Happy contrails

>> Local fringe party politician Ken Fernandez fears wrath from above

by NAOMI BLOCH

For several weeks now Ken Fernandez has been pleading with Montrealers to look up, way up, and smell the fumes from above. Fernandez says that he and several other witnesses have seen airplanes overhead leaving behind "lingering chemtrails."

"I've seen them in a number of places, including on Friday afternoon in downtown Montreal," says Fernandez, the president of the Canadian Action Party's Quebec wing. "I've seen the same above St-Eustache where I live, as well as in Ville St-Laurent and around Dorval."

Fernandez fears the planes are spraying malathion, an insecticide approved in Canada since 1953 as a method for controlling mosquitos, which can be applied as a low-volume aerial spray. In past years malathion has been used around Winnipeg for this purpose, though critics complain of the health risks to people with conditions like asthma or chemical sensitivities.

Recently the Quebec Health Department confirmed that malathion might be applied as a last resort if an outbreak of the West Nile Virus is identified, and if all other efforts to control the spread of the virus fail. So far Quebec and federal government officials have stated that no spraying against the mosquito-borne virus has taken place. Indeed, WNV has yet to be identified in Canada, though active monitoring is taking place.

Say it, don't spray it

Two summers ago New York City faced the first known outbreak of WNV in the Western hemisphere. Though people infected with the virus generally exhibit mild symptoms or none at all, in New York seven deaths were attributed to West Nile viral encephalitis. Transmitted by mosquitos infected by blood from infected birds, NYC's attempt to control the disease using a generous supply of pesticides led to public outcry and a lawsuit.

This year Quebec is following more conservative guidelines established by a Health Canada steering committee. The committee brought together government agencies such as the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), environmental and health ministries and some American advisors to come up with a containment strategy in case WNV strikes north of the border.

What raises alarm bells for Fernandez is that the Deparment of National Defence (DND) as well as U.S. representatives and "other interested parties" are all listed as participants in this multidisciplinary group. "I checked with a number of environmental and health groups," says Fernandez. "None of them were among these so-called other interested parties. I can only surmise that the other interested parties consist of representatives from the chemical industry."

Not so, says Richard Aucoin, director of the Efficacy and Sustainability Assessment division for the PMRA. "The national steering committee has no industry folks on it." The American representatives, explains Aucoin, attended a few meetings to share their experiences in dealing with WNV in New York, and included someone from the Centre for Disease Control.

Germ warfare

However, Fernandez's fears go beyond corporate interests. He believes that the involvement of the DND may indicate some kind of germ warfare experiment, the kind of operations often referred to on conspiracy-theory Web sites where stories of airplane chemtrails run amok. He says his efforts to acquire clarification from the government have led nowhere.

According to Aucoin, the explanation is simple. "If there was going to be any kind of mosquito control around airforce bases or where military personnel are housed, the DND would have to contract out and have control over doing that. That's why they were on the committee."

But if it's not malathion, just what are those planes spraying? Most of Fernandez's sightings occured over farmlands. "This time of year there's quite a lot of pesticide use, including aerial use," says Aucoin. However, aerial spraying over residential areas such as downtown Montreal is extremely unlikely. Hélène Ross, of the Quebec Environment Ministry's Montreal regional office, found no record of any spraying over Montreal. "There was no request by the City of Montreal," says Ross. "The assistant director of municipal affairs was very suprised by this claim, and I was too. It's practically impossible."

Another answer is that the so-called chemtrails are actually just normal condensation trails. Though certain anti-military types believe that long-lasting trails caused by airplanes are not normal and are the result of chemical dispersal, most pilots and experts disagree.

"Contrails have been a normal effect of jet aviation since its earliest days," an Environmental Protection Agency document reported last year. "Depending on the temperature and the amount of moisture in the air at the aircraft altitude, contrails evaporate quickly (if the humidity is low) or persist and grow (if the humidity is high)... Persistent contrails are mainly composed of water naturally present along the aircraft flight path." Of course, if you're the type who lends no credence to government reports, this document won't offer you any reassurance. Nor will the explanations of Canadian government operatives.