Risk Assessment

My evaluation of the risk of Malathion based on my outline of the four steps of risk assessment is that using it can cause 90 cases of related illnesses.   Out of the 90 cases four of them may be fatal.   So not only will there be 90 case related illnesses causing normally healthy people to become sick, four of these illnesses may cause them to lose their lives.   Anyone who would be exposed to the pesticide applications may become sick and or die.   The main time that the pesticide will be used will be in the summer, after rainfall, or anytime large numbers of mosquitoes are present.   This can be extremely dangerous for children since summer is a time of the year when they are outside playing more often and school is out.   The only time people would be exposed to the pesticide occurs when an application is originally sprayed or ends up on any grown foods.   The poor or uneducated have a higher risk of exposure because they may not follow the safety precautions from the Malathion application program.   For example, the uninformed residents could be outside during spraying or eat matter that has been exposed to the pesticide.   They may also handle food that may have been sprayed.   This also includes any children whom might be outside without any adult supervision.     Using this application can kill the natural predators that kill of mosquitoes and damage the ecosystem that the tourists like.   This can mean the loss of visitors that come into town specifically for that reason only.   When the town loses its tourists, the profits gained from them will be gone as well.   Since there is no evidence that using Malathion will not cause any long-term risks to the environment. This is concerning to me because I am a firm believer that we should not attempt to do anything that could possibly harm the environment.   Since we do not have any information about the long-terms risks to the environment I do not think Malathion should be used.   The risk of this damaging the environment,...