I don't know why *anything* Rudy Giuliani does or says still has the
power to leave me shaking my head and dumbfounded, but here's another
example. NYC's mayor is quoted, here by AP writer Jim Fitzgerald in a
9/22 wire story about the pesticide spraying in NYC:
>Officials planned to spray both locations with insecticides
>Thursday.
>
>In New York, the pesticide malathion has been used.
>Mayor Rudolph Giuliani defended that choice Tuesday
>after Westchester officials said they would use a less
>toxic substance known as Anvil.
>
>``I think this is more a reaction to public relations than it
>is science,'' Giuliani said. ``Both substances are safe.
>There may be certain applications of one that are better
>than the other, but both are equally safe.''
>
>Westchester's spraying will be done by helicopter over
> the southern third of the county, which includes the cities
>of Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Port Chester
>and most of White Plains.
>
>Spraying in Connecticut will be conducted by truck, using
>resmithrin.
Note that Rudy points out it's those OTHER people who are falling
victim to PR, in telling everyone that an organophosphate pesticide
is safe. And note that he seems to assume that science and PR are two
separate and opposite realms. And note he has had nothing to say,
throughout this entire issue, about how he eviscerated public health
budgets, including mosquito and rat control.
I have a question. How come the sustainable ag community isn't coming
out loudly and in full force in opposition to this spraying and in
support of the urban people exposed to this spraying, huh?
We know more from an action, policy, and research perspective about
these issues than possibly anyone else--besides the environmental
justice folks. It isn't like we live on a separate planet.
By the way, the encephalitis outbreak has turned out to be the West
Nile strain, not the St. Louis strain. West Nile encephalitis has
never before been reported in the Western Hemisphere.
peace
misha
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michele Gale-Sinex
Communications manager
Center for Integrated Ag Systems, UW-Madison
http://www.wisc.edu
UW voice mail: 608-262-8018
Home office: 415-504-6474 (504-MISH)
Home office fax: Same as above, phone first for enabling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wash your hands after using any pesticide product. --Dow Elanco
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail