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Giuliani Flip-Flops on
West Nile Spraying

by Robert Lederman

robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
May 4, 2001

Watching Mayor Giuliani and NYC Department of Health Commissioner Neil Cohen announcing their new improved West Nile Virus (WNV) policy on 5/3/2001 was like watching an amateur production of Alice In Wonderland. For these "distinguished" officials, reality is whatever they say it is.

If the previous two years of poison spraying had never happened it might sound like they were taking a reasonable and responsible position, assuring New Yorkers and the assembled reporters that spraying toxic pesticides would be a last resort - and even then be held to a minimum.

Their new West Nile Virus "battle plan" will focus on prevention - issuing summonses for those whose property harbors standing pools of stagnant water - the main mosquito breeding grounds - dropping larvicides in sewers and only spraying pesticides in the actual areas where infected mosquitoes are found - instead of randomly dosing 8 million human inhabitants with toxic nerve gas every time a single infected mosquito is discovered.

Unfortunately, there is the issue of their 1999 and 2000 spray policy.

In 1999 when West Nile Virus was first "discovered" in NYC (nobody was bothering to mention that at least three government sponsored bio-warfare labs in the immediate area had been experimenting with it for decades) I was sprayed with Malathion from a helicopter that strafed my house eight times in a half-hour period. Although I had taped the windows and door jambs the gas seeped right through the walls causing me to immediately experience dizziness, disorientation, numbness and breathing difficulty.

While the Mayor and Commissioner Cohen kept repeating that Malathion was "completely safe" I went online and with very little effort found out that the facts were quite different. Giuliani and Commissioner Cohen didn't need to go online to find out what I discovered.

Inside every NYC ambulance, fire truck and police precinct the Mayor had thoughtfully provided a chemical contamination first-aid book - The Chem-Bio Handbook - published by Jane's, the world's leading experts on chemical and biological weapons such as nerve gasses which could be used by terrorists. In that book, which proudly bore the seal of the City of New York and the Mayor's name on its cover, were page after page of first aid instructions for victims of Malathion exposure.

The book described Malathion on pg. 76 as an, "...organophosphate insecticide that causes the same biological effects as nerve agents. Malathion itself is relatively non-toxic, but it is quickly metabolized in the body to maloxin, which is the toxic material. This causes effects similar to those caused by nerve agents...Malathion can be absorbed by ingestion or through the skin."

On page 113 the same book cautioned emergency response team members treating those exposed to Malathion to, "...insure their own safety by donning appropriate protective apparel before handling the patient."

As I soon discovered, the manufacturer's instructions printed on the actual canisters of the brand of Malathion that were used - Cheminova's Malathion FYFANON ULV - were disregarded by the City in virtually every detail. The four page label, available on the NY State Department of Environmental Control website, specifically states that it is not to be sprayed on people or inhaled, that people should not be allowed access to areas that have been sprayed for at least 12 hours, that it is never to be used near water, that is not to be used so as to contaminate food supplies and that it is not to be stored or used at temperatures of over 77 degrees Fahrenheit. No one who read this label could mistake its message.

Nevertheless, as documented in hundreds of newspaper and television news reports New Yorkers were directly sprayed on the street, in parks, through the windows of their homes, driving in their cars, shopping, and while attending school. Virtually every body of water within city limits was covered with a fine mist of Malathion.

I immediately joined a group of activists, the No Spray Coalition, which tried to bring the Mayor to his senses. We gave him, his staff and the media hundreds of scientific studies on the harmful effects of Malathion. Doctors, public health experts, epidemiologists and environmentalists pleaded with him to rethink his policy. In response he called us, "hysterical environmental terrorists" and denounced us as, "publicity seekers".

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were directly sprayed with Malathion in 1999 and many became immediately ill not to mention the cancers and other health problems, which may not produce symptoms for decades. The City didn't even bother to keep records of emergency room visits from pesticide exposure.

As the 1999 mosquito season wore on and I and other No Spray Coalition members continued our research, we uncovered some very disturbing facts. The Mayor was being advised from day one of the "epidemic" by Thomas Monath, a former U.S. Government bio-warfare scientist who was now V.P of Oravax, a company that was developing a West Nile Virus vaccine. The West Nile hysteria manufactured by the Mayor was a perfect environment for promoting the vaccine.

Additionally, studies began to surface that showed that the kind of mass spraying being done actually increased the number of mosquitoes, their resistance to any kind of insecticide and their likelihood of being infected with encephalitis. If the Mayor wanted to create a real epidemic, his spray policy would have been an excellent technique.

Perhaps the most curious thing about the 1999 aspect of the "epidemic" was how a very mild illness the City's own press releases routinely described as extremely difficult to become infected by and from which the vast majority of those infected would have few if any symptoms and would fully recover without any treatment became a "deadly disease" requiring unprecedented emergency measures.

