BUG WAR The city’s war against mosquitoes came to the heart of Manhattan last night when crews sprayed Central Park with insecticide in a bid to stop the outbreak of potentially deadly encephalitis.
So far, three people have died from the mosquito-borne disease with one more death suspected – a 79-year-old Queens woman who died last month. Tests results yesterday showed she may have had encephalitis. The number of confirmed cases remains at nine.
A fleet of five helicopters, a dozen trucks and one airplane were set to resume spraying over parts of all five boroughs.
Officials predicted that most of the city will have been sprayed by this morning.
“The only thing that will be left for Monday will be from 59th Street down in Manhattan … the Rockaways and [part of] Staten Island,” said Jerry Hauer, director of the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management.
Mayor Giuliani said the number of suspected cases of St. Louis encephalitis dropped from 89 to 80 after new test results came back from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
The latest round of tests ruled out 16 of 20 possible cases while hospitals reported seven new potential cases of encephalitis.
In Albany, state health officials said preliminary tests indicated a 31-year-old upstate woman who died yesterday of encephalitis did not have the St. Louis strain. But further tests are pending.
Giuliani said spraying from trucks in Central Park would wrap up before dawn – leaving enough time for the chemicals to dissipate before the arrival of joggers and dog-walkers.
“They’ll be OK,” the mayor said of early morning parkgoers. “There’s no health hazards to dogs from either one of the two insecticides that’s being used. There shouldn’t be any problem at all.”
But the prospect of spraying gave some parkgoers the jitters yesterday.
“I know they say that stuff is safe, but my eyes burn and I get headaches when I’m around pesticides, so I know it’s doing something to me,” said Betsy Robinson, 46, who was walking her dogs Daisy and Rosie.
“And I’d worry about the dogs because they get their noses in everything and they eat grass. Maybe I’ll go to Riverside Park instead tomorrow,” said Robinson.
Others were just as concerned about the risk of getting bitten by an encephalitis-carrying mosquito.
“I thought they already sprayed, that’s why I felt safe enough to come today,” said Donna Svendson, 25, as she sat outside the park. “I’m not daring enough to go in there until I know they’ve sprayed.”
One expert on insecticides told The Post that malathion – the main chemical being used by the city – can pose long-term health risks if it isn’t used properly.
“It’s a two-edged sword,” said Robert Simon, a chemist and toxicologist, whose Virginia-based firm Toxicology International studies the effects of insecticides.
“The upside of malathion is certainly that you can kill mosquitoes. But the thing is, there are lots of ways to kill mosquitoes that are a lot less toxic,” said Simon.
Simon said the byproduct of malathion after it breaks down can be more dangerous than the insecticide itself.
State and city health experts insisted that the chemicals being used are safe to humans and pets.
“These are products that are probably less toxic, less concentrated, than individuals can buy over the counter at a hardware store to treat their gardens for normal pests on their crops,” said Dennis White, a state Health Department expert on mosquitoes.
Dr. Robert Hoffman of the city Health Department’s Poison Control Center said that malathion is safe to humans and pets when used in concentrations as low as the city is using.
HOT LINE INFORMATION
For information on the city’s mosquito-spraying program, call (888) 663-6692 or check the city’s Web site: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us.