Over Harvey-Stricken Texas, Air Force Now Spraying Banned Insecticide that Killed Millions of Bees

Houston, TX — (RT) The US Air Force is spraying 6 million acres in Texas with potentially harmful insecticides, as the state tries to rid itself of swarms of mosquitoes nesting in flooded areas after Hurricane Harvey.

The work began this past weekend with the military using low-flying C-130 cargo planes to douse three counties with Naled, an organophosphate (OP) insecticide, according to Reuters.

“Due to the large amount of standing, polluted water, populations of pest insects that can transmit diseases are increasing significantly,” Captain Jeff Kelly, Air Force spokesman said in a statement. “This poses a health risk to rescue workers and residents of Houston.”

It’s intended that the spraying will prevent mosquito-borne diseases and prevent emergency response slowdowns by workers inundated by biting insects.

Hurricane Harvey, which began as a Category 4 storm, dumped more than 40 inches (1,000 mm) of rain on parts of Texas over the course of four days. The resulting floods affected hundreds of thousands of homes, displacing more than 30,000 people and prompting more than 17,000 rescues.

Naled, a neurotoxin sold under the brand name Dibrom, works by killing an enzyme in insects and leads to overstimulating the nervous system, causing nausea, dizziness and confusion and at high exposure, respiratory paralysis and death.

Naled has been widely used in the US since 1950, but it was prohibited for use by the European Union in 2012 over concerns it might affect human health.

READ MORE:  SWAT Holds 10yo Boy at Gunpoint as They Beat His Grandpa, Kill Dog in Front of Him

“The scenarios evaluated in the human health risk assessment as well as in the environmental risk assessment showed a potential and unacceptable risk,” the EU wrote about its decision.

The UN classifies the insecticide as a 6.1 inhalation hazard.

However, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Environmental Protection Agency support the use of the insecticide and say that small amounts don’t expose people enough to pose a health concern. The US Air Force agrees.

“The system disperses droplets small enough to land on a mosquito’s wing, using less than one ounce of naled per acre. That’s less than one shot glass for an area the size of a football field,” an Air Force spokesperson said.

Naled is used elsewhere in the US, with health departments spraying about one million pounds on 16 million acres each year – especially after disasters like hurricanes and flooding –  to curb mosquitos. About 70 percent is used for pest control, while around 30 percent is used in agriculture for cotton production in California and Louisiana, on alfalfa in Idaho and Oregon, and on grapes in California.

The military has used its aerial spray missions before, following the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which heavily damaged the Gulf Coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Though the US government considers naled safe, experts have found potentially dangerous side effects.

In 2016, naled spraying caused millions on honeybee deaths in South Carolina. It is now understood that it is better to spray during dawn and dusk, when bees are normally in their hives.

READ MORE:  WATCH: Veteran Nearly Killed by Cops for Legal Open Carry, Gets Gun Back

Pesticide Action Network (PAN) states that long-term impacts of Naled exposure can be serious — particularly for children — as it is a hormone disruptor and a reproductive and developmental toxin.

Many studies have also linked prenatal exposure to OP pesticides to neurological harms, including increased risk of autism and reduced IQ levels, as it may cross the placenta if it is in the bloodstream of a mammal.

In 2016, a study from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that when pregnant mothers live within one kilometer of fields where certain pesticides are used, their children are more likely to have lower IQs.

Other species are also affected. A University of Florida zoologist, Tom Emmel, studied areas in Florida where the regular mosquito spraying occurred with Dibrom and another insecticide. He found a “major loss” in insect diversity in sprayed sites with wasps showing “some of the most dramatic drops in species diversity, whereas scale insects increased.”

Naled is also considered moderately toxic to birds and most aquatic life.The mule deer, however, is among those most resistant to its effects.

America: Air Force for ISIS and Al-Nusra

All wars have dirty secrets, including why they’re launched, their true objectives, and how they fit into the aggressor’s grand scheme of things.

America operates like a global Mafia hit squad with nukes, waging wars for power, profits and regime change. All its wars are flagrant acts of aggression against nations threatening no one – the highest of high crimes.

Justifications offered are Big Lies. Media scoundrels support what demands condemnation, pretending the rape and destruction of one nation after another by America is a noble cause – glorifying wars in the name of peace, ignoring the human toll.

Imperial wars are called liberating ones. Plunder is called economic development. US dominance over ravaged nations is called democracy building – a notion Washington abhors, tolerating it nowhere at home or abroad.

Might justifies right. Nations are destroyed to free them. Monied interests alone benefit. The horrors of war are kept out of public view.

Patriotism means going along unquestionably. Terrorism is what they do, not us. Possible nuclear war risks humanity’s survival, yet it’s never mentioned in public discourse.

Benjamin Franklin was right, saying “(t)here is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace” – his advice never heeded.

Big Lies launch wars. Truth-telling could prevent them. Propaganda convinces most people to accept what demands opposition – or at least not protest publicly en masse.

ISIS, al-Nusra and likeminded terrorist groups exist and flourish because of foreign support – notably from America, NATO, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel and their rogue allies.

Washington pretends to be waging war on these groups while covertly providing them with weapons, munitions, other material support and aerial cover, operating as their air force – destroying vital infrastructure, downing a Syrian aircraft and drones, attacking government and allied ground forces.

Incidents too numerous to ignore suggest possible greater US escalation of war ahead than already.

The Afghan war was lost years ago, but continues endlessly. War on Iraq, including genocidal sanctions, was waged directly or indirectly by six US presidents.

Syria is Obama’s war, now Trump’s, escalating US aggression in all its conflict theaters after promising to be non-interventionist – threatening possible war on Iran and North Korea, risking direct confrontation with Russia and China.

Throughout America’s war on Syria, naked aggression, not civil conflict as falsely portrayed, it’s used ISIS, al-Nusra and other terrorist groups as imperial foot soldiers – US-led so-called coalition warplanes serving as their air force.

Media scoundrels pretend not to notice. Russia calls the presence of US and allied forces in Syria illegal.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov bluntly said America’s downing of a Syrian aircraft and drones in their own airspace is “open complicity with (ISIS and other) terrorists operating in” the country.

On Tuesday, Sergey Lavrov said Russia’s Defense Ministry “expect(s) to have a detailed explanation” on why Washington is waging phony war on terrorism in Syria – specifically why it downed a Syrian aircraft and why it’s not targeting al-Nusra fighters, adding:

“I don’t want to make guesses that someone might not be happy over that and that incidents with strikes on government forces give away plans to wreck the effectiveness of the anti-terrorist efforts.”

“But we cannot but recall that over the entire period of the crisis there has been an impression that Jabhat al-Nusra has been exempt from strikes.”

US-led aerial operations aided the movement of ISIS field commanders from Raqqa to al-Mayadin in Deir Ezzor province – while pretending the Raqqa battle aims to destroy its area fighters.

Instead, a corridor was opened for many to escape, the same thing done months earlier in Mosul – shifting thousands of ISIS fighters to Raqqa.

One of the dirtiest secrets of US involvement in Syria is pretending to combat terrorism while actively supporting it – including ISIS, al-Nusra and other anti-government forces.

No so-called “moderate rebels” exist. All fighters engaged in combat, except for government and allied forces, are US-supported terrorists.

American and Russian objectives in Syria are world’s apart. Anything US officials agree to isn’t worth the paper it’s written on – deals of convenience made to be breached.

Chances for mutual Moscow/Washington cooperation to resolve the Syrian conflict are nil.