Of the seven people alleged to have died from West Nile Virus in New York City in 1999, all had compromised immune systems, HIV or were taking immunosuppressive cancer medications following surgery. In fact, only those with a weak immune system can become infected.

Unmentioned in the Mayor's press statements was that Malathion itself was known in scientific circles as a potential cause of encephalitis and an immune system suppressor.

Eventually the No Spray Coalition filed a lawsuit in Federal Court seeking an injunction to stop the spraying, which so far we have been denied.

As 1999 ended and cold weather prevailed, the West Nile issue ceased to be of much concern for most New Yorkers or the media. Then the 2000 mosquito season came around and it all began again.

This time the Mayor decided to treat the City to a different pesticide, Anvil or sumerthrin, although never admitting that there was any problem with Malathion. In 2000 the pesticide was sprayed from trucks, often directly in people's faces, rather than from helicopters.

As it turned out, Anvil was also far more dangerous than the Mayor was telling the public. A pyrethroid nerve gas, it was thought by many scientists to cause chromosomal abnormalities and sex hormone changes in addition to skin irritation, breathing difficulties and the possibility of cancer and other long-term diseases.

The public was again told by the Mayor - in defiance of NY state law - that Anvil was, "completely safe". Untrained pesticide operators were hired for $10 an hour but were never warned about the risks or given any protective gear to use as they spent eight hour shifts driving around in New York traffic spraying poison from the back of trucks. Many of these men have since become ill and have joined the No Spray lawsuit.

The spraying was often done under conditions like rain, extreme humidity and dampness that the manufacturer warned the City Anvil was completely useless in. Like Malathion, Anvil's label states that it must not be sprayed on people, that it's fumes and vapors must not be breathed or allowed to contact the skin and that it is not to be sprayed on food. Videotapes entered as evidence in the No Spray lawsuit show it being directly sprayed on people, on food stands, on hotdog carts, on pregnant women, into the open doorways of stores and in a thousand other ways contraindicated by the label.

Wherever a single bird or mosquito was alleged to be infected with West Nile Virus a massive spraying assault immediately began. Many parts of the City such as Harlem were sprayed over and over and over again.

Now we come to 2001. The No Spray lawsuit just recently had a hearing in Federal Court on our appeal of the denial for an immediate injunction. A decision is pending.

Suddenly the Mayor and Commissioner Cohen have decided on a "new strategy". Prevention. Drying up standing water. Minimal spraying as a last resort and even then only in the exact area where infection is found.

Did something change? Did West Nile Virus suddenly mutate into a less deadly disease? What happened to the Mayor's mass spraying policy? If it was such a good idea in 1999 and 2000 to cover everyone in New York with organophosphate and pyrethroid nerve gas, why not do it again in 2001?

Might the "hysterical environmental terrorists" of the No Spray Coalition have been right all along? If we were right, should Giuliani and his "health" Commissioner - a psychiatrist with no training in public health let alone pesticides or mosquito control - be allowed to make any public health decisions in 2001?

Are these men to be credited with creating a new "rational" policy or should they more rightly be brought up on criminal charges for deliberately and recklessly endangering the public health and safety of eight million men, women and children?

Might the Mayor and Commissioner Cohen owe the No Spray Coalition and the people of the City of New York a public apology?

5/4/2001 NY Post

W. NILE TACTICS SHIFT
AWAY FROM JUST SPRAY

-- The city's war against the West Nile virus will rage on this summer - with less pesticide spraying, but stiff fines for those who let mosquitoes breed. Mayor Giuliani and city officials unveiled their battle plan yesterday, announcing that emergency regulations enacted last year making water accumulations a public health nuisance will be vigorously enforced. The first summons - fines range from $200 to $2,000 - has been issued to a contractor on the old Alexander's site on East 59th Street. Officials said warnings to remove a standing pool of water there - a breeding ground for the disease-spreading mosquitoes - were ignored. For the last two years, officials have rushed to blanket neighborhoods with a pesticide haze any time a dead bird infected with the mosquito-borne virus turned up. Pesticides were used to cover a two-mile radius, about as far as a mosquito could fly. But City Health Commissioner Dr. Neal Cohen said new data indicates a one-mile spraying radius is sufficient - and even that would be a last resort. "We have to not look to spraying as a panacea, but look to prevention," Cohen said. The city's top health official said when infected birds are detected this year, rapid response teams would move in to "take all preventive and reduction measures," such as spreading larvicide and removing pools of water. Only if the population of human-biting mosquitoes increases would the city begin spraying in "targeted" green areas, such as parks and golf courses. "While last year we had a formulaic and somewhat reflexive approach . . . this year we're going to look very carefully to determine where the greatest risk to people is," Cohen said. He insisted the change was made "based upon the science. It doesn't have any bearing whether certain individuals are pro- or anti-spraying."

