President of SINDAG celebrates law that provides for the use of airplanes against the Aedes aegypti mosquito

While celebrating the publication yesterday of Federal Law 13.301/16 – which among the public actions to combat mosquitoes Aedes aegypti foresees the use of so-called aerial fumigation – the acting president of the National Union of Agricultural Aviation Companies (SINDAG), Júlio Augusto Kämpf, once again criticized the misrepresentation of information released by entities and technicians against the sector. Regarding this, SINDAG even published a Notice of Repudiation (see below) to the demonstration last Friday (the 24th) of the Gaucho Forum to Combat Pesticides (FGCA). The director also explains that the entity has already been talking to the Ministry of Health so that a technical group can be created to test this type of operation.

“It is unacceptable that a forum for such an important discussion and made up of so many technicians from different entities launches a statement to the public with so much erroneous and truncated information. Even more so after, even though it calls itself plural and democratic, it did not even respond to our request to participate in the debates”, highlighted Júlio Kämpf, regarding the FGCA demonstration. The leader reiterates that, while all criticism has had the same tone of truncated information, the aeroagricultural union has been proposing for 12 years that the use of planes be tested precisely to clarify doubts and establish an operating protocol.

What SINDAG is proposing is a change in the method: the product applied by air would be the same as that applied today by land, in smokers. With the difference of reaching difficult-to-access areas and avoiding rework.

“We have a positive experience that occurred in 1975 in São Paulo and current experiences in the United States, Mexico, Argentina and other countries. Furthermore, the application of insecticides against mosquitoes, whatever the method, is always an emergency action, in cases of large infestations. It is common ground that the most efficient and always necessary method is to combat sources of standing water in homes, commercial buildings, land and public spaces.”

Kämpf recalled that, while in Rio Grande do Sul the situation with dengue, chikungunya and Zika is relatively controlled, in areas such as the State of São Paulo and in regions of the Northeast the situation is extremely worrying. “These are areas where the plane could make a huge difference. But comment after we have established an operating protocol with the Ministry of Health”, he concluded.