Say Goodbye To Honeybees In South Carolina: Another County Goes Nuclear On Zika Panic
When the last bird falls from the sky and the last tree loses its last leaf and the last poisoned stream dries up, you have to wonder if the last humans will understand the decisions we casually make today to poison our only atmosphere. You have to wonder if they will hate us or judge us or even if they will be able to comprehend the power we wielded–and the incredibly stupid ways we use it.
Case in point, the panic-driven mosquito spraying that has gripped South Carolina and Florida, leading officials there to resort to using naled, a known danger to the health of humans as well as insects and other animals.
And we have recent, first-hand proof of the danger, yet we continue to persist in thinking we know what we are doing, and that we can control it.
Not content with the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million honeybees in Dorchester County in South Carolina last month, officials in Charleston County have begun spraying naled from the air as well, targeting “standing water,” although how such aerial spraying could conceivably be restricted solely to such spots remains a mystery. Certainly spraying all day as they announced they would do, from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. isn’t going to help minimize the chances of exposure.
Helpfully, the county has reached out to beekeepers, saying it will notify them of any upcoming spraying. What was unclear was exactly how beekeepers are meant to protect the denizens of their hives from aerial spray in their area when their bees routinely fly out from their hives to collect pollen–from plants that may have been sprayed and are thus deadly to the animals.
No less a group of experts than an Ivy League school, in this case the Cornell University Pesticide Management Education Program, had this to say about naled:
“Naled is moderately to highly toxic by ingestion, inhalation and dermal adsorption. Vapors or fumes of naled are corrosive to the mucous membranes lining the mouth, throat and lungs, and inhalation may cause severe irritation. A sensation of tightness in the chest and coughing are commonly experienced after inhalation. As with all organophosphates, naled is readily absorbed through the skin. Persons with respiratory ailments, recent exposure to cholinesterase inhibitors, impaired cholinesterase production, or with liver malfunction may be at increased risk from exposure to naled.”
So let’s review: South Carolina officials want to poison the landscape, threaten the lives and livelihoods of their own residents, and spray a dangerous neurotoxin all day long, all in the name of “protecting” residents from Zika’s alleged side effects to unborn children–side effects which at least two physician’s groups have come out and said are being falsely attributed to the virus, and which they lay at the feet of Monsanto’s pesticide programs in Brazil.
By the way, guess what else threatens the health of unborn children?
Naled.
Thanks, South Carolina officials for demonstrating for the rest of us the very definition of insanity.
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South Carolina Prepares for Round 2 of Bee-Killing Zika Spraying