The cries against the use of pesticides and genetically modified crops in Hawaii have been vehement, strident and, at times, overwrought.
No chemicals, no GMOs. None at all. Never.
To some this comes down to a moral choice, as simple as good vs. evil.
What a strange turn it is, then, to hear some of the same voices calling for the widespread spraying of pesticides, specifically near schools, to combat the spread of dengue fever borne by mosquitoes on the Big Island.
Last week a list of schools to be sprayed was made public. Nobody made protests signs and chanted angrily at the morning drop-off lines. In fact, people were relieved. Hawaii Tribune-Herald reporter Colin Stewart quoted a Hilo parent at a public meeting asking, “Does it last? With all the rain that we’re getting, does it wash away? How often will it be sprayed? We want to know how kids are being safe in school. You know, we have to leave windows open, it’s hot in the rooms, we don’t have air-conditioning units here. So, the kids are outdoors a lot. And we want to make sure the campuses are safe for them to be at during the school day.”
State Sen. Josh Green, a Kona physician, introduced a bill in the last legislative session to establish buffer zones near schools and hospitals where pesticides may not be used. Last week he called for the National Guard to be deployed to spray for mosquitoes.
“Obviously, acute and focused spraying of an insecticide during a health care crisis is totally different than the chronic use of concentrated pesticides on test crops year round. Everyone understands that,” Green (D, Naalehu-Kailua-Kona) said in an email. “Concerns about containing the active outbreak of a potentially deadly disease with targeted spraying to prevent it from becoming endemic, outweighs the risks.”
Meanwhile, though this has not been discussed for Hawaii, dengue in both China and Brazil is being fought by the release of genetically modified mosquitoes. In the U.S. the Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to approve the experimental use of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys to help stop mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquitoes there have built up resistance to various insecticides. The alternative is to release genetically modified male mosquitoes that will mate with the females and produce offspring that die before reproducing, thus reducing the mosquito population.
Sometimes, class, science is our friend.
This situation serves as a reminder that few things are all good or all bad, and that discretion and context matter. What also matters is the ability to thoughtfully weigh risks — as Green now advocates in the case of spraying mosquitoes — in a way that’s not based on the number of people at a rally, but on facts and research and reasonable calculations of the upside and downside.
Do we want anybody to be able to spray anything anywhere anytime they want to? Nope. But do we want them to spray the hell out of mosquitoes that could make us sick? Oh, yeah.
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Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
