SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Outraged Miami Residents Shut Down Town Meeting Over Zika Pesticide Spraying
'If you're going to spray, we want a say!' chanted demonstrators
Sep 16, 2016
Outraged Miami Beach residents shut down a city commission meeting on Wednesday evening over the city's widespread spraying of the controversial pesticide naled to combat mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus.
"If you're going to spray, we want a say!" the protesters shouted.
The activists and concerned citizens "cursed elected officials and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for mixed messages about aerial spraying over South Beach and refusing to detail all locations where adult mosquitoes have been isolated with the virus," AP reports.
Watch footage of the demonstration here:
Miami Beach residents have been protesting the city's naled spraying with daily demonstrations outside of the city hall.
As Common Dreams has reported, many experts have warned that the city's spraying may be dangerous as well as ineffective.
Aerial spraying of naled in South Carolina also killed millions of honeybees earlier this month. (Widespread bee deaths have also been reported and photographed in the wake of spraying campaigns in Miami Beach.)
Moreover, while "officials call naled safe and effective for killing adult mosquitoes, they also say children should stay inside during spraying," AP notes.
"We don't think this poses a big risk, but people need to avoid unnecessarily being exposed to it. If aerial applications are occurring ... don't let your kids out to play," Jack Housenger, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pesticide Programs, told AP. "If toys are outside, be sure to wash them off."
One commissioner was on the side of the anti-pesticide activists on Wednesday, observing that naled is a neurotoxin, and introduced a resolution to end the spraying. He was met with overwhelming cheers.
But most of the officials had no patience for the protesters. City Commissioner Ricky Arriola dismissed them outright, telling NBC: "You might not like the medicine, but you may have to take a little of it to get the Zika under control."
Despite residents' fears and concerns, the commission as a whole remained firm in its commitment to spraying the controversial pesticide. They did, however, pass a resolution to ask the state of Florida to research other options, CBS Miami reports.
Aerial spraying of naled resumed in Miami Beach on Friday, according to CNN.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Outraged Miami Beach residents shut down a city commission meeting on Wednesday evening over the city's widespread spraying of the controversial pesticide naled to combat mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus.
"If you're going to spray, we want a say!" the protesters shouted.
The activists and concerned citizens "cursed elected officials and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for mixed messages about aerial spraying over South Beach and refusing to detail all locations where adult mosquitoes have been isolated with the virus," AP reports.
Watch footage of the demonstration here:
Miami Beach residents have been protesting the city's naled spraying with daily demonstrations outside of the city hall.
As Common Dreams has reported, many experts have warned that the city's spraying may be dangerous as well as ineffective.
Aerial spraying of naled in South Carolina also killed millions of honeybees earlier this month. (Widespread bee deaths have also been reported and photographed in the wake of spraying campaigns in Miami Beach.)
Moreover, while "officials call naled safe and effective for killing adult mosquitoes, they also say children should stay inside during spraying," AP notes.
"We don't think this poses a big risk, but people need to avoid unnecessarily being exposed to it. If aerial applications are occurring ... don't let your kids out to play," Jack Housenger, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pesticide Programs, told AP. "If toys are outside, be sure to wash them off."
One commissioner was on the side of the anti-pesticide activists on Wednesday, observing that naled is a neurotoxin, and introduced a resolution to end the spraying. He was met with overwhelming cheers.
But most of the officials had no patience for the protesters. City Commissioner Ricky Arriola dismissed them outright, telling NBC: "You might not like the medicine, but you may have to take a little of it to get the Zika under control."
Despite residents' fears and concerns, the commission as a whole remained firm in its commitment to spraying the controversial pesticide. They did, however, pass a resolution to ask the state of Florida to research other options, CBS Miami reports.
Aerial spraying of naled resumed in Miami Beach on Friday, according to CNN.
Outraged Miami Beach residents shut down a city commission meeting on Wednesday evening over the city's widespread spraying of the controversial pesticide naled to combat mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus.
"If you're going to spray, we want a say!" the protesters shouted.
The activists and concerned citizens "cursed elected officials and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for mixed messages about aerial spraying over South Beach and refusing to detail all locations where adult mosquitoes have been isolated with the virus," AP reports.
Watch footage of the demonstration here:
Miami Beach residents have been protesting the city's naled spraying with daily demonstrations outside of the city hall.
As Common Dreams has reported, many experts have warned that the city's spraying may be dangerous as well as ineffective.
Aerial spraying of naled in South Carolina also killed millions of honeybees earlier this month. (Widespread bee deaths have also been reported and photographed in the wake of spraying campaigns in Miami Beach.)
Moreover, while "officials call naled safe and effective for killing adult mosquitoes, they also say children should stay inside during spraying," AP notes.
"We don't think this poses a big risk, but people need to avoid unnecessarily being exposed to it. If aerial applications are occurring ... don't let your kids out to play," Jack Housenger, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pesticide Programs, told AP. "If toys are outside, be sure to wash them off."
One commissioner was on the side of the anti-pesticide activists on Wednesday, observing that naled is a neurotoxin, and introduced a resolution to end the spraying. He was met with overwhelming cheers.
But most of the officials had no patience for the protesters. City Commissioner Ricky Arriola dismissed them outright, telling NBC: "You might not like the medicine, but you may have to take a little of it to get the Zika under control."
Despite residents' fears and concerns, the commission as a whole remained firm in its commitment to spraying the controversial pesticide. They did, however, pass a resolution to ask the state of Florida to research other options, CBS Miami reports.
Aerial spraying of naled resumed in Miami Beach on Friday, according to CNN.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.