is for everyone!

Thank you for listening to my words, please to not follow the path of your predecessor by being silent!

[FloridaVet63]

(response requested)

https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/pesticides/factsheets/Piperonyl%20Butoxide.pdf

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412021001148?via%3Dihub

April 26, 2021

Sorry for the delay in my response. I have reviewed the materials you provided and am willing to hear your ideas you referenced in the email below.

Sincerely,

Sherry

Feb 23, 2021

Hello Sherry-

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my concerns. Below are links to the studies I mentioned on the phone.

Association between permethrin exposure and cardiovascular mortality:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2757789

Association between pregnant mothers’ exposure to airborne levels of piperonyl butoxide and lower neurodevelopment test scores of infants:

Impact of Prenatal Exposure to Piperonyl Butoxide and Permethrin on 36-Month Neurodevelopment

In Vero Lake Estates, there is often standing water in the drainage grates where the swales connect. It’s possible that this is the source of many of the mosquitoes in the area, and if so, they could be spot-sprayed with Bti to avoid spraying the rest of the neighborhood with permethrin.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Val Simon

COVID-19 & OUR FUTURE: Part Two

We have this correction to make from our first article concerning Piperonyl Butoxide.

This data is most important to us because this one part of insecticides/pesticides formulation enables the active ingredient to be more potent and to persist in our environment in an active state for up to four months, with many only reaching their half life!!

When the manufacturers of insecticides/pesticides state that their products easily break down in sunlight/heat and bio-degrades, this is true but the process changes the molecular structure of the original compounds; more often than not changing into more toxic compounds and for how long do these newly formed compounds persist in our environment?! There is no data or explanations forthcoming from the manufacturers about these toxic changes, when asked about them.

Remember, of what we spray or spread on our lawns between sunlight/heat and rain and watering our lawns, 90% will gas out into unknown toxic fumes in our breathable air! These fumes if we breathe them in from our own yard or elsewhere on a daily basis, it is chronic low dose exposures. It only takes a single breath of air for these toxins to make us suffer in some form or the other, whether we recognize the effects or not! Most people are so nose-dead from exposure to fabric softeners and sweet-smelling detergents with surfactant additives they can’t smell the fumes!

In the synthetic chemical world everything boils down to percentages, example: one lawn pesticide company states that their active ingredient is a low 0.115% leaving 99.9% untested. An other extremely important example of a widely used permethrin class insecticide active ingredient is listed at a whopping 30%, with 30% Piperynol Butoxide, leaving 40% of the formulation untested and unidentified being listed as an inert ingredients or as trade secrets. This high percentage indicates that this one insecticide is extremely toxic!

Inert ingredients are not inert, they more often than not more toxic than the active ingredient acting on is own during testing! Manufacturers control funding for scientific research and testing following EPA’s strict guidelines, thus having full control over the outcome of said research!

Some years ago a group sued the EPA for public disclosure of all inert ingredients, nothing has come forward to us, the general public, because sales and use of such products would drop from sight, just as the lawsuit did?

When manufacturers say “may cause” for example, cancer, most likely it does cause cancer, leading us to this fact: 2,000 Americans die each and every day from some form of cancer, and where does all this cancer originate? The data is out there for us to read then heed for our own well-being/health and for the ones we love. My effort is to raise the awareness of situation as it really is even if it is only one person a day!!

Chronic Low Dose Exposure is subtle as our own lifetime and is an every day occurrence by breathing in the fumes after anyone uses synthetic chemicals around our homes!

Reading health risk data will help you understand why and how we are getting sick. Many of our daily illnesses that are advertised over and over on t.v. are the result of breathing in fumes that we create in or around our homes, dermal contact causes rashes that affect each person differently, major migraine head throbbing white light blinding heat sensitive type headaches! Just where does it come from, if you do not know you are a victim or your own doing!

