Friday, September 28, 2007

Malaria, Mosquitoes, and Solutions- are ya listenin'?

The other day I listened to President Bush address the UN. One of the topics was Malaria and Mosquitoes.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23955&Cr=general&Cr1=debate

As he spoke I saw in my mind's eyes the mosquito fogging trucks that would flood our neighborhood with a stinky grey cloud in the evenings in downtown Houston, Texas in the 1960's. Mosquitoes were a plague to us as children who played in the ditches looking for crawdads, swung on the tire swing- you had to dump the water before you could swing or your butt would get wet- and thought the little plastic pool in the backyard was a heavenly oasis. We were thankful we were being poisoned, but I thought there must be a better way!

I don't know why I didn't remember more, but when I heard President Bush that's as far as my memory went. I knew a possible solution, I just didn't remember it. Fast forward to today. I read a blog on www.fireandknowledge.org about the failure of pesticides and comments about spraying and the cloud immediately filled my lungs, again. Then a suggestion by Joshua Sowin to the effect that there ought to be a better way that spraying made me remember Dunks.

Two years ago I product tested an item for a garden club I belong to. Summit Chemical Company produces a wonderful larvacide, Mosquito Dunks which can be safely used- even in livestock water supplies, to kill mosquitoes in the larval stage.
http://www.summitchemical.com/Mosquito-Facts.aspx

"Now," I thought, "This might help fight Malaria!"

On August 16, 2007 the UN Radio News had a report of a program to distribute mosquito nets with insecticide on them.
http://www.un.org/radio/news/html/12477.html It is evident solutions are being sought.

I sent this in an email to all of them- Summit, the UN, and the White House, in the hopes of helping connect people in search of a solution with people who have a solution with people who have the mechanism to get this product in the right hands.

If the UN will contract with Summit, perhaps the US could ship it to areas it is needed with Aide shipments or military supplies..

If we realize that pointing a finger at someone else just points three fingers back at ourselves we might start working together, looking for real solutions that will be less harmful to the environment.

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Live Love,
dembidj