Thursday, August 19, 2010

mad as heck and emailing in ire

After taking the dog out for a final walk before bedtime, I noted the foul synthetic skunk-like chemical smell looming heavy in the air. Chemical warfare to kill off the mosquitoes, I presumed. Upset with myself for not checking the county's website for spray areas this week, I logged on to not my area was NOT included in the spray area. Either they sprayed here anyway, or this chemical crap travels even without a breeze. My ire got the best of me and I emailed the county executive office (I was tired and didn't proof read, so excuse any typos/grammatical woopses):

Dear Mr. Levy, et al:

Want to know what's bugging me? Mosquitoes? No. Getting a fine mist of toxic chemicals sprayed over my area for a potential threat of catching a potentially fatal bug spread virus is flaming my ire.

Look at the stats for 2009:
U.S. Population: 305,529,237 (estimated)
Total number of West Nile Infections: 720*
Fatalities from West Nile: 32*
Even the year with the highest number of cases in 2001 the risk was still minuscule.

Is this worth dousing people with known liver tumor producing and fish killing chemical warfare in light of the statistics? Who makes the decision on who gets toxic crap dumped on them and who gets spared? Not the people getting doused, that is for sure. Indeed I know there is the "no spray" list, which does not help people that rent and does nothing for aerial spraying. Look at the stats of how many people died from cancer last year and compare that to the risk of West Nile infections and fatalities. It is frightening that the powers that be are that short sighted that they cannot properly weigh the risks and benefits. These chemicals are toxic and will absolutely have an impact on the environment, people and ecosystem.

Thank you for reading my rant.

Sincerely,

Melissa S****** (nee M*********)


*stats published by the CDC

2 comments:

Jane said...

Good for you for voicing your concerns! There has to be a better way to protect people. Last week our kitchen got sprayed for those tiny little ants that make a pest of themselves. There was so much spray that I was smelling it for hours. Gross. That is the last time I let him spray chemicals like that.

Melissa said...

I got a reply from someone in Levy's office saying that it was getting forwarded. Blah, blah blah