The Hindu 06.11.2009
Hi-tech fogging machine to check contagious diseases
Staff Reporter
DINDIGUL: To combat chickengunya, dengue, brain fever and other communicable diseases and to kill mosquitoes, The Department of Health Services has imported a fogging machine from the US for spraying chemicals in the air in urban and rural areas.
Launching the machine here on Thursday, Collector M. Vallalar said the dyna-fog, a truck mounted thermal fogging machine, was suitable to treat large areas. The total cost of the equipment was Rs.12 lakh, including the machine cost of Rs.8.5 lakh and the vehicle cost of Rs.3.5 lakh. It has twin resonant pulse jet engines to give greater output of chemicals. Fog sprayed from the machine would go up to a height of 30 feet to kill mosquitoes. Droplets of 10-20 microns in the fog were the most efficient droplet size for controlling adult mosquitoes.
Effective fogging would kill all adult female mosquitoes as those only bite human beings. Fogging should be done either in the early morning or late in the evening because these mosquitoes were very active during these periods. It would be more effective when the wind conditions were calm and the temperatures were neither extremely hot nor cold, he added.
Deputy Director of Health Services A. Jagadeesh Kumar said that 114 litres of diesel, six litres of pyrethrum and 10 litres of petrol would be blended to generate fog to kill mosquitoes in an area that has a population of 12,000. The cost of fogging for an hour would be Rs.8,432.
To begin with, town panchayat and municipalities in the district would be covered. Later, it would be used in panchayats. This machine was supplied to nine out of 40 zones in the State.
