I have lovely childhood memories of waking up on weekends to the sound of lawn mowers. Just the thought conjures up smells of freshly cut grass and summer weather. In Singapore, I am awoken almost daily to a similar sound, but it is not a lawn mower, as I first thought. Instead, it is a hand-held device that blows a thick, fog-like mist two stories high, enveloping everything in its path – from palm trees to our second story apartment.
The purpose of this deadly vapor is to kill mosquitos and other tropical pests. Most building complexes, parks, and hotels here undergo “fogging” once a week. For example, our own compound “fogs” each Tuesday at 10:00. Curiously, no one talks about this weekly event, unless one is caught in it. A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting outside with a some women when all of the sudden one cried out, “They‘re starting to fog!” We scattered like cockroaches.
While today Singapore does not have a problem with Malaria, mosquito-borne Dengue Fever is serious enough to warrant its own government-sponsored web site (http://www.dengue.gov.sg/ ). There is no medicine to treat this serious disease, sometimes called “bone breaking fever” because when you have it, the pain is akin to having your bones broken. In short, you don’t want to get it. Perhaps this is why you probably won’t see any “Save the Mosquito” signs around town anytime soon. Still, I wonder what impact this weekly fogging has on our health. It certainly can’t be good.
See other travel photos at Delicious Baby.