The lawsuit charges violations of the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the State Environmental Quality Review Act and the City Environmental Quality Review regulations. Our neighborhoods have a very high number of both, particularly among people of color. Due to pressure from anti-pesticide activists, the city has been forced to stop future use of malathion, but intends to spray Staten Island with sumithrin. Sumithrin and resmithrin, another pesticide used by the city, are pyrethroids. Inhaling pyrethroid insecticides can cause coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, runny or stuffy nose, chest pain, or difficulty breathing.
Skin contact can cause a rash, itching, or blisters.
Without having studied the environmental impacts and without having set up provisions for enabling people to report medical problems, the city government began a massive aerial and ground pesticide-spray program last September and has not ruled out a resumption of that program for this year. Counsel in the case are Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic and New York Environmental Law and Justice Project. Defendants named in the suit include the City of New York, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the Department of Health of the City of New York, City Health Commissioner Neal Cohen, the Office of Emergency Management of the City of New York and former OEM Commissioner Jerome Hauer.