Submitted by Anthony Davis
“As education officials put systems in place to hold classes at the Grazettes Primary School at an alternative location next Monday, the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) is still waiting for some answers…”President Pedro Shepherd told ‘Barbados Today’ there are still questions about what chemicals were used in the fogging exercise that caused the lingering odour that has disrupted school since the beginning of the term…”I am told that the fogging staff of the Ministry of Health used about four or five chemicals mixed together, but they are only identifying one chemical – malathion. All they are saying is that they used malathion, which is an insecticide . . . Today, nobody wants to say what other chemical other than malathion was used in the fogging…”My opinion is that the chemicals used seeped into the furniture”
On page 5 of “Barbados Today” dated 02 October, under the headline “Health officials defend fogging”, it states: “Health officials have insisted that the chemicals used for fogging at the Grazettes Primary School were safe.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Joy St John said this evening that the chemical mix that produces the fog used to kill the dengue and Chikungunya-carrying mosquitoes was as efficacious as it could be without being harmful to human health.”
First of all Dr. St. John, you must understand that not all of us have such a high degree of education that we would understand such words as “efficacious”, and that you and speakers at such occasions should limit such verbiage!
If the other components in the mix are not harmful, how come you are only willing to name one of them – malathion?
The acting Minister of Health says he doesn’t want to get into the debate going on about the situation at the school. How come he is side-stepping that issue? I believe that there is more in the mortar than the pestle in this issue! You cannot give Mr. Shepherd the names of the other chemicals used in the mix, but all of you are adamant that it was the right one!
How come you are so sure?
Were you there when the mixture was being concocted?
Are those who mix these chemicals infallible?
Seeing it was just for one building, is it not possible that too much of one chemical was used?
Is it not possible that someone got mixed up with the difference between litres and gallons?
There was the case of a crash of an airliner, and when the investigators checked with the person who filled the aircraft with fuel he said he had put in the amount of fuel stipulated for the journey in litres, whereas it should have been gallons. Obviously the plane crashed because it ran out of fuel, seeing that one gallon is approximately four litres!
Now you need two buses to ferry the children to school, which means two buses less for commuters who have to do various things – but most important of all to get to/from work. We would all like to know the names of the four other components of the mixture used, and how much of each was used!
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.