Pesticide Safety

How Safe Are The Chemicals Used By FKMCD? Should I Be Worried?

Many people are concerned about harmful effects of pesticides on the environment, their animals and plants, and themselves.

To better understand the topic at hand, a short explanation of toxicology is in order.

Toxicity and hazard are not the same thing. "Toxicity" is the potency under experimental conditions, whereas "hazard" is the risk of poisoning when a product is used. Hazard thus includes both toxicity and the chance of exposure to a toxic amount of a product.

Paracelsus wrote in 1564, "Dosage alone determines poisoning." An oral dose of 400 milligrams of ordinary table salt per kilogram of body weight can make a person violently ill.

Every year about 60 people die from aspirin overdose. It is the dosage that determines the poison.

The insecticides used by the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District are among the insecticides least hazardous to humans.

Both of the adulticides used by the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (naled and permethrin) are also used in agriculture. They may be used on food crops at rates much higher than are used for mosquito control. They are also used in pet shampoos (permethrin) and flea collars (naled). Permethrin is also applied directly to livestock to control pest insects, and is the active ingredient in some human louse shampoos.

The adulticides are applied at very low dosages. The low dosages, plus natural degradation by UV light and water, ensures minimal risk from naled or permethrin.

Information on larvacides—treatments for controlling mosquitoes