
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 13, 1990                   TAG: 9007130765
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: HAMPTON                                LENGTH: Short

MOSQUITO-SPRAYING PROGRAM OPPOSED

A Hampton City Council member says a mosquito-control chemical being re-evaluated by the federal government should be shelved, and the city should use bats and purple martin birds to naturally control mosquitoes.

"From my own personal viewpoint, I'm concerned about anywhere we're using chemicals," Linda McNeeley said.

Langley Air Force Base sprays the chemical, Dibrom-14, over the lower Peninsula every year. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the chemcial can cause dizziness and nausea and degrades into a cancer-causing agent.

"It's pretty rough stuff, to tell you the truth," said Dan Peacock, a biologist for the EPA's pesticide registration division in Washington. "I wouldn't want to be sprayed with it."

Air Force officials annually spray the base to kill mosquitoes that make night work uncomfortable. At the same time, parts of Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson and York County are sprayed.

Peacock said the EPA does not know much about Dibrom-14, made by Chevron. The agency does knows that Dibrom-14 breaks down into dichlorvos, a known cancer-causing pesticide called DDVP.

- Associated Press

by CNB