Thank you for publishing the op-ed by Richard Holman and Brian Moench of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment about the unjust consequences to west side residents of a plan by the Salt Lake Mosquito Abatement District (SLMAD) to increase the spraying of pesticides near the new inland port.
I would like to point out that the pesticide plan isn’t just bad for people, especially children. Annihilating insects around the Great Salt Lake destroys the biodiversity that keeps migratory birds alive on their flight from north to south america every year. The Great Salt Lake is a place of world-wide importance for many species. It doesn’t just belong to Utah and needs to be protected.
Mosquitoes are a critical food supply, and development near wetlands, with the accompanying need to spray for mosquitoes, may account for the mass die off of songbirds across the southwest over the last year. Thousands of birds are falling out of the sky, dead from starvation.
The plan by the Salt Lake Mosquito Abatement District to spray even more pesticides is inappropriate and must be scrapped, for our own health and for the survival of other creatures who share this land.
Rachel White, Woods Cross
