Stop tormenting us with the use of malathion

EDITOR: We have been using malathion in this country for at least four decades. I write with respect to my first contact with the billowing toxic smoke released into the air from the back of pickups.

I am calling on the Ministry of Health to cease and desist from tormenting and terrorizing our communities with polluted and toxic air that we are forced to breathe in, triggering health issues.

I make no mention of the fact that this approach to eradication of mosquitoes is useless and outdated. Or to the fact that ‘smoking out’ the communities poses unreasonable risks to those who show hypersensitivity to contact with the malathion. Or to the fact that it is illegal to use this pesticide in housing communities, as opposed to open fields and waste sites.

Madame Editor, the men who pump this toxic smoke into the air wear gas masks. Isn’t this for a reason? Yet, the citizens

of this country are exposed to the same malathion without access to these masks.

Further, how ludicrous it seems that we go [to] such length to kill mosquitoes while the environmental assault is really on us humans?

Finally, who from the ministry comes to assess the results of the fogging on the mosquitoes? And who comes to assess the negative effects experienced by the citizens who come in contact with the malathion? Or is this a case where no one cares?

Citizen of SVG.