Mosquito board: Spraying was safe -- Many question use of Dibrom

Mosquito board: Spraying was safe -- Many question use of Dibrom

By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugusine.com
Publication Date: 06/25/09

After 20 inches of rain in late May, Anastasia Mosquito Control District used helicopters during the first two weeks of June to spray an adulticide called Dibrom over 100,000 acres of St. Johns County.

District officials said Wednesday that the organophosphate did the job well.

However, they were questioned by a handful of county residents concerned that the 470 gallons of the pesticide used would cause environmental and health problems -- that Dibrom in high doses can cause respiratory paralysis and death.

St. Augustine resident Robin Nadeau said she believed scientific reports citing Dibrom's safety had been corrupted by political interests.

"We heard from Monsanto about how safe Agent Orange was," she said. "Today, the residue of Agent Orange is wreaking a dreadful effect on people in Vietnam."

Faye Armitage of Fruit Cove said she, too, "didn't trust (the EPA's) findings. We need to be more careful about doing this."

But District Director Rui-de Xue said Dibrom was only used on "hot spots," places where landing counts and light traps indicated that the little bloodsuckers had concentrated there.

"(Dibrom) breaks down very quickly. In one day, it's gone," he said.

The district had tried another pesticide first, Anvil 10+10, which is less toxic. But it didn't work.

Board member Jeanne Moeller said Anvil "seems to work better in open fields but does not work in heavy vegetation. And it breaks down quickly in the heat.

"We have 631 square miles in St. Johns County, and there are 640 acres to the mile. We sprayed Dibrom on less than 3 percent of the county. I can live with that."

After the rains ended, the district fielded 1,845 service calls in 10 days, according to Base Station Supervisor Kay Gaines. Traps were catching 16 per minute.

"After the spraying, service requests dropped 60 percent the first week," she said.

Board member John Sundeman disagrees with the other board members and criticized the use of Dibrom and the need for the aerial program at all.

"We've had numerous rains over the past 50 years without aerial spraying," he said. "In all of 2008 we spent $202,000 on chemicals. In the two weeks of spraying, we spent $128,000. (Dibrom) is dangerous stuff."

Board member Ron Radford, a retired Air Force colonel, said that the city of Savannah "almost exclusively use aerial spraying and is getting away from ground spraying. We had the idea that Anvil would work, but it did not protect the people. Even Dibrom was having trouble in the Northwest. The helicopter flew lower and slower. Our first and foremost responsibility was protecting the people."

Activist Ed Slavin asked the board to consider holding a public hearing on the issue.

"Dibrom is banned in Europe. It's a neurotoxin," he said. "There are 74 pairs of nesting eagles in the county and any harm to them is a federal felony.

"It's important that we look at public health issues of our workers. This is the same stuff they used to kill people in Nazi concentration camps."

Board member Vivian Browning tried to give the discussion some perspective.

"They sprayed less than one-tenth of an ounce per acre," she said.


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