NY Times 5/4/2001

City to Look Beyond Spraying
for West Nile

"To reduce the reliance on pesticides in the battle against West Nile virus, the city will use a more conservative, concentrated approach to spraying this summer, officials said yesterday. Last year, the city generally sprayed pesticides within a two- mile radius of any location where infection was found in birds or mosquitoes. This year, officials said, the city plans to emphasize monitoring, public education and prevention. For example, it will enforce a ban on standing water and use larvicide to reduce mosquito populations...Dr. Neal L. Cohen, the city's health commissioner, said they could not predict how prevalent the virus would be. "We do know that all these preventive measures make a very important difference," he said, "and we really have to not look to spraying as a panacea, but look to prevention as the way to minimize the need to spray." Instead of spraying widely wherever the virus is detected, Dr. Cohen said, team will investigate communities where dead birds or infected mosquitoes are found to determine whether spraying is necessary."

NY Times 9/10/99

"I ask you not to create any undue or unnecessary alarm or panic," Giuliani said at a City Hall news conference on Thursday morning. "There's no point in not spraying, because there's no harm in spraying. So even if we're overdoing it, there's no risk to anyone in overdoing it...The more dead mosquitoes," he added, "the better. I don't think the media should try to push this out of proportion".

1/27/2000 Queens Tribune

Emergency Management Director
Grilled On Mosquito Control

"I have nothing to hide," "I'm very comfortable with the spraying of Malathion. If we had to do it again, we would do it the same way". Jerome Hauer, director of the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management ."

Newsday 3/10/2000

Queens Find Spurs West Nile Fears

"Mayor Rudolph Giuliani refused to rule out the need for widespread insecticide spraying in the event there is another outbreak this year...Seeking to blunt criticism of last year's spraying, Giuliani brought Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington to the podium at City Hall and said, "This man here, right here, was sprayed with malathion five times. See? Does he look good? All right? And I was sprayed with him. Five times."
[Note: Shortly after making this statement the Mayor was diagnosed with prostate cancer - a known side-effect of Malathion exposure.]

Daily News 9/18/99

"The mayor dismissed complaints from environmental advocates about the spraying, referring to them as hysterical "environmental terrorists" who "like to get you angry because it gets them on television." The spraying is harmless, he insisted."

Daily News 9/9/2000

Artist: I'm A Victim Of Skeeter Spraying

"She wanted to make a phone call. Instead, a Manhattan woman standing near a phone booth on Eighth Ave. Sunday ended up in the hospital after she said she was drenched, point-blank, with a blast of pesticide intended to kill mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus. "It burned. It itched. I was coughing, I was choking," said the woman, an artist who lives in Inwood but asked that her name be withheld. "My vision is blurry. I have terrible nausea. I threw up three days in a row," she said. It was "a straight shot into my face, my eyes, my nose, my mouth - drenching me. I really thought I was going to die."

Daily News 9/8/2000

Asthma-Like Illness Spurs Spray Probe

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD

"Four cases of reported pesticide poisoning in New York State are being investigated to see whether they may be linked to spraying for mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus, state officials said yesterday...The state probe comes as the city Health Department is quietly beginning its own survey that will examine whether the pesticide has sickened New Yorkers...The city's survey seems in contrast with the repeated assurances from Mayor Giuliani, as well as many medical experts, that the pesticides being used to kill mosquitoes are safe...The city declined to disclose any information gathered so far for the study. Since the virus appeared in New York last year, this is the first time the city has undertaken a study to assess the potential health risks of pesticides. As of late August, more than 860 gallons of Anvil had been sprayed in New York."

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE 8/31/2000

"Helicopters that city officials said would only spray over "unpopulated areas" instead spewed their pesticide cloud over surprised and frightened Islanders yesterday. Hundreds of children playing on football and baseball fields in Travis had to dodge the mist...The city has said that helicopter spraying takes place during daylight hours so pilots can avoid populated or environmentally sensitive areas. How they failed to recognize a golf course, youth ball fields and the residential area near High Rock Park -- all areas where people claimed choppers doused them last night -- remains unclear..."The helicopter flew by four times. I think the borough president needs to get a call," said Kathleen Collins of West Brighton, who was watching her 8-year-old son, Michael, play. She said she sat in her car, cradling her 1-month-old daughter, Kayla, during the dousing. "This is a field full of children -- and many of them aren't even playing." It was unclear last night who in city government, if anyone, is responsible for notifying specific youth leagues or public recreation areas -- like city-owned LaTourette Golf Course, where complaints from pesticide-covered golfers were heard -- that they are in or near a spray zone...But Borough President Guy V. Molinari said the Health Department "never asked us to notify anyone." He said the notion of contacting every league is "outrageous." "We just don't have the resources and staff to do this," said the borough president. "All we can do is take information from the Health Department and relay it to the public."
[Note Anvil-and pyrethroids generally-are endocrine disruptors causing feminizing effects in males and masculining effects in females]

Wednesday, 6 September, 2000, 16:11 GMT 17:11 UK

'Gender-bender' fish problem widens.
There could be an effect up the food chain.

