IFCS/EXP.POPs.13

6 June 1996

Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety

PROBLEMS WITH PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS

TOWARDS BETTER ALTERNATIVES

IFCS EXPERTS MEETING ON POPs

17-19 June 1996

Manila, Philippines

Prepared by: CONSUMERS INTERNATIONAL THE PESTICIDES TRUST/PAN WORLD WIDE FUND INTERNATIONAL

In Israel the requirement for malaria vector control is written into law. It was the responsibility of the Ministry of Health until 1990 when responsibility was transferred to the newly created Ministry of the Environment. A department was established to regulate and manage all areas of public health pest control including the licensing of pest control practitioners, the registration of pesticides used in public health pest control and the monitoring and control of mosquitoes and other important disease vectors, such as sand flies transmitting leishmaniasis, and ticks transmitting the parasitic disease known locally as 'cave fever'.

Before the transfer of responsibility, mosquito control consisted of teams of health ministry employees roving the countryside looking for breeding sites which were sprayed with DDT or diesel type oil or other insecticides in order to destroy the larvae.

Malaria vectors in Israel are Anopheles spp which only breed in still clean water. Ironically this meant that their breeding sites tended to be in nature reserves and areas of scientific importance, or supplies of drinking water, since most other surface water sites are polluted to an extent which prevents Anopheles spp from breeding. Mosquitoes which did breed very successfully in polluted water, such as Culex spp, do not carry malaria but are a major irritant.

In the past local authorities were responsible for controlling Culex mosquitoes but not Anopheles. With the transfer of responsibility local authorities were required to control Anopheles as well, but the Ministry of the Environment was responsible for monitoring for breeding sites. Thus the monitoring and control activities were separated.

In order to prevent over zealous use of pesticides by local authorities the Ministry produced 'rules of combat' which the applicators were required to follow. These were IPM guidelines which required:

In addition local authority personnel are trained to co-ordinate their monitoring of known and new breeding sites with their control efforts in order to avoid calendar spraying programmes.

Ministry of Environment personnel work in region-based teams which regularly monitor known breeding sites during the breeding season. The timing of monitoring efforts corresponds to the stages of the mosquito life cycle in order to prevent development of adults.

Samples of larvae found in breeding sites are sent to a central laboratory for positive identification and the presence of malaria vector species is logged on a GIS (Computerised Geographical Information System). The system also contains records of malaria outbreaks whether imported or locally infected. This allows quick and easy identification of 'hot spots' which require particular attention e.g. more frequent monitoring, more concerted control operations.

In this way the use of synthetic chemical pesticides is reduced to an absolute minimum since they are only used in emergency situation to prevent major outbreaks of malaria or massive population increases in malaria vectors.

Source: The Environment of Israel, Annual Report No. 17-18, Ministry of the Environment Jerusalem, 1992.