The Control Yuan has asked the Ministry of Environment and the Kaohsiung City Government to review and adjust their use of pesticides in mosquito control.
The issue stemmed from a complaint Kaohsiung City Councilor Chung Yi-chung (鍾易仲) received in 2023 saying that the city government’s Department of Health had reduced the dilution ratio of mosquito pesticides by 30-fold in its effort to prevent dengue fever — a high concentration that could harm human health.
The department at the time said in response that the dilution ratio had remained unchanged over the past two decades.
Photo: Taipei Times
The complaint was forwarded to the Control Yuan, which on Wednesday last week reviewed and approved the investigation results of its Committee on Social Welfare and Environment Hygiene Affairs.
Control Yuan member Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) on Sunday said the city government was found to have adjusted repellents’ dilution ratio for urgent mosquito control, as well as used an effective dose per unit area to evaluate whether its use of pesticides complies with regulatory requirements.
However, the department did not account for different tools and contexts of their implementation, and part of its repellent use might be excessive based on specialists’ calculations, Chi said.
The city government should apply mosquito repellents within the suggested dilution ratio determined in the Executive Yuan’s dengue-control meetings, she said.
In the Guidelines for Dengue/Chikungunya Control, the Centers for Disease Control recommends that local governments use chemical space spray solutions, such as ultra-low volume spraying or thermal fogging (including smoke bombs), to control adult mosquito populations, she said.
The Control Yuan’s investigation found that most local governments used thermal foggers to apply pesticides used to kill adult mosquitoes to control dengue fever, while power sprayers are the most recommended tool on the product labels of repellants approved by the environment ministry, Chi said.
Only 7.19 percent of repellant products specify that thermal foggers can be used, but current practices in dengue prevention are markedly different, she said.
Therefore, the ministry should address local governments’ noncompliance with product labeling requirements for mosquito repellants, she said.
It should also establish more explicit guidelines on the use of different tools for local governments to properly administer pesticides used in dengue fever control and prevention, she added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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