Eco Hvar

Insect spraying: the campaign

Because we at Eco Hvar are very concerned about the shortcomings of the mosquito liquidation programme on Hvar and around Croatia, we have petitioned the Minister for Health to re-consider the methods used.

Insect spraying: the campaign
The Minister for Health is responsible for the Regulations governing the prevention of infectious diseases in Croatia. Control of supposedly dangerous insects and animals such as rodents is compulsory. Every local authority is obliged to carry out appropriate measures. The methods of control are a matter for the discretion of the local authorities. Having observed the situation for several years, we at Eco Hvar have concluded that the current methods used on Hvar and in many other areas of Croatia are faulty, ineffective, and potentially dangerous in ways that are not being recognized by those responsible for the programme. You can read the original text in Croatian and the responses to the campaign from the Minister and others here.
 
This is the English translation of our letter to Minister Kujundžić, which was accompanied by a statement detailing our causes for concern backed by scientific and official reference sources supporting our assertions:
 
"Pitve, 23.08.2017.
prof.dr.sc.Milan Kujundžić, dr.med.primarius, FEBGH, Minister of Health,
Ministarstvo zdravstva
Trg Svetog Marka 2
10000 Zagreb, Hrvatska

Dear Sir,

Re: Insect spraying

Our Charity Eco Hvar has for some years been observing the practice of insect spraying, which is a legal requirement.

One question which arises is whether it is really necessary to eliminate insects in order to prevent illnesses such as Dengue and West Nile Fever, when these illnesses are extremely rare in Dalmatia.

Furthermore, we have been gathering details of the insect suppression programme over these years, as much as we can, and we are of the opinion that this requirement is being carried out in an way which is neither fitting nor transparent, whether on Hvar or in other parts of Croatia. The method used is inappropriate for people, the environment, animals, and beneficial insects (eg bees). This applies particularly to the substances which are being used by the firms authorized to carry out insect suppression.

Attached are the conclusions which we have come to, together with some of our reference sources.

We are sending this letter and the attachments not only to the institutions listed, but also to the wider public domain, through the channels for public information and the civil society associations.

Yours faithfully,

Vivian Grisogono MA(Oxon)

President, Eco Hvar

This letter and the attachments are sent in both written and electronic forms

c.c.
- Minister Dr.sc.Tomislav Ćorić, Ministry for the Protection of the Environment and Energy
- Minister Tomislav Tolušić, Ministry of Agriculture.
- Mr. sc. Jasna Ninčević, dr. med., spec. epidemiologije, Director, Public Health Institution for the Split-Dalmatia County
- Croatian Public Health Institution, Department for Ecological Health
- Dr.sc.Ivana Gudelj, Director of the State Institution for Environmental Protection
- Blaženko Boban, Prefect for the Split-Dalmatia County
- Mayors of Hvar Island"

The reply from the Minister is on the Croatian page, together with a reply from the Minsitry of Agriculture and initial correspondence with the Split-Dalmatian Institute for Public Health: http://www.eco-hvar.com/hr/opasni-otrovi/236-dezinsekcija-kampanja-za-promjenu

There was no evidence of willingness to take our complaints and observations seriously.

 
 
back to top
You are here: Home poisons be aware Insect spraying: the campaign

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Bycatch has ‘shocking’ toll on British marine life, first-ever analysis reveals

    Conservationists say cherished creatures such as whales, dolphins and seabirds are being killed in large numbers by fishing tackle

    Thousands of Britain’s most charismatic and protected marine wildlife, including whales, porpoises, dolphins, seals and seabirds are being killed as “collateral damage” by fishing vessels every year, according to the first-ever analysis of bycatch data.

    The analysis, by the Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of voluntary conservation groups, reveals the devastating toll bycatch, the accidental capture and killing of non-target species by fishing vessels, is having on marine species.

    Continue reading...

  • Toby Carvery to fund orchard replanting as settlement for felling ancient oak

    Enfield council in north London took legal action against restaurant chain after outrage over damage to tree

    The UK restaurant chain Toby Carvery has settled a legal dispute over taking a chainsaw to an ancient oak tree without permission, by agreeing to pay to restore a lost orchard.

    The unauthorised partial felling of the 500-year-old oak next to a Toby Carvery car park in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, north London, in April last year, prompted widespread public outrage and questions in parliament.

    Continue reading...

  • Pollinators in peril: scientists reveal the hidden human health costs of the world’s disappearing bees

    Crops and flowers rely on them for survival, but wild bees are declining – and crucial nutrients will go missing from our diets as a result

    There are few ways in and out of Nepal’s Jumla district. The Karnali highway, considered one of the world’s most dangerous roads, provides the only land link, splicing through the Himalayas to connect Jumla’s terraced valleys to the rest of the country. As such, the 120,000 people that live there are almost entirely self-sufficient, with most of them eating and selling what they grow.

