I've been involved in mosquito repellant trials, as a test subject.
Yes, there are people who will donate their blood and time to counting and collecting all thee mosquitoes that bite them in the middle of a bog, with only whatever snake-oil product we're given to defend us. Most of our group is composed of entomologists, though, so we're weird like that.
So far, we haven't seen any significant results with similar (non-topical) products- we'll be seeing about this one next summer, I suppose.
I highly doubt, even if this does work, however, it would ever be applied to the 'save the world' purpose of fighting malaria in the third world. Let's be realistic, here. This is a product to keep upper middle class suburbanites in North America from feeling a little itchy and think they're protecting Grandma and Little Billy from getting big bad west Nile virus.
The only realistic control for malaria in the third world? DDT. That's right. I said it! DDT is cheap. It can be incorporated into nettings and enclosures in the form of a wash, so very minimal amounts need to be released into the environment. It requires practically no technical expertise to install or maintain, and doesn't require inputs to 'run.'
Now, I'm as leery of chlorinated hydrocarbons as the next granola-crunching hippy, and new, 'clean' (though one has to wonder the environmental impacts of the propane and whatever else goes into producing these things and to make them work) technologies are fine and good, but I can't stand the 'save the world' argument being fed to us here. These will never be in common use in the third world because they'll be comparatively expensive, require technical expertise to install and operate, and require constant fuel imputs. It's not realistic.
I'd rather get a few mosquito bites than buy this miracle new product, thanks.
Being/.ed will bring this story a LOT of public attention. Waterloo has to have the highest per-capita slashdot readership of any Canadian city- the suburb in which this woman lives has to be crawling with RIM geeks, and everybody knows that/. is required reading for RIM geeks.
Activa will really have to make sure they're model environmental citizens- because now they're going to be watched constantly by geeks with digicams and the ability to google the law from anywhere. Not such a bright move on their part.
Slashdot Mirror
...Maybe a virtual air guitar that can cure cancer?
I've been involved in mosquito repellant trials, as a test subject.
Yes, there are people who will donate their blood and time to counting and collecting all thee mosquitoes that bite them in the middle of a bog, with only whatever snake-oil product we're given to defend us. Most of our group is composed of entomologists, though, so we're weird like that.
So far, we haven't seen any significant results with similar (non-topical) products- we'll be seeing about this one next summer, I suppose.
I highly doubt, even if this does work, however, it would ever be applied to the 'save the world' purpose of fighting malaria in the third world. Let's be realistic, here. This is a product to keep upper middle class suburbanites in North America from feeling a little itchy and think they're protecting Grandma and Little Billy from getting big bad west Nile virus.
The only realistic control for malaria in the third world? DDT. That's right. I said it! DDT is cheap. It can be incorporated into nettings and enclosures in the form of a wash, so very minimal amounts need to be released into the environment. It requires practically no technical expertise to install or maintain, and doesn't require inputs to 'run.'
Now, I'm as leery of chlorinated hydrocarbons as the next granola-crunching hippy, and new, 'clean' (though one has to wonder the environmental impacts of the propane and whatever else goes into producing these things and to make them work) technologies are fine and good, but I can't stand the 'save the world' argument being fed to us here. These will never be in common use in the third world because they'll be comparatively expensive, require technical expertise to install and operate, and require constant fuel imputs. It's not realistic.
I'd rather get a few mosquito bites than buy this miracle new product, thanks.
Being /.ed will bring this story a LOT of public attention. Waterloo has to have the highest per-capita slashdot readership of any Canadian city- the suburb in which this woman lives has to be crawling with RIM geeks, and everybody knows that /. is required reading for RIM geeks.
Activa will really have to make sure they're model environmental citizens- because now they're going to be watched constantly by geeks with digicams and the ability to google the law from anywhere. Not such a bright move on their part.