Tag: florida

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 23rd 2021 out 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 24th, 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 6th 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 23rd 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

 

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.