So I had an extensive conversation the other day with the head of Arlington's Environmental Health Bureau, Richard Cole, about the spraying of pesticides near my house in reaction to the threat of West Nile Virus. So far in the years we've lived in Arlington I've had a very favorable opinion of all the interactions I've had with Arlington county government, and Mr. Cole was no exception. He was open and professional, and responded patiently if not always with crystal clarity to the pointed questions I posed to him on this matter.
That said, the conversation in the end didn't do much to dispel my doubts about the rationality of these mosquito sprayings. Here are some of the things I learned:
- He did not dispute my characterization of the level of risk presented by West Nile (as significantly less dangerous than the flu). He did make the point that there is a vaccine for flu, but not for West Nile. I'll have to go back and look at the CDC numbers I used; if they are the death rates that exist today even with the vaccine then his point would not hold.
- He said the mission of his bureau was "to protect public health" overall, but specifically through a few means including restaurant regulation, pest and rodent control, and preventing the spread of disease. To me that suggests that what we have is an bureaucracy that is focused on its particular mission (stopping disease) and that there may not be a proper balancing of competing risks taking place during the decisionmaking process.
- It also confirmed my suspicions that media hype and political reaction rather than sober calculation is driving this. Cole told me (I took notes and am a very fast typist): "If all of a sudden the news hit that we have a number of people in Arlington that were sick, I'd feel like I wasn't doing my job right, so that kinds of drives our decision process." There has been one human case in Arlington (he's doing fine). It is understandable that the person held responsible for protecting the public from a threat will do everything he can to avert that threat, especially when it's a major sexy media interest, but it is up to his political superiors to keep that threat in perspective and balance it against others. But of course they don't want to answer to the media any more than he does. And pesticides – its risks are diffuse and hard to pin down. For a politician, the choice is easy.
- Cole admitted that the sprayings would have to be repeated indefinitely since they would in no way eradicate the mosquito, but just kill those directly hit. "It's a temporary fix; it's not in the long term going to prevent more mosquitoes from breeding," he told me. For a long-term fix, you would have to have a program like helicopter spraying of the entire county, and Arlington has chosen not to do that, he said. Seems to me even if you did do that, the mosquitoes would still flood back. This is like trying to clear floodwater with dynamite: wherever you set off a stick, the water will be flung back and you'll see dry ground – but it won't last long. We are faced with a choice between indefinite repeated applications of local pesticides, and the dangers that brings (the creation of resistant mosquitoes, for one thing), and just accepting the existence and small danger of West Nile as a fact of life.
- The substance that was sprayed was something called Permethrin. Some online fact sheets, which as far as I can tell are not from industry front groups, say that Permethrin breaks down in the environment relatively quickly and does not pose a threat to groundwater, and is metabolized efficiently by mammals and does not persist significantly in body tissues.
- On the other hand, Permethrin is also a "broad-spectrum" chemical that kills indiscriminately, being toxic not just to mosquitoes but also to bees, mice, fish and many other species. It is a neurotoxin and is classified by the EPA as a Category C ("possible human") carcinogen – basically what I take away is that really they have no idea how harmful it really may be.
- On why the school next to my house kept its children inside on the day of the spraying, and what that implied for my children, I did not really get a clear answer.
- He assured me that "all EPA guidelines" were followed in the use and application of this pesticide. I wish I found that comforting.
This may be insanity, but it's an insanity much broader than Arlington County. Nearby counties and many others across the nation are also doing this, Cole said, and I see online that Permethrin is used very broadly in agriculture (on cotton, corn and wheat) and in household bug sprays.
But I don't like having this dumped near my house. In fact reading this stuff tonight I realize my son recently got a mysterious rash on his legs we at first thought was poison ivy, but which his doctor could not figure out the origin of. It persisted for almost a week. Reading about this pesticide, which can cause "redness, swelling, and possibly blistering" of the skin, I bet he got a dose. Wonderful.
I know/know of a lot of children with cancer. I don't know of anybody who's died of West Nile.
Mr. Cole and the Arlington County Board and whoever else, I hope you really know what you're doing and that you're not letting the fear of sensationalist career-damaging headlines, or simply unexamined conventional wisdom and standard practice, distort your judgment.
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