X-From_: ARTISTpres at aol.com Fri Sep 10 08:20:08 1999 From: ARTISTpres at aol.com Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 08:11:28 EDT Subject: The Exterminator: Adolf Giuliani Gases New York MIME-Version: 1.0 To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
The Exterminator: Adolf Giuliani Gases New York
"I ask you not to create any undue or unnecessary alarm or panic," Giuliani said at a City Hall news conference on Thursday morning. "There's no point in not spraying, because there's no harm in spraying. So even if we're overdoing it, there's no risk to anyone in overdoing it...The more dead mosquitoes," he added, "the better. I don't think the media should try to push this out of proportion”. NY Times 9/10/99
“Jay Feldman of the Washington-based National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, said, “Malathion is a neuro-toxic chemical that attacks the central nervous system and can cause a range of respiratory, gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms," he said. "It is possible that a person with a lung condition such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis or asthma, could suffer an increase in symptoms," said Dr. Mary DiMaio, a pediatric pulmonary specialist at Weill Cornell Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital. -NY Post 9/10/99
For Mayor Giuliani there’s not a whole lot of difference between mosquitoes and many New Yorkers. Both are pests. Both are expendable. Both are obstacles on the path to a smoother quality of life. How he handles the elimination of this latest group of undesirables may well determine his political future.
“When they make the decision to shoot they have to shoot to kill”. Mayor Giuliani speaking in defense of the police officers who shot Gidone Busch 12 times, CBS News 9/2/99 Giuliani
Giuliani is infamous for his heavy-handed approach to solving problems. Insect control experts say that mass spraying should have been a last resort. Prevention, which the City had practiced for decades before Giuliani cut out hundreds of social and public health programs, is the preferred means of fighting mosquitoes.
“Air spraying is impractical in Manhattan because of the density of the buildings and the evening crowds outdoors, officials said”. -NY Times 9/10/99
Why is Giuliani spraying the whole City except midtown Manhattan? Isn’t that where his biggest contributors and their privileged children live? Isn’t that where the corporate heads that are Giuliani’s bosses work? Are there no pools of stagnant water on roofs in Midtown or in the thousands of concrete planters covered with corporate logos that the Business Improvement Districts have installed on City-owned public sidewalks? If Malathion is so safe, why not spray it on the “evening crowds” of tourists in midtown as well as on the schools, homes and workplaces of eight million New Yorkers?
Is it coincidence that the Black and Latino population of New York City, the exact population targeted by countless Giuliani initiatives, is suffering from epidemic levels of asthma and emphysema as well as HIV and other immune response diseases, exactly the profile of those most susceptible to repeated Malathion exposure?
“After the entire city is doused, the spraying will be repeated every five days for at least five weeks...Mayor Giuliani said. City officials suggested that residents remain indoors during the spraying, but asserted that malathion is not dangerous, though it can cause some problems for people with respiratory illnesses”. .-NY Times 9/10/99
>From http://doacs.state.fl.us/medfly/answers.html#Risks
“Answers To Health Questions About Aerial Application of
Malathion
Q: Does malathion affect the immunological system?
A: When tested in animals or preparations of immune system
cells in the laboratory, malathion has produced both increases
and decreases in immune response, but there has been no
definitive pattern to the results of these tests. Skin sensitization
(or allergy) has been reported in some animal studies and in one
human study. In the human study, a common impurity of
malathion, diethyl fumarate, is thought to be involved. Overall,
the tests indicate the potential for skin sensitization from
exposure to malathion. This would mean that after initial
exposure, subsequent exposure to malathion could induce a
stronger skin reaction”.
“After years of internal debate, the agency [EPA] may be poised to classify malathion as a possible cancer-causing agent. A new law requires EPA to consider the risk of malathion in combination with exposure to other pesticides in the same chemical family. "Malathion is part of a chemical class that has been identified by the agency as one of the riskiest classes of chemicals," said Steve Johnson, an EPA pesticide administrator”. -Urban Application of Malathion Questionable -2/2/98 Tampa Tribune.
FROM: http://ncchem.com/human.htm HUMAN GENES KNOCKED OFF DNA MOLECULE BY MALATHION This 1996 study found that in experiments of human white blood cells (white blood cells are the back-bone of our immune system) that malathion was causing "deletions" in one section of the chromosome. In conclusion the scientists stated, "This work provides the first evidence of an association between malathion exposure and specific mutations in human T lymphocytes." -Genetics Laboratory, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont CANCER RESEARCH, 56, 2393-2399, May 15, 1996
FROM: http://ncchem.com/malathio.htm RESEARCH UPDATE - by Dr. Wayne Sinclair, M.D. Asthma, Allergy & Immunology Vero Beach, FL Richard W. Pressinger, M.Ed., Tampa, FL Mutation Research showing malathion was more powerful than 5 other pesticides in causing a problem known as "cell cycle delay" - which means that cells do not grow as quickly and is "characteristic for many mutagens" according to the scientists. The bottom line is that although it takes more malathion than other pesticides to cause death. It takes less malathion than many other pesticides to cause birth defects, immune weakening and genetic damage. "The available evidence indicates that technical grade or other than pure malathion has the potential to produce genotoxic effects in mammalian systems. The results of the available studies on the genotoxicity of malathion can be summarized as follows: In test animals, technical grade malathion appears to have the potential to produce chromosomal changes including chromosomal aberrations and micronuclei.
In humans, the genotoxic effects of malathion have not been adequately studied. In human and animal cells in culture, both technical grade and purified malathion appear to produce cytogenetic damage, including chromosomal aberrations and Sister Chromatid Exchanges.
Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists’ Response To Illegal State Tactics) ARTISTpres at aol.com (718) 369-2111 http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html