Bug off

>> Anti-pesticide groups say new provincial law makes them sick

by CRAIG SEGAL

Terrified that a deadly mosquito-transmitted virus will buzz its way into Quebec, the provincial government passed a controversial law last week allowing them to spray pesticides anywhere in the province. Local anti-pesticide groups say the pesticides are more dangerous than the virus.

Quebec is following in New York City's footsteps. In 1999, the Big Apple attacked the West Nile Virus by aerially spraying a pesticide called malathion. Environmentalists blame the spraying for the untimely demise of 90 per cent of the lobster population in Long Island Sound, off the coast of New York, who inexplicably met their crustacean maker after the government spraying operations.

Though the Quebec Health and Social Services Ministry has claimed such pesticides would only be used after other mosquito-control measures fail, several major anti-pesticide groups are working together to inform the public about the heavy-duty chemicals. In a report signed by 25 doctors and scientists, the Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (CAP) says: "This program poses much more danger to human health than the extremely small health risk presented by the West Nile Virus itself. Even people bitten by an infected female mosquito, the carrier of this virus, run very little risk of serious illness."

The report says pesticides are most dangerous to the same group of people they are meant to protect: "Those with weakened immune systems, small children and the elderly." And they cause a long list of illnesses from cancer to multiple chemical sensitivity. The report recommends using natural alternatives, such as disrupting mosquito-breeding cycles by removing stagnant water, and using natural mosquito repellant made of herbal extracts and oils.

"I would like them to tell me how they are going to protect my health," says Rohini Peris, a CAP board member and victim of multiple chemical sensitivity. Peris and her family say they get ill when exposed to chemicals like paint or pesticides. They pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into keeping their property chemical-free. Their home in Dollard-des-Ormeaux is equipped with air and water filters, an organic kitchen and a large pesticide-free garden.

Peris' husband, Michel Gaudet, takes care of the garden. Gaudet, vice-president of CAP, says organic gardening is cheaper and lazier than using pesticides since it takes 40 per cent less water. He has all kinds of tricks to keep his garden spiffy, like applying corn gluten to stop new weeds from growing and soaking his lawn four hours once a week. Gaudet and Peris say that so far they have convinced over 20 neighbours to go organic.

Exterminator Paul Maloney doesn't use chemical pesticides either. "A conventional exterminator will spray a neurotoxin in the baseboard of your home and people may get sick as a result--and they won't know why they're sick," says Maloney, who insists his non-toxic arsenal keeps pests away permanently. It consists of things like predatory ladybugs that eat various insect larvae and a gizmo called the Mosquito Magnet, a self-powered machine that "quietly vacuums the insects into a net where they dehydrate and die." The device is recommended in the coalition's report as an alternative to pesticides.

With neat tricks like these, Maloney says toxic pesticides are baloney. "What it comes down to is we don't have to use products that threaten our health and our lives."