Here is a way to stop being poisoned by someone else. Get the name brand of the products used by asking the lawn technician for it. Use google to get the msds information, read the data including the manufacturer’s disclaimer that comes with all EPA approved products. Contact the county tax office using the address to get the person’s name, then mail them a personalized letter stating your grievance plus a copy of the msds information plus any research concerning the human health risks of said product. Point out the disclaimer so they can see it for themselves, because after you present this data to them and they choose to use synthetic chemicals again you will have established grounds for taking legal action against them!

One of the best researchers for Permethrin class insecticides that include lawn pesticides is Caroline Cox because her reports are worded so we can understand the health risks, please include these reports so the offender understands the health risks! I will in our next article share more quality researchers. Plus a closer look into to Permanone 30-30!

Feel free to use our data we have sent to you so we can get the point across so that we all will breathe and live better!

TYFYT Respectfully,

FlaVet63

COVID-19 & OUR FUTURE

Considering that this virus now and forever more will be a part of our seasonal influenzas including the two previous corona viruses from a few years back. So our focus is this.

With all the data about this virus one point is very clear to me. The point being people with weakened or compromised immune systems are at high risk. Just what does that mean and how do our immune systems end up being weakened? We need to understand this statement clearly: repeated chronic low dose exposures; I will explain it in my next post!

First and foremost this condition starts at home with exposure to the neurotoxic effects found in our laundry detergents and fabric softeners!!!

If you are not using a plant based detergent you are being exposed to toxins found in what is called a surfactant additive. What other household products can cause this weakening process that we have not given a second thought?

How about that perfect lawn next door? Consider what products lawn pesticide companies use around our homes. Granular and liquid pesticides and insecticides all have toxic surfactants in them to help achieve the product’s modes of action meaning how they kill insects and unwanted weeds! Which is only one part of the full formulation.

Weed and feed products are all the rage these days. Spray or spread them on your lawn and in a few days we have an almost perfect green fine-tuned lawn. But what is in a bag of granular/liquid weed and feed, a fertilizer that feeds the lawn and some form of an herbicide that kills the weeds. Most weed and feed products have Diquat 2,4-D mixed in with a fertilizer that the higher the ph the higher the measurable level of detectable radiation!! The newest products also carry insecticides so we can have the effect of all three products after one easy application, just add water!!

Let us introduce to you Piperonyl Butoxide, a surfactant additive once introduced into our environment significantly increases the weakening of our immune system.

We send along to you data for you to read on Pets, wildlife and 2,4-D, plus an herbicide fact sheet on 2,4-D plus the facts behind Piperonyl Butoxide from Chemical Watch Factsheet; this data is most important to us because this one part of insecticides persist in our environment in an active state for up to four months before it even reaches it’s half life.

This article is the first in a series of articles concerning the products that are responsible for damaging and weakening our immune systems.

TYFYT in reading this data! If you have doubts please do some simple research of your own!!

Respectfully,

FlaVet63

Defining the Opposition to Insecticides: The Single Ingredient, PIPERONYL BUTOXIDE

Dear VLE Residents,

We do not know how often we are in indirect or direct contact with this one ingredient, so we send to you this summary review on this often-overlooked and unexplained portion of Permanone 30-30 that makes up 30% of the full formulation used regularly in our rural community, for mosquito control!

This only one ingredient in one fully formulated product, with all boards having a variety in choices of insecticides, live bacteria and other bio-chemical formulations that present many different human and environmental health RISKS! What has been great, in the absence of the fog trucks so far this summer is that my blood pressure is in the good zone or below the now 120 over 80 criteria set by the good old AMA!

So please read this review:

(direct link to the PDF) https://beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/pesticides/factsheets/Piperonyl%20Butoxide.pdf

(General link) https://beyondpesticides.org/resources/pesticide-gateway?pesticideid=64

FlaVet63

A Decline in Aquatic and Terrestrial Indigenous Species

As a fishing guide’s son I know the importance of the lowly mosquito. Believe it or not they are a very important part of the food chain in Florida’s coastal waters. Every fish in the Indian River Lagoon as their lives begin depends upon a mosquito’s life cycle for their survival, small fry food!

