Safer Mosquito Control Altoona, IA

Asking the City of Altoona to stop using harmful chemicals for mosquito fogging. Safer alternatives exist. Call the City or sign petition to ask to utilize EPA exempt products that will not harm children, pets or vulnerable populations.

Altoona currently sprays a harmful adulticide througout the summer. Adulticides are not only considered the least effective mosquito management program by the Iowa State Department of Entomology, but they are also dangerous to our children, pets, and environment. Among the dangers include increased risk of developing asthma, autism, increased risk of cancer, and pollution to our drinking water. The following is a list of the top reasons we are asking the City to stop the spraying: 

1. Altoona uses pesticides containing: Permethrin a central nervous poison and potential carcinogen, linked to cancer and liver malfunction. (Beyond Pesticides Chemwatch factsheet)
2. Safe alternatives exist such as EPA exempt sprays which can last for a month.  This should also decrease the cost to the taxpayers.
3. Pregnant women, fetuses, infants, and children have a greater risk of getting sick from pesticides. Our children are exposed to these pesticides that are sprayed weekly just by playing on our lawns or on playgrounds that the City sprays near. (National Research Council)
4. The elderly and the chronically ill are at greatest risk from chemically induced immune-suppression. (World Resources Institute)
5. Uncertainty exists regarding the long-term health effects of low-dose pesticide exposure. (The American Medical Association)
6. Pesticides such as those sprayed in Altoona can trigger asthma and aggravate respiratory conditions. (Washington D.C. West Nile Virus Response Plan)
7. Spraying pesticides intended to kill adult mosquitoes is the least efficient mosquito control techniques. Eliminating mosquito larval habitats is the most effective and economical mosquito control. (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
8. 0.1% of sprayed pesticides actually hit the target pest - 99.9 % go off into the environment (Pimentel, D. PhD., BioScience)
9. Acccording to the CDC, Less than 1% of those infected with West Nile virus will develop severe illness Human illness from West Nile virus remains rare in areas where it has been reported, and the chance that any one person is going to become ill from a mosquito bite is low." Thus, the risk/benefit analysis conducted by experts clearly indicates that the dangers of West Niles Virus are minimal and affect a very small segment of the population and that the long-term health and environmental risks of spraying with synthetic pesticides poses a much greater risk; (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
10. West Niles Virus is not a continuous threat during the year and the threat should be monitored before any mosquito program is implemented.

Please join in asking our City Leaders to consider safer alternatives to the sprays currently used including organic options.  Safer, proven products exist.