Harvey Bug Spray Alert: Air Force To Spray 6 Million Houston-Area Acres With Chemicals

HOUSTON, TX — Standing water and abnormally flooded neighborhoods in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey have increased the disease-carrying insect population. The United States Air Force said it will deploy C-130H Hercules tactical cargo aircraft to spray more than 6 million acres with chemicals to help rid unwanted bugs.

The Pentagon last week announced it would send four C-130H aircraft and nearly 70 Reserve Citizen Airmen from the Youngstown (Ohio) Air Reserve Station to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. They were to begin aerial spray applications in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Centers for Disease Control.

The mission will primarily target mosquitoes which are capable of transmitting diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus, Zika and various types of encephalitis. Increased populations of these pest insects can eventually lead to individual cases or widespread outbreak of these diseases. The pest insects can also hinder recovery workers, resulting in less time in the field.

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"With recent training and capability enhancements, the aerial spray flight is now able to operate throughout the night using night vision goggles," Youngstown Air Reserve Station said in a statement. "This new capability increases the flight’s best case spray capacity from approximately 60 thousand acres per day to approximately 190 thousand acres per day. Spray missions are normally conducted at dusk and nighttime hours when pest insects are most active."

The Department of Defense’s only aerial spray capability to control pest insect populations is operated by the 910th Airlift Wing. The spraying eliminates undesired and invasive vegetation and disperse oil spills in large bodies of water. Because of massive amounts of standing, polluted water brought on by 50-plus inches of rain from Hurricane Harvey, populations of pest insects that can transmit diseases are increasing significantly, and that poses a health risk to rescue workers and residents of Houston. Authorities requested the 910th Airlift Wing to potentially treat the millions of affected acres.

The Air Force stated it will spray the chemical called Naled, but not in amounts large enough to affect human health. Although the U.S. says Naled is safe, it's banned by the European Union because of its health threat to humans, calling it an unacceptable risk.

"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 stated in its documents.

Naled is banned in Puerto Rico and some scholars have noted that it causes substantial harm to a human fetus, even perhaps leading to a higher chance of having a child with an autism-spectrum disorder.

The parent company of Naled is Sumimoto Chemical Corp., which also manufactures the mosquito larvicide SumiLarv, a chemical believed to have caused a spike in birth defects in Brazil from the Zika virus.

Top image: A plane sprays pesticide over the Wynwood neighborhood in the hope of controlling and reducing the number of mosquitos, some of which may be capable of spreading the Zika virus on August 12, 2016 in Miami, Florida.

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images