Dangers of insect repellent
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from October 2001.
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While nobody wants to get Viral Encephalitis, using insect repellents is not necessarily a safe alternative.
In New York, it has been documented that more people got sick from the insecticides used to combat West Nile Virus than from West Nile Virus itself. New Yorkers, unlike Caymanians, are not used to huge quantities of pesticides. As a result, if they get headaches, dizziness, tingling, or other known pesticide related symptoms, after an insecticide application, they know where to attribute their symptoms. When a Caymanian has such a symptom he would be less likely to ask himself:
"have I applied insect repellents recently?" "did I inhale insect spray last night?" "have I been in a area with heavy herbicide use (such as a golf course)?"
"has a neighbour been burning pesticide covered debris recently?" did I get sprayed by MRCU in the last few days?"
My point is that Caymanians do get sick from pesticide exposures but because of the heavy usage of pesticides in Cayman they are unaware that pesticides are causing their symptoms.
Insecticides are not safe for humans, birds, or fish. Years ago, the tobacco companies claimed that cigarettes were not harmful for human health and that they were not dangerous. The chemical companies in the United States are in a similar situation. They know that pesticides are dangerous, they have information about poisonings from LEGAL uses.
Over the next two decades, we will see the chemical companies
forced to disclose more information and an increasing number of pesticides will be pulled off of the market.
If you ask a local supplier of pesticides about the safety of their products, they will most likely assure you that the product is safe for human use. It is not their fault for providing you with incorrect information: the manufacturer is providing them with the incorrect information.
Mosquito repellent gets absorbed directly into the skin. If absorption through the skin were innocuous, then nicotine patches wouldn't work. Regardless of how bad the mosquitoes are, pregnant women and small children should never apply mosquito repellent.
Fish are even more sensitive than humans to insecticides. A person who has applied mosquito repellent should NEVER go into the sea. If the fish
die, it hurts the tourism industry (among other things).
If someone is concerned about West Nile or Viral Encephalitis, I agree that a prudent thing to do would be to wear protective clothing when going out in the early evening; however, there is a greater risk of becoming ill from using mosquito repellent than from contracting the disease.
For additional protection, one could use a mosquito magnet (mosquitomagnet.com or CI Precast), spray themselves with pure vanilla and water, take vitamin B1 an hour before sunset, or use one of the other nontoxic methods. Nontoxic methods can be found in books such as "Less Toxic Alternatives" by Carolyn Gorman or on numerous web sites.
Name withheld by request
