Dear Editor,
It is incumbent on me to raise my voice with Mr Albert Cumberbatch, ‘What is in the fogging spray?’(SN, Jan 14). I seem to remember Mayor Green posing a similar question less than two years ago to a Ministry of Local Government that felt it did not have to give proper explanation for its actions. Chikungunya was the problem then. Zika is the additional problem now.
Does the Mayor of Georgetown know now? Will the Ministry of Public Health, or its chief medical officer, or the Ministry of Information, or its Commissioner of Information please answer the question? What is in the fogging spray? What are the fogging methodology and timetable? What are the expected effects?
As far as I am aware, the fogging chemicals now approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) are odourless. But the present concoction that assails many people who have complained to me reeks of malathion in diesel and water. And neither I nor the other complainants see the very active mosquitoes falling dead while we choke and get ill.
I guess people feel they should complain to me, since I am known to have taught Chemistry and the safe use of chemicals for many years to many students up to the highest level in Guyana. Therefore if the authorities feel they can ignore this renewed reasonable request for enlightenment then we are back to the age of ignorance and ignoreance.
Yours faithfully,
Alfred Bhulai