"how do you judge unknown risk against known risk?"
October 21, 2016 3:11 PM   Subscribe

 
Interesting and well written article. I'd certainly be opposed to the release of GM mosquitos and it frightens to think that the release of them could come down a to popular vote. Also frightening is the way these biotech companies will find a compliant and under regulated government someplace around the world, to conduct their real world experiments.
posted by bonobothegreat at 4:04 AM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Every year, the district sprays thousands of pounds of six kinds of insecticides, which have varying degrees of toxicity. Some insecticides kill more than just mosquitoes; South Carolina recently started spraying for adult Aedes aegypti, and residents there said the spraying was followed by an apocalyptic die-off of other insects. That spray, naled, is just about the only insecticide available for killing adult mosquitoes, but it’s banned in Europe because of concerns over its safety; its recent use in Miami has been hotly contested (though the CDC says it was successful in stopping the spread of Zika), and a proposal to use it in Puerto Rico led to large protests earlier this year. That same insecticide has been sprayed 19 times this year in the Keys as of Oct. 7.
Better the broad-spectrum toxic devil you know? If it were my neighborhood, I'd want to be exploring alternatives.
posted by BrashTech at 9:02 AM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


I just read an old New Yorker article about this but the focus was on dengue fever! It's very easy to have a knee jerk reaction against what Oxitec's doing when you don't have that kind of sickness in your community. (I can't figure out how to link the New Yorker but it's "the mosquito solution" by Michael Specter in the July 9, 2012 issue.)

That the decision in the Florida Keys is being left to voters is troubling. I'm interested in the topic but certainly no expert and I wouldn't feel qualified to make that call. The article doesn't go into much detail about how the issue got punted to voters but it seems like the members of the Mosquito Control Board didn't want to make a controversial decision before an election. Maybe the next Presidential administration will provide some oversight. Something must be done because mosquito borne illnesses are certainly going to increase in the United States in the coming years.
posted by TheLateGreatAbrahamLincoln at 3:59 PM on October 22, 2016


I say bring on the genetically modified mosquitoes. It's not like I'm going to be eating them. Plus, they die out after a generation, otherwise they'd be no good to Oxitec, whose entire business model is predicated on continuing sales of the male mosquitoes. They have every incentive to make sure that that revenue stream remains intact.

Even if I didn't trust their science, I sure as shit trust their commitment to making money. The entire point is that the gene never really gets in the wild, since the females die before they can breed. And even if they did somehow, the offspring would die before they matured into adult mosquitoes. And even if they somehow did breed offspring, Aegypti have such a small territorial range, they won't spread off the island in question. It's not like GMO corn blowing pollen into neighboring fields.

I say this as someone who has been repeatedly doused in pesticides this summer thanks to the damn Zika outbreak. The nice thing about it is that it did cut down on all the mosquito species, but they've already rebounded now that they haven't been spraying in the area for a month. (There are fewer than before, probably because people are being better about the standing water thing, but they still eat me alive some days)
posted by wierdo at 9:41 PM on October 23, 2016


« Older Alexander Hamilton's beany guacamole dip: 18 days...   |   A Snack Tray to Gather the Family Around Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments