Korean Job Discussion Forums

[igotthisguitar]

>. Came across this on Yahoo recently & it reminded me i've been meaning to start a thread dealing with what ppl think of the creepy chemical fog that's sprayed in & around our neighbourhoods almost every night. You can bet i race to secure my windows everytime i hear the "lawnmower" man coming

I've had students tell me how as kids they'd run behind the spray machine laughing & playing in the chemical haze. Many of their young offspring still do !!!

Most Koreans say there's no problem at all; nothing to worry about, it ONLY kills mosquitoes. Dunno bout you, but i think that's pretty naive, & there's likely more to the story than what most ppl are generally aware.

What d'yall think ???

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Mosquito Capital Swats at Activists

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=9&u=/nm/20040723/od_nm/life_canada_mosquitoes_dc

Malathion Index
Health Effects Research Summaries Included in this Report

http://airtech.tripod.com/malathion.htm[/b]

[desultude]

I don't get sprayed here on my campus in Daegu- but I would not be happy if I did.

When I was a child, they used to fly over our houses in Miami, spraying us with a crop duster! When we heard the plane, we scattered around the house closing the windows.

Today I am sure all of my cognitive and personal difficulties can be blamed on being sprayed as a child.

Seriously, I have had doctors suggest that it may be the basis of my upper respiratory weakness. It cannot be good for you.

[captain kirk]

I just don't understand it. Particularly how it's so unecessary and dismissed as no problem. It's a non-issue with Koreans. I was up the Yoksan 66 building in Seoul one time and, looking down, watched a neighbourhood being gassed. An entire block was seething with those evil looking, low, white, crawling crowds of that heavy, laden gas.
A child at the haggie will say 'teacher, look, mow-gee', pointing at two or three little red bumps. Is that enough reason to saturate the apartment complexes and tight little house neighbourhoods with something toxic like that?
Maybe it's a neatness freak thing.

[flip ant]

When I was in college, my summer job was fumigating grain bins. The spray we used before we put the nasty stuff on? Yep, Malathion. It was the mildest thing we used, but deadly to insects. We would also use a solid called Phostoxin and then a very deadly gas, methyl bromide. Melathion only caused me trouble once when I accidentally spilled some concentrate on my skin and it caused a mild rash. I don't think its too bad for humans, but I think you are legitimate in your concerns about breathing it for a long period of time.

[Apple Scruff]

[Pyongshin Sangja]

Mosquitoes carry malaria. Malaria kills. Gas em.

[just because]

Whenever i see the spray mobile I run quick smart.

What shocks me is you see the kiddies running after it like it is the ice-cream truck.

[phaedrus]

[Apple Scruff]

[shawner88]

There was a truck that'd come by every day when I was living in Yeokgok for a month. The same exact spray they used back in the states when I was a little kid. And as in that time, kids were running behind the truck.

I was the only person covering my mouth in Yeokgok.

[sparkx]

[rapier]

[sadsac]

Here in Geochang, they drive round and round blanketing everything. What I find amusing is the cars just keep on moving, have seen a couple of excellent stacks due to the spraying. We close up tight when we see the damn spray truck.

[jazblanc77]

Anyways, mosquito spraying or bombing is only effective at the pupae/larvae stages of their development which occurs in and around water. The chemicals are meant to stunt their growth so that they are unable to reproduce in their adult form. To kill mature mosquitoes is difficult and practically pointless. The chemicals can cause respiratory problems especially for the very young and old.

I know this because my father worked in government in Canada's North where mosquitoes are huge and many and he had to decide each year whether it was worth the public health risk to do some mosquito bombing.

[phaedrus]