    It’s a tenuous existence, plagued by food insecurity and malnutrition. In recent years, local beekeepers have bemoaned languishing hives and dwindling honey production, observing that roughly half of their bees seem to have vanished over the past decade. These concerns, however, ignore an even more insidious impact.

    Continue reading...

  • Deepest and most extensive whale graveyard discovered in Indian Ocean

    Some remains found in Diamantina fracture zone date back more than 5m years and reveal species and ecosystems unknown to science

    The oldest, deepest and most extensive whale graveyard yet discovered has been found in the south-eastern Indian Ocean, with fossils dating back more than 5m years.

    Whale falls – the term for dead whales that sink to the ocean floor – are not uncommon, but most have been found at depths of less than 4km (2.5 miles). By contrast, the newly discovered necropolis reaches depths of more than 7km, and extends hundreds of miles across the sea floor.

    Continue reading...

  • The rightwing campaign to control how US judges view the climate crisis

    US energy secretary Chris Wright featured in seminars to judges when he was a fracking executive

    As cities and states sue big oil for billions in damages over allegations that it covered up the dangers of its products, rightwing organizations are attempting to discredit the wave of litigation. They claim the lawyers behind it are teaming up with an environmentally focused legal education non-profit to bias federal judges against oil companies.

    But it is actually fossil fuel-backed organizations that are attempting to sway the judiciary in their favor, one of those law firms is countering. Evidence of this includes judicial seminars hosted by one such group featuring pro-industry speakers such as the current energy secretary, Chris Wright, in his former occupation as a fracking executive.

    Continue reading...

  • Super-rich’s assets cause outsized amount of climate harm, study says

    Greenpeace calculates that wealthiest contribute nearly $1tn of damage a year with ownership-based emissions

    Ultra-wealthy people zooming across the world on their private jets, lounging on yachts and conspicuous by their Instagrammable consumption are among the most easily identified individual culprits when it comes to the climate crisis – but new research argues that it is not just their heady lifestyles to blame, but also their bank accounts.

    Through their ownership of companies and private financial and physical assets, from oil producers to property developments, the super-rich are responsible for an outsized slice of the greenhouse gases that are overheating the planet. The top 1% of people by wealth, through their shareholdings and investments, control about a quarter of global annual emissions in total.

    Continue reading...

  • More than half of clean energy schemes needed for Labour’s 2030 target offered grid connection

    The 700 projects include wind and solar farms, battery storage, gas and hydro plans

    More than half the renewable energy projects needed to meet the government’s clean power targets by 2030 are now able to plug into the electricity grid after years of delay, according to the system operator.

    The National Energy System Operator (Neso) has offered more than 700 clean energy projects in Great Britain a grid connection date since the start of the year, after a two-year process to unblock a bottleneck that threatened to delay projects into the 2030s.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Every day it’s more barriers’: how the US is shutting out climate refugees

    As the US shuts its doors to most refugees, there’s little hope of a new system to help those forced from home by climate impacts

    Millions of people around the world are having their lives upended by floods, storms and heatwaves worsened by the climate crisis. Those forced to flee their home countries, however, are finding that the door to the US is more firmly shut than ever.

    Neither US nor international law recognizes environmental hazards, such as climate-related displacement, as a valid cause to claim asylum or gain entry through other migration pathways, despite the mounting toll of disasters caused by an overheating planet.

    Continue reading...

  • This LA neighborhood is choked by smog. The solution: a network of sensors on offices, homes and bags

    Pacoima is hemmed in by highways and heavy industry, and its residents are fighting pollution with hyperlocal air quality monitoring

    Jose Luis Salas looks up at the ladder. “Are you ready?” he asks Shance Taylor, an environmental project manager who’s holding a white container, about the size of a shoebox, covered with wires and numbers.

    Taylor nods and climbs up to reach the side of Salas’s tidy house in Pacoima, a neighborhood in Los Angeles’s north-east San Fernando valley. The curious box in their hands is known as Aeroqual sensor – part of a community air-quality monitoring program run by Pacoima Beautiful, a local environmental group.

    Continue reading...

  • The Galápagos is a wildlife haven. But is that enough to protect the rare scalloped hammerhead shark?

    The species is abundant within the protected archipelago but when they migrate outside the marine reserve to give birth they run the gauntlet of industrial fishing

    The unmistakable fluted T-shape of a scalloped hammerhead shark slides by, followed by a diver holding his breath and a metal spear like an extra-long snooker cue. The spear hits the fish behind its dorsal fin and the 2-metre shark darts away, disgruntled but otherwise unharmed.

    Carlos Robalino, a marine biologist from the Galápagos Islands, trained as a shark researcher in Mexico but is now back home and working as a junior researcher at the Charles Darwin Foundation. When we meet in March, he is one of the divers on the foundation’s research expedition to Darwin and Wolf, the most northerly islands in the Galápagos marine reserve.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.