Pesticide Spraying for WNV & Asthma (2) (Modified by Environmental Risk Analysis Program)

[This posting comments on the study correlating pesticide spraying for
WNV with emergency room treatments for asthma in NYC, 2000, by Karpati
et al. 2004. Environmental Health Perspectives 112 (11): 1183-1187]

How can this study possibly determine whether there is an increase in
asthma because of mosquito spraying with pyrethroids, given the fact
that pyrethroids are in hundreds of products that we come in contact
with every
day. Given that pyrethroids are in every possible environment -- how
do you control with a non-exposed population? Recently ORVIS started a
huge campaign about their new line of clothing called BuzzOff -- which
promotes pyrethroid impregnated clothing. Many other textile
manufacturers however, have been using pyrethroids for years to cut
down on the possibility of insect damage to goods prior to marketing.
Pyrethroids are now routinely impregnated into clothing and other
textiles which cannot be washed out --even after 25 or more washings.
Pyrethroids are also in many other products such as inks, paper, food
containers, etc. These products off-gas and are absorbed across the
skin barrier and via the gut. Most consumers don't have a clue that
they are being continually exposed to low levels of
these chemicals. Additionally, pyrethroids are in a huge array of
pesticide products which are routinely applied both indoors and
outdoors. Mosquito spraying pesticides are only a tiny part of the
pyrethroid picture -- but the point is, you can't control for
non-exposed populations, because there aren't any.

Resources:

U.S. Geological Survey
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SYNTHETIC PYRETHROID INSECTICIDES IN THE ENVIRONMENT
By Paul D. Capel and Blake J. Nelson

http://ca.water.usgs.gov/pnsp/pyra/env_pro/trnfr_pro/sorp/resin.html

Recent ads by ORVIS marketing pyrethroid impregnated clothing (realize
that
most textiles that
do impregnate pyrethroids -- do not advertise this, or label the
textiles as
having
been treated).

http://www.orvis.com/intro.asp?subject=567&adv=35112&adv=34788

Gulf War vets from the first gulf war wore uniforms impregnated by
pyrethroids.
Abou Donia of Duke University, studied pyrethroids and its synergistic
effects with
DEET. Pyrethroids themselves are neurotoxic -- one doesn't combine
DEET to
have neurological
effects.

Sincerely,
Ashley Hotz

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-WESTNILEVIRUS-L@cornell.edu
[mailto:owner-WESTNILEVIRUS-L@cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Environmental
Risk
Analysis Program
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 2:00 PM
To: WESTNILEVIRUS-L@cornell.edu
Subject: [WNV-L] Pesticide Spraying for WNV & Asthma

[1] Pesticide Spraying for West Nile Virus Control and Emergency
Department
Asthma Visits in New York City, 2000.

*****

<http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2004/6946/abstract.html> Link from
abstract
page to full text.

Adam M. Karpati,1,2 Mary C. Perrin,3,4 Tom Matte,5 Jessica Leighton,3
Joel
Schwartz,6,7 and R. Graham Barr6,8,9 1Division of Disease Control, New
York
City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, New York, USA;
2Epidemiology Program Office, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention,
Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 3Division of Environmental Health, New York City
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, New York, USA;
4Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public
Health, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA; 5National Center
for
Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Atlanta,
Georgia, USA; 6Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and
Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA;
7Division of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health,
Boston,
Massachusetts, USA; 8Division of General Medicine, Department of
Medicine,
College of Physicians and Surgeons, and 9Department of Epidemiology,
Mailman
School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

Abstract
Pyrethroid pesticides were applied via ground spraying to residential
neighborhoods in New York City during July-September 2000 to control
mosquito vectors of West Nile virus (WNV). Case reports link pyrethroid
exposure to asthma exacerbations, but population-level effects on asthma
from large-scale mosquito control programs have not been assessed. We
conducted this analysis to determine whether widespread urban pyrethroid
pesticide use was associated with increased rates of emergency
department
(ED) visits for asthma. We recorded the dates and locations of
pyrethroid
spraying during the 2000 WNV season in New York City and tabulated all
ED
visits for asthma to public hospitals from October 1999 through November
2000 by date and ZIP code of patients'
residences. The association between pesticide application and
asthma-related
emergency visits was evaluated across date and ZIP code, adjusting for
season, day of week, and daily temperature, precipitation, particulate,
and
ozone levels. There were 62,827 ED visits for asthma during the 14-month
study period, across 162 ZIP codes. The number of asthma visits was
similar
in the 3-day periods before and after spraying (510 vs. 501, p = 0.78).
In
multivariate analyses, daily rates of asthma visits were not associated
with
pesticide spraying (rate ratio = 0.92; 95% confidence interval,
0.80-1.07).
Secondary analyses among children and for chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease yielded similar null results. This analysis shows that spraying
pyrethroids for WNV control in New York City was not followed by
population-level increases in public hospital ED visit rates for
asthma. Key
words: asthma, obstructive airway disease, ozone, particulates,
pesticides,
pollutants, pyrethroids, West Nile virus. Environ Health Perspect
112:1183-1187 (2004). [Online 8 July 2004]

