Health Canada has ordered the City of Winnipeg to stop using it’s current supply of Malathion in mosquito fogging operations because it is past its expiry date… by years.
Health Canada has ruled that the chemical can only be stored for one year after the manufacturing date.
Winnipeg’s supply dates back to as early as 2003 and it was from that batch that the city was sprayed this past June.
The city says the change was made in 2014 and Health Canada provided them with some new regulations in August of 2014. “We were unaware of the change in the new label (regulations) that was affixed to our product,” said Ken Nawolsky with the city’s Insect Control Branch.
The city says that they are unable to get a new inventory of Malathion so all fogging operations in the city will stop at least until next summer. They are hoping to get approval to start using a new chemical, DeltaGuard, to fog but such approvals can take up to two years.
The one caveat is that if there is a health emergency in the form of a West Nile outbreak the city will be allowed to use expired stock piles if the chemicals are tested to ensure they have not degraded.
-News4 Winnipeg –
UPDATE:
Late Friday Health Canada reversed its earlier decision and will now allow the use of outdated malathion for fogging nuisance mosquitos if the city has the stockpiles tested and the chemical has not degraded below set standards.
