Q&A
Council Member Marmorato inquires about mosquito spraying effects on pets
1:25:15
·
166 sec
Council Member Kristy Marmorato raises concerns about the potential effects of mosquito spraying on pets and community cats. Deputy Commissioner Corinne Schiff responds, explaining the West Nile virus prevention program and offering to set up a separate meeting to discuss the topic in depth.
- Marmorato specifically asks about the adulticide Anvil 10+10 and its active ingredient sumithrin.
- Schiff emphasizes the low amounts used in spraying and the program's importance for public health.
- Marmorato expresses frustration with previous communication attempts on this issue.
Kristy Marmorato
1:25:15
Thank you, chair, Schulman.
1:25:17
Thank you.
1:25:18
This is amazing to see how many people showed up today.
1:25:20
I I'm really impressed by this.
1:25:22
I think this is one of the bigger committee meetings that I've gone to.
1:25:26
So I do wanna kinda shift gears a little bit here and go a little bit off topic, but still concerning our pets.
1:25:33
And I wanna discuss mosquito mosquito spraying and our pets, and commissioner Schiff I know that your organization is in charge with spraying within the five boroughs, and I hope that you can answer some questions for me today.
1:25:46
And if you can't get the answers for me today, then you can email them over to my office.
1:25:51
So one adulticide used for spraying is called anvil 10+10, and it's relatively non toxic after short inhalation.
1:26:00
It's moderately toxic after short term skin contact.
1:26:04
But with high concentration exposures, it's harmful to humans and pets.
1:26:09
An active ingredient in AMbell 10+10 is definitrin, and this ingredient does not mix with water, which is good, but it does bond to to the soil.
1:26:19
So my concern is, are there any concerns for animals and pets that touch and eat off of this soil that that has been sprayed?
Corinne Schiff
1:26:29
So what I can say now and what I think we should do is set up a separate meetings, so we can talk to you about our West Nile virus prevention program, which is why we conduct mosquito spraying.
1:26:40
I will say that we use very, very low amounts
Gale A. Brewer
1:26:45
a a a
Corinne Schiff
1:26:46
teaspoon for a area the size of a football field.
1:26:49
And so we we shared the environment concerns that are implicit in your question.
1:26:54
But I don't have that information with me for this hearing, but I would it's a really important public health program.
1:27:02
West now virus can be an extremely dangerous illness, and we're very proud of this work.
1:27:08
So what I'd like to do is get back to you and even set up a time that we can talk you through what we do in this program and how we work.
1:27:15
And we monitor mosquitoes around the city measuring mosquito infectivity so that we're only spraying when we see high levels of West Novartis infectivity in mosquitoes and drawing boundaries of where we're spraying, where we think that people are at most risk of West Nile virus.
Kristy Marmorato
1:27:34
Yeah.
1:27:34
I I know.
1:27:35
I've been in contact with your office, and unfortunately, they have given me a list of ingredients within we've been doing our own research on this, and it's been a little frustrating not to have emails returned.
1:27:47
And just being that we're talking about pets, I know we do have a big straight colony and within my district.
1:27:52
And I was just really concerned how that was gonna interact with the cats.
Corinne Schiff
1:27:56
And So let's set up let's set up a time.
Alexandra Silver
1:27:58
Okay.
1:27:58
I would like that.
Roxanne Delgado
1:27:59
Alright.
1:27:59
Thank you.
1:28:00
Thank you, chair.