Is There Terrorism In Mosquito Crisis? Scientists Clash on City Spraying Program at Council Hearing

Was Saddam Hussein behind an Iraqi bio-terrorist plot to introduce encephalitis-borne mosquitoes to New York City and trigger the outbreak that started in northern Queens? The revelation, first described in this week’s New Yorker Magazine, never arose yesterday (Oct. 12) at a City Council public hearing called by Health Committee Chair Victor Robles to look into the outbreak of the viral brain disease that has killed four Queens residents.
But in an interview with The Queens Courier before the start of the Council meeting, Robles said he was skeptical of CIA denials that the Iraqi leader had a role in the spread of the disease.
"I think the City should look into that possibility carefully, although I believe it’s unlikely," Robles said. "It’s frustrating because we have to depend upon the experts and we’re all laymen."
But the focus of yesterday’s stormy meeting was the pesticide spraying issue that had split New Yorkers ever since the Labor Day announcement that a deadly virus was lurking in the "hot zone" in northern Queens.
Robles was told at the hearing that the City has spent $5 million to conduct the spraying program — one that utilizes two consulting firms. Before the project ends it was estimated that the City will have spent $6 million.
Two national authorities on safe pesticides testified yesterday that "indiscriminate" spraying of a pesticide known as malathion exposed eight million New Yorkers to a variety of health hazards.
"Never before in the history of this earth have eight million people been aerially sprayed with a pesticide," charged Dr. Robert K. Simon of Environmental & Toxicology International of Fairfax, Virginia and Tampa, Florida. "Acute exposure to this agent can cause neurological and psychiatric disorders."
Simon also urged the City to urge newspapers to publish the warning label on malathion.
"The City ignored good chemistry," he said. "And that’s the reason for its current problems."
A second specialist, Jay Feldman, executive director of The National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides," of Washington, D.C., agreed.
He charged that Mayor Giuliani and many public officials gloss over the real dangers of indiscriminate pesticide spraying, "betraying the public’s right to know the public health tradeoffs."
The two scientists were joined by Dr. Tracey McNamara, head of pathology at the Bronx Zoo, who first identified the virus as a West Nile strain, after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had labeled the virus St. Louis Encephalitis.
The remarks by the two scientific critics drew cheers from a packed Council hearing room, many of them members of the Queens Green Party and other community organizations.
The charges that malathion poses health risks were flatly denied by the City’s Health Commissioner Dr. Neal Cohen; director of the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management Jerome Hauer and officials of the CDC and a State toxicologist.
They insisted that malathion has a 50-year safety record. The Giuliani Administration also drew support for its handling of the crisis from an unlikely source, The Lancet, the highly-respected British Medical Journal.
"The way the outbreak was dealt with, and the story behind the outbreak, are destined to become classics in infectious-disease annals. The investigation and the handling of the epidemic form a success story, even though susceptible individuals have been badly or fatally affected by their infection."
On the other hand, it was evident at yesterday’s public hearing that Council members were rankled by City Hall’s handling of the spraying operation. Their dissatisfaction stemmed from dozens of phone calls they received from nervous and angry constituents who felt threatened by the spraying of the chemical.
A Health Committee report from Chairman Robles criticized Giuliani for "repeatedly stating that malathion is ‘essentially harmless’ and that there is ‘absolutely no danger to anyone from this spray.’ "Despite these claims, the City’s press releases advise people in the areas subject to ground and aerial spraying to avoid exposure which ‘will lessen the risk of any reactions which may include eye irritation, rash and respiratory problems.’ "Moreover, a review of the scientific evidence accumulated by Council staff casts further doubt upon the Mayor’s assertion that aerial spraying of malathion is ‘harmless.’
"An article in the Journal of Pesticide Reform charged that malathion may pose a greater risk than the product label would lead one to believe. It is shown to be capable of causing mutations and carcinogenic.’"
Borough Presidents Howard Golden of Brooklyn and Fernando Ferrer of The Bronx were both critical of the Mayor’s handling of the spraying issue.