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07.29.2000 00:15
State OKs
pesticide use
at first sign
of West Nile
 Any municipality where the virus is found would be authorized to do limited spraying within two miles of the outbreak.
By PETER B. LORD
Journal Environment Writer
PROVIDENCE
-- Mindful that the West Nile virus is getting closer to Rhode Island -- with recent discoveries of the disease in birds in Connecticut, Long Island and Massachusetts -- state officials yesterday approved a plan for limited spraying of pesticides should the disease actually show up here.
So far, no sign of West Nile has surfaced in any of the thousands of mosquitoes or the roughly 20 dead birds examined in Rhode Island this summer.
But the deadly disease continues to spread among birds and mosquitoes along the East Coast. New York City, the epicenter of the disease outbreak last fall, has launched a major pesticide spraying program in recent weeks.
So yesterday an advisory panel that includes entomologists from the University of Rhode Island, as well as experts from the U.S. Geological Survey, the state Department of Environmental Management, the state Health Department and the Audubon Society of Rhode Island agreed on what Rhode Island would do should the disease erupt here.
They agreed that if the disease kills a bird or a horse, or is found in a pool of mosquitoes collected by the state's surveillance program, the municipality where the outbreak occurs will be authorized to do a limited spraying program.
Spraying, done with machines in pickup trucks, will be authorized for an area within two miles of any outbreak. The DEM will supply the sprayers -- it has two now and four more on order -- and the pesticides.
The DEM has stockpiled 360 gallons of two pesticides, sumithrin and resmethrin. Both are synthetic versions of a natural pesticide produced by chrysanthemum flowers. They are considered to have low toxicity to humans, other mammals and the environment.
But they do kill many more insects than mosquitoes -- including bees. And they are highly toxic to fish.
In humans, both can can cause coughing and wheezing and skin rashes. And at very high levels they can cause severe health effects, such as liver and thyroid damage. They also can disrupt endocrine systems.
But chronic effects from low-level exposures are not known to occur, according to a report from the Connecticut Department of Health.
Spraying will be limited to populated areas and barred from agricultural fields and bodies of water, according to Malcolm Grant, associate director of the DEM.
And if any spraying is done, it will be preceded by an extensive public education effort to warn people, he said.
"The spraying will be for a local area and a limited time to minimize the health risks," Grant said. "Once we trip the wire for spraying, it's because we believe there is a legitimate human health threat and we want to minimize the possibilty of people getting bitten."
He emphasized, however, that state officials don't want people to get complacent if spraying does get under way.
"The thing we want to focus on is that there is nothing the state can do that is as important as what people can do themselves," Grant said. "The core of our program remains the need for personal protection. It's critical to use all the precautions we have hammered on -- repellents with DEET, avoiding areas where mosquitoes bite, and wearing long sleves."
West Nile virus -- a form of encephalitis or brain inflammation -- had not been seen in the United States until late last summer, when it erupted in New York City. Spread by mosquitoes, it sickened 62 people and killed 7. Also, 13 horses and hundreds of birds were killed.
The outbreak raised anxieties in New York City last fall, and the city responded with a $20-million pesticide spraying program.
Earlier this year Rhode Island, working with other states that had received grants from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control -- launched a $250,000 effort aimed at curbing a possible outbreak of the disease by keeping mosquito populations down. The virus is carried in birds and transmitted to humans by mosquitoes that bite the birds.
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