“The threat of mosquito-borne diseases is real with mosquito season upon us, but not everyone agrees with the use of pesticides for killing mosquitoes.
Kyla Bennett, New England director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and PEER’s director of science policy, previously worked as an Environmental Protection Agency Region 1 wetland permit reviewer and as the region’s wetlands enforcement coordinator. She spoke to the use of chemicals for mosquito control.
Bennett said PFAS chemicals were found in the Anvil 10+10 that was used for aerial spraying in Massachusetts and other states, and officials are saying that it was a contamination problem from the fluorinated barrels that the pesticides were contained in.
However, Bennett said since then a variety of other pesticides were tested and about half contained PFAS, so it’s questionable that it’s a barrel issue.
“My concern is that PFAS is toxic, it’s ubiquitous, it’s a huge problem, it’s a national crisis,” she said. “I just think that the state of Massachusetts and the EPA at the federal level as well need to make sure that whatever pesticide we’re using doesn’t contain PFAS.””