Many saltwater species spawn in fresh water tributaries that run into the lagoon, the litany of “so goes the food source so goes the species.” All species are dependent on their habitat and food source’s availability; eliminate one or more parts of the food chain and there will be marked declines in all species.

Reflecting upon my 65 years of living here in Florida, I know full well that mosquitoes pose an extremely low percentage in human health risk, even long before the current assessment of mosquito viruses. When working outside during the day, I have been bitten by daytime biting mosquitoes for years and never in my entire life became ill from being bitten repeatedly! The target of spraying for mosquitoes are mostly considered nuisance biting mosquitoes, that means if you are bitten you will not come down with a dreaded diseases!

The risk of the disease must outweigh the risk of the products used during mosquito eradication efforts. Data indicates the chemicals used present the greater human and environmental health risks. A go to product used extensively because it is a larvicide can kill aquatic life forms in as low as 1 part per billion and can cause mammalian birth defects, and that is the active ingredient acting on its own not the full formulation.

I personally challenge all of you reading this piece to research as I have done; finding data is easy concerning the health risks. We need to challenge the boards to prove to us, the greater majority, that the products they use are safe for all involved. Google the data on the chemicals they use around our homes, without our permission! Mosquitoes make us itchy but the products used are far more injurious to us and our environment than biting mosquitoes.

Sad to say it only takes a few calls then out they come with their fog trucks into our rural neighborhoods, and they even use airplanes and helicopters for large scale operations.

Here is a good alternative for all of us to understand and then put into use.

There is proof mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide. There is a machine called the Mosquito Magnet that burns propane into carbon dioxide and there goes the mosquito towards the smell that sucks them in, eliminating them humanely. We used one in our yard in Islamorada, Florida and it worked very well.

Keeping to the science of it all as we have been doing and losing so much of the reasons why many have moved to the sunshine state in the first place. We need to find the reasons why there is such an obvious decline of so many different species. Then make the proper adjustments.

Insecticides are broad spectrum, they kill whatever comes in contact with them, and the fumes hang in our breathable air for an undetermined amount of time.

Remember this, the EPA only requires testing of the smallest portion, the active ingredient, and not the full formulation. They do not test surfactants also referred to as adjuvants or synergists. These additives do not have to be listed or explained in the MSDS information because they are trade secrets or are listed as inert ingredients.

Because of past experience I simply fear the synthetic insecticides and microbial-based and many other synthetic chemical formulations used by mosquito control over being bitten by mosquitoes (really get a mosquito magnet). I have never been sickened by biting mosquitoes in all my years living here in Florida!

Do some home work in doing research on the subject. The bottom line from the boards is this, drain standing water, wear protective clothing, then spray yourself with personal repellents.

Who is going to pay to clean up the muck?

Greetings Mr. Kipp Frohlich,

This first week of March 2019 is a very sad week! First a cold front ushered in winds out of the WNW, which usually brings the sweet aroma of orange blossoms, but! Because of living in close proximity of two of our state’s water districts, that was not the case; the second is your temporary pause in herbicide operation is over. And you’re back to spraying five days a week?

Let’s get back to the muck of it all. With the path of Irma coming up the west coast with the winds pushing out of the SW, we now have thirty five years or more of muck pushed up into the north east quadrant of the big lake O. We have fished the Taylor Creek and the Nubbin Slough areas of the lake for years. The lake level during March 2018 was averaging 14.53 feet above sea level. The rim channel at both locations, the depth has been drastically altered by say from eight to twelve feet up to four to six feet. We use a mushroom anchor so we have a good selection of the different stages of decaying aquatic vegetation as we pull it up each time we move about looking for the deeper spots. The bottom was soft and mushy. As we paddled about, there were methane induced muck farts bursting to the surface in a cloud of mucky sediment, yes they smelled bad! Not to mention the chemical smell, which was very strong!

You need to check in with Mr. Mark Perry of Harbor Branch or ORCA, he at one point estimated how much muck is reaching the main channels of the St. Lucie River.

Thank you for your time in these matters. But, silence is not the full measure of the guilty! We request a response!

Respectfully, FlaVet63

(two of many)