Mosquito Pesticide Raising Concerns For Families

These are the dog days of summer, and that means mosquitoes. In an effort to guard against West Nile Virus, the Tulsa County Health Department is spraying pesticide over hundreds of square miles. The News On 6's Chris Wright reports it's raising concerns for some families.

The health department says the pesticide is, for the most part, harmless. Still, a spraying has one family fuming.

The Fox family spends many of its summer evenings strolling around the neighborhood. During a recent walk, they claim they were soaked by a passing pesticide truck.

"Kind of just a little bit irritating to the skin, and to the eyes, and I could taste it which wasn't that pleasant," said Katie Fox.

More irritating to Katie was the fact that her two small children were exposed. Her daughter is only one-month old, and she believes the pesticide inflamed her two-year-old son's respiratory condition.

Katie says this could have been avoided with a simple heads up from the health department.

"There's no reason there couldn't be notification.  There definitely should be notification of the areas and when, so people can prepare," said Fox.

Of course, we are in the midst of West Nile season. To combat the virus, the health department sprays over 800 square miles in Tulsa County each year. Where it chooses to spray is based on the number of mosquito-related complaints, as well as wind conditions. Officials say that makes it tough to plan ahead.

The health department says it doesn't know which neighborhoods it's actually going to spray, until late in the evening. It says it's just pretty much impossible to notify everybody.

And if the pesticide posed a danger to people, the health department claims it wouldn't use it. Still, the Fox's would prefer to avoid getting doused while walking around the block.

"I hope that next time, next year at this time; I won't have to have this concern.  Hopefully this can be rectified," said Fox.

The health department says its trucks do their best to avoid spraying pedestrians, but sometimes it simply can't be avoided.