Around Town

In 1990, 800,000 acres in southeastern Massachusetts were sprayed from these air tankers with malathion in response to high numbers of virus-carrying mosquitoes.  Eight people were treated at hospitals for suspected exposure to malathion; dozens of others called health officials complaining of health effects from the pesticide. Fish kills occurred on the first day of spraying. Anecdotal evidence gathered following the spraying indicated that butterflies, crickets, and insect-eating birds were conspicuously absent after the spraying, and that mosquitoes were the first populations of insects to rebound (within five days) following the spraying.  I clearly remember opening doors and windows in our house, for days if not weeks,  with no need for screens.