Boise getting sprayed and I wonder if it's necessary.

[niallmac]

Boise will have an aerial spraying of Dibrom or Naled, an organo phosphate, this monday and tuesday. Idaho has had 5 W. Nile Virus related deaths recently
and the disease is listed here in Boise as 'epidemic.' This is an 'emergency' of course so screw you citizen, were spraying the place with a neuro toxin.
The argument in favor is that this is a health emergency so discussion over we need to kill all the mosquitos.
Is that possible?
When do they spray next?
What exactly are the ramifications to the fish and other insects?
What exactly is the future of W NileVirus here in Boise? ...Is it here to stay?
If it is here to stay then do we spray our city and river every year?
What is the end game here? Are we trying to eliminate the disease or minimalize it?

My thoughts are:
1. I am getting a little tired of being governed by emergency dictate but maybe that's just the way it is these days.
2. Do they spray every day in Cairo?
3. Main question, is there another way? I suspect that from now and forever we will have to live with this. Can we all talk?
4. I notice 50,000 plus U.S.citizens die every year from traffic fatalities. Can we get going and start bombing our freeways?

DUers are intelligent people and can poke holes in my peeve and really I welcome that because maybe I need a reality check.
Guess i'm just worried about what this will do to the critters and the whole nature thing. One of my very narrow minded views of
Americans is that this solution is just so typical. When nature upsets us we are egotistical enough to think we can conquer it. In doing
so we often screw up the balance thing.

Thoughts? Talk amongst yourselves. I'd make latkes but I don't know how.

[boise1]

1. Dibrom not as safe as claimed by the company doing the spraying-->>

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x64697

[EvolveOrConvolve]

2. West Nile Virus isn't all that dangerous anyway

Something like 3/4 of people who have it don't even know, and it doesn't spread from human to human (at least easily). Very few die, and of the 5 deaths I've read of in Idaho, at least one (the little boy from Massachusetts) had other contributing factors (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever). At least two others were elderly people.

Last I heard, over 20,000 people die every year in the U.S. from the common garden variety influenza virus. Like the Flu, West Nile is dangerous to the same groups of people; the elderly, the very young, the ill or weakened, etc.

It seems to me as if the spraying is more dangerous than the damn virus itself. Plus, the Statesman had an article today that showed the areas where they'll be spraying, and it's a patchwork of odd areas that I assume must have greater risk, but make no sense to me. I like to sit out on my deck at night and enjoy the stars, but it scares the shit out of me to do that tonight when they'll be napalming my neighborhood.

[niallmac]

3. Keep the windows shut tonight.

We contacted Dept of Environmental Quality and they are not too happy
about this decision to spray. Other groups as well dispute the need.
Statesman articles are not well researched. KTVB seems to have a better
handle on the concept of investigative reporting. Statesman seems to
print the news release and consider it a days work.

DEQ by the way recommends avoiding skin contact. They
do not recommend keeping AC on during this spray project.

Howdy neighbor.:hi:

[EvolveOrConvolve]

4. I assume I should keep my cats inside?

They're going to love that. :banghead:

Other than the sports section, the Idaho Statesman prints news releases and other junk. If you take out Popkey's thrice weekly column (which they've moved into an inner page), there is very little of substance. The LttE are interesting, though.

Howdy back atcha: :hi:

[niallmac]

5. LOL. Yeah the cats will be PO'd but

I'm thinking of two reasons to keep the cats inside;
one to keep them from harms way and
two, cats being cats they will likely be coming in contact
with all sorts of spray covered items, leaves, grass etc and
bring a toxic boatload into the house. My far from expert
opinion.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

6. I'm wondering if I should cover my outdoor grill

It would really really suck to grill some poisonous steaks this weekend.

Also, I wonder how long it will take for the chemicals to completely go away? I don't want to let my cats out until it's safe. My cats love to graze on the grass in the back yard.

Man, my house is going to be in tatters if this lasts more than a day or two.x(

[niallmac]

7. My wife is the expert on this stuff.

She has discovered that the "half life" of Dibrom is two days so four days figure it's pretty much degraded.
The stuff degrades in the sunlight. In California they have changed their previous recommendations to
"wash off your patio furniture before using" and instead ask residents to let the stuff alone for a day or two or three.
The problem was that everyone hosed down the furniture and the water flowed to the rivers and it was found
in surprisingly high levels. Another problem is not the Dibrom alone but Dibrom seems to have the unfortunate
effect of increasing the activity of other organo phosphates in the environment.

I am thinking of writing a letter to the Statesman as politely as I can reminding them that it's readership
depends on the questioning of it's reporters to evaluate situations like this. I would really like to know how
the decision making process went in this case. How much input from how many sources was there?
The Statesman won some journalism awards of merit way back when.

Edited for gramurrr.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

8. Did you read Statesman today?

There were quite a few LttE's that speak out against Dibrom.

[niallmac]

9. Excellent!

No, I stopped my subscription but I agree the LTTE's and Popkey are it's best features.
Really happy to hear people are grousing about this fumigation of our city.
I ride my bike to work ( yeah I am such a goody two shoes enviro geek aren't I) anyway
I could smell the stuff all the way to warm springs road. It smells like chemlawn.
I considered going back home but work beckoned.