Xref: utzoo rec.birds:862 sci.environment:417
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From: harolds1@ihlpa.ATT.COM (Schessler)
Newsgroups: rec.birds,sci.environment
Subject: pesticides & birds
Keywords: does mosquito spraying harm birds?
Message-ID: <11752@ihlpa.ATT.COM>
Date: 17 Feb 89 14:29:20 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 30

Dear Net:

I'm looking for information about the effects of
community mosquito spraying on birds. Our township
will begin an "abatement program" this year.
They will be using Illinois state-approved chemicals
(Malathion, ????) and want to spray from the air.

I don't like the idea and *NO one* seems to have considered
birds and other wildlife and how they might be effected.
My area is still fairly rural.

I've called various Audubon, conservation people and they
all tell me they don't have "data" - but there is anxiety in their
voices.

How can birds, et al, not be negatively effected? These chemicals
would be in the water and coat the seeds, etc that birds use to survive.
I do have a data sheet on Malathion and it is very toxic for a many
days until it begins to decompose into malaxon and diethyl fumarate
which I don't have data on.

The natural world has done very well  for itself for millions of
years and suddenly in the last 20-30 years people keep throwing
synthetic chemicals at it without a thought. Ecologists warned
about the dangers of DDT for 20 years before it was banned.

Silent Spring (Rachael Carson) prays on my soul!

Harold