Address correspondence to A.M. Karpati, Division of Epidemiology, New
York
City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth St., Room 315,
CN-06, New York, NY 10013 USA. Telephone: (646) 253-5700. Fax:
(212) 788-4473. E-mail: akarpati@health.nyc.gov The authors declare they
have no competing financial interests.Received
26 December 2003; accepted 6 July 2004.

--------------
[2]
POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF KARPATI ET AL. STUDY:

SPRAYING ON A SUMMER NIGHT; A SAFER WAY TO STOP WEST NILE VIRUS.
Victoria McGovern. Environmental Health Perspectives 112 (11): A637

<http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2004/112-11/ss.html>

A population-level study has shown that night-time pesticide spraying
in the
late summer and early fall, aimed at controlling adult mosquitoes that
carry
West Nile virus, can be done in a way that does not drive up the number
of
people seeking emergency care for asthma-related problems [EHP
112:1183-1187]. A team led by Adam M.
Karpati, a physician in the New York City Department of Health and
Mental
Hygiene, reports that in studies of the city's 2000 mosquito spraying
season, no correlation could be found between broad application of
sumithrin
(a pyrethroid pesticide) and asthma cases presenting at the city's 11
public
hospital emergency departments.
NYC 5th Ave.
Big Apple air okay. Mosquito pesticide spraying to prevent West Nile
virus
was not associated with an increase in asthma attacks.
image credit: Corel

Earlier studies had shown that high exposure to pyrethroid
pesticides--often
in an occupational setting--can trigger reactions in asthma sufferers
ranging from mild symptoms such as sneezing and scratchy throat to more
acute ones such as wheezing, chest tightness, and even death. But no
data
have been available showing on a population scale how the lower-level
exposures that come from public health spraying of pesticides affect the
large number of asthmatics that may live in a big city.

The researchers tabulated data for asthma-related emergency room visits
around the dates when a sumithrin-based pesticide was sprayed in each
of 162
residential zip code areas in the city during July-September 2000. The
timing of spraying within each zip code depended on whether surveillance
indicated it was warranted--for example, if a dead bird were found to be
infected with the virus, or if a human case were identified. A zip code
area
was rarely sprayed on consecutive days. The study also incorporated air
quality data including daily measures of ozone, air particulates, and
temperature, which can all cause fluctuations in the number of people
seeking treatment for asthma-related symptoms. For a control, the team
used
asthma-related emergency room visits on days prior to spraying. They
also
looked at the number of asthma-related emergency room visits before and
after the spraying season.

The researchers found that the number of asthma-related visits in the
three
days before application of the pesticide and the three days after were
nearly identical. Looking more specifically within the emergency
department
data for asthma flare-ups in children and for aggravation of chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease similarly yielded no correlation between
spraying and symptoms.

The study does not necessarily show that public health pyrethroid
spraying
is not a danger to asthmatics. Rather, it could suggest that the city's
method of application and/or the citizens' behavior during spraying
helped
minimize exposure. During 2000, the first year when New York City
exclusively used a pyrethroid pesticide, the city limited its spraying
to
areas where the virus was detected in birds, mosquitoes, or humans, with
spray trucks usually beginning their rounds near 10 p.m.
and continuing through the night to 5 a.m. Radio, television, and print
media were used to alert residents 48 hours prior to any spraying and to
instruct people to remain indoors and close their windows during the
hours
when spraying would occur.

[Thanks to Suzanne Snedeker for bringing these articles to our
attention.]

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Received on Fri Aug 6 15:37:28 2004