It looks like all my trouble of living a clean life (such as not smoking) is for naught. Because, lately I’ve been relying on these mosquito coils. They smell horrible, make me dizzy, and sting my eyes. But I don’t really have that much of an alternative. I’m running out of my spray-on-yourself mosquito repellent that I brought with me from Canada. I also don’t like what that spray-on repellent does to my computer – so I’m trying to avoid using it.
These coils claim to not just get rid of mosquitoes – but also kill them. I can tell you now – that’s absolutely false. There are actually a couple of mosquitoes swarming around me right now as I type this – yet I’m close enough to the coil that I almost have tears in my eyes. What the coils do is the same thing that spray-on repellents do – they create a smell that confuses and irritates the mosquitoes. It makes it hard for them to track the carbon monoxide (or is it dioxide?) from my breath that mosquitoes use to locate people to bite.
I had a feeling that something that is so horrible to use can’t be good for my health. Turns out I was right. A joint study conducted by Rutgers, University of Pittsburgh, and the National University of Malaysia found that these Asian-made coils are worse than smoking over 75 cigarettes. They also have tons of known and suspected carcinogens. So they don’t kill mosquitoes… but they might kill me…. eventually…. with cancer…. of the lungs. I suddenly realize why I can buy a pack of ten of these things for fifty cents…. and why I shouldn’t have stocked up on this.
In reality, the really proven and effectively safe protection against mosquitoes is an insecticide treated bed net. Just like the one donated for me for me to sleep in by Vestergaard Frandsen. That’s a PermaNet you see in the background of that photo. Unlike the smelly, cancer-causing coil I’m using – PermaNets actually (safely) kill mosquitoes. But, that’s really only useful when I’m in bed. If I want to work at my desk late night – I gotta find another means of protecting myself. I was hoping the coils would work… or not cause cancer. Looks like I’m disappointed on both counts.