BBC News Online's Helen Briggs.

"The entire male fish population of some European rivers show feminising effects from so-called "gender-bending" chemicals, according to new research. Freshwater fish in five out of seven northern European countries surveyed so far showed some signs of exposure to the chemicals, which mimic female hormones and are present in sewage effluents.

"We are finding this problem right across northern Europe, it is clearly widespread,"

Professor Alan Pickering of the Natural Environment Research Council's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK, said. He was addressing the British Association's Festival of Science in London...Symptoms of exposure to the chemicals, known as endocrine-disrupters, ranged from relatively minor effects to, in the worst cases, fish developing both male and female reproductive organs. In some places, such as the River Aire, Yorkshire, UK, 100% of male fish were found to show evidence of feminisation...

This has raised concern that predators that eat the fish, such as otters and kingfishers, could also be at risk."

New Scientist magazine, 11 September 2000

"Bearly female"

"Female polar bears in the Norwegian Arctic are growing male genitalia, report scientists from the Norwegian Polar Institute in Svalbard. The main cause is likely to be high levels of pollutants, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), transported to the Arctic in water and air from Europe, North America and Russia. PCBs damage the bears' immune systems and affect their hormone levels, causing them to grow penis-like stumps. The researchers found that 1.2 per cent of Svalbard's 3000 or so bears have been affected so far. The researchers warn that polar bear numbers could "go into slow decline".for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon."

From the Promed website

WEST NILE VIRUS UPDATE.
1950'S EXPERIMENTS USING
WEST NILE VIRUS
AT SLOAN KETTERING, NYC

In the 1950's, experiments with WNV were carried out on human volunteers at the Sloan- Kettering Institute of the Memorial Center for Cancer and Allied Diseases, New York. A total of 95 patients with neoplastic disease were inoculated intramuscularly with the WNV topotype strain Eg-101 in an effort to achieve therapeutic pyrexia and oncolysis in them.<

Newsday 09-29-1999 page A28

Area Labs Have Long Studied Virus
Yale, Rockefeller began tests in '50s

"Epidemiologists suspect that the West Nile virus has for the first time been isolated in humans or animals in the Western Hemisphere, but the virus has for decades made its home in several U.S. research laboratories, including Rockefeller University in Manhattan and Yale University in New Haven, Conn. In fact, investigators there were the first to grow and study the West Nile virus in the United States. The work began

in the 1950s when unidentified viral samples from around the world arrived at Rockefeller on a steady basis."

The Journal News 7/28/2000

Damp weather won't delay
West Nile spraying schedule

By Pamela Weber-Leaf

"But the company that manufactures Anvil cautioned that any moisture at all in the air could render the spraying useless. "You cannot do it during rain or even misting," said George Balis, an entomologist for Clarke Mosquito Control, which gained approval for the product in 1997 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "You're putting out a small droplet (of the chemical) that you're trying to impinge on mosquitoes, and drops of water will knock it down."

To a Directory of Mr.Lederman's Essays

Robert Lederman is an artist, writer and activist and is also the President of the street artist advocacy group, A.R.T.I.S.T.
Click here for an archive of A.R.T.I.S.T. related news articles on the Freedom Forum website

His essays and Op-Eds have appeared in hundreds of alternative publications as well as the Daily News, Penthouse, Africa Sun Times, Street News and The Shadow.
Lederman was falsely arrested 41 times for his anti-Giuliani activities and was never convicted of any of the charges. As a result of the arrests, he's won four Federal lawsuits and overturned three laws.
He is best known for having created hundreds of paintings of Mayor Giuliani as a Hitler like dictator which were carried in demonstrations throughout the eight years of the Giuliani administration. Images of his paintings and articles about his arrests and lawsuits have appeared on all of the major television networks hundreds of times as well as frequently appearing in the NY Times, Daily News, NY Post, Newsday, Newsweek, People, The Washington Post, LA Times and NY Magazine.

Robert Lederman,
President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics)
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net

For a detailed exposition on the West Nile issue
http://www.nospray.org/
For an article on the Manhattan Institute go to
http://www.konformist.com/2000/rudyg.htm

If you would like to help oppose the spraying,
please write to the
No Spray Coalition
PO Box 334
Peck Slip Station
NYC, NY 10272-0334
or call the No Spray hotline at (718) 670-7110.

Any funds you can send to help continue the lawsuit
and this work are greatly appreciated.

Important Note:
Mr. Lederman has explained that his articles posted here are not to be taken as official statements by the No-Spray Coalition of which he is a member or of the "No-Spray" lawsuit in which he is a plaintiff.

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