Dear Editor,
The Ministry of Public Health has recently sent out a news bulletin stating that it will be continuing its fogging exercise as a means of vector control. In an approximately six hundred-word statement, not once was it mentioned what this ‘fogging’ consisted of, chemically speaking. The fact that residents were being asked to leave their windows open, and to cover up their cooking utensils, food and drinking water, strongly suggests that whatever was being sprayed was harmful to human beings and animals.
I am dismayed and curious that Town Clerk Royston King, who is the founder and president of an environmental NGO, would not find it of major importance to have the Ministry of Public Health let the public know whether these chemicals being used will have any serious deleterious effects on them and their offspring.
I have attempted before to get information on Mr King’s organization, with a view to offering my services on a voluntary basis, but almost a year later, I am still waiting for a response. This gives me the impression that environmental organizations in Guyana are ‘paper tigers’.
In the early 1990s, South Floridians in the United States were up in arms about chemicals being sprayed as a deterrent against mosquito infestation. The solution was the use of steam as an alternative to insect repellants. Spraying areas where mosquitos laid their eggs during breeding season, killed off the insects before they became a flying menace. This has been done with much success, over the years.
I hope that the Town Clerk and the Ministry of Public Health will see this letter, and it would give them pause. We just cannot assume that if the population is incapable of understanding the health effects of what is being done, that is a strong justification for doing it.
Yours faithfully,
Albert R Cumberbatch
