Using poison to prevent EEE may do more harm

During the height of the Cultural Revolution, Mao decided he did not like insects. He decreed a war on insects, and all the people of China dutifully went out to the parks and fields meticulously combing the grass for bugs and grubs. Soon all the birds died. Duh.
Are we on the verge of a similar campaign in response to EEE? I understand the grief that a family feels when a loved one is struck down by disease, and I understand the society's need to respond to threats of epidemic. If, however, our response is wanton dumping of poisons on our forests and ponds the consequence will be harm to the health of us all.

Stories about Franken-frogs, mass suicides by diseased dolphins and white death of coral reefs seem remote but they are not. Our toxic environment causes us more asthma, more allergies, more skin ailments, more ADHD, more cancer, more arthritis, more autism and more colitis. We treat these with psychoactive drugs and steroids and we get more mental illness, more osteoporosis and more infertility. We will be told that the poisons spread on our forests and lakes just affects mosquitoes and not people. Don't believe it. Poison is poison, and the containers have warning labels. If they don't then something is really wrong.

So I hope we'll have a meaningful public discussion about the EEE problem and not a knee jerk reaction that further poisons the well.

Jeffrey Cooper
Portsmouth