[ RadSafe ] Drones Deliver Sterile Tsetse Flies To Ethiopia To Fight A Deadly Disease + 1981 Medfly crisis for Jerry Brown

[stewart farber]

Drones Deliver Sterile Tsetse Flies To Ethiopia To	Fight A Deadly Disease  
 

>   
> 
> The link below shows yet another example of where radiation exposure of a disease vector (the Tsetse Fly in Ethiopia in this case) is used to efficiently drive a population of a harmful insects  to zero by releasing large numbers of “sterile males” resulting in saving human lives. The sterilized insects are released from drone aircraft and this African  program,  which includes the participation of the IAEA,  has the potential to save thousands of lives of Africans each year. It is worth noting that the Luddites who oppose all things nuclear have opposed programs like this in the past because of their hysteria, and radio phobia about radiation being used, even in clearly positive ways.
> 
> Drones Deliver Sterile Tsetse Flies To Ethiopia To Fight A Deadly Disease
>> http://www.fastcoexist.com/3058578/drones-deliver-sterile-tsetse-flies-to-ethiopia-to-fight-a-deadly-disease <http://www.fastcoexist.com/3058578/drones-deliver-sterile-tsetse-flies-to-ethiopia-to-fight-a-deadly-disease>
> 
> This so-called “sterile-male”method of insect control has been used for at least 50 years in many situations to successfully reduce populations of such things as the mediterranean fruit fly ( medfly)  in the US (and elsewhere)  which has caused huge crop damage and economic losses. Some may recall that back in  mid-1981 there was a medfly “crisis” in California where there was a huge increase in the medfly population because the medfly populations of supposedly sterilized insects being release (when Jerre Brown was first governor) were not actually sterilized. The millions of medflies  released were being sterilized in the CA fiasco case in 1981 in a Mexican  irradiation facility that did not have good Quality Control.  This Mexican sterilization facility gave the flies TOO LITTLE radiation exposure such that the millions and millions of flies being released that were supposed to be sterile and mate with fertile flies in the wild actually ended up fertilizing fertile female flies in the wild plus some fraction of the females being released were also fertile. Rather than reduce the population the failure of the Mexican factory hired in the California medfly outbreak to properly sterilize the medflies released, only made the problem far worse.

> I was working at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in July1981 giving a tour to NRC Commissioner Victor Gilensky and a several top lawyers from the State of CA during a final walk-through of the facility and was responsible for  demonstrating  the Emergency Assessment and Response System installed at DCNPP by the firm I worked for at the time. It just happened to be  the day that the US Department of Agriculture took the action to embargo all crops from CA and prevent their sale outside CA to prevent spread of the medfly.  The CA lawyer was hurriedly yanked from the demonstration  because suddenly the State of CA had to deal with a real radiation related emergency caused by TOO LITTLE radiation exposure delivered to the medfly populations being irradiated for release to the wild. It is more than a bit ironic that by far the largest radiation crisis ever faced by Governor Jerry Brown and the State of CA was caused by too little radiation exposure to millions of medflies, not anything to do with trivial radioactivity released and minute radiation exposures from any nuclear plant in CA. As the odd radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say: “And now you know the rest of the story”.
> 
> 
> Stewart Farber, MSPH
> Farber Medical Solutions, LLC
> Westbrook, CT 06498
> 203-441-8433 (o)
> 203-522-2817 (c)
> 
>