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Mosquito ‘Danger Days’ Rising: Protect Your Family With EWG’s Bug Repellent Guide
By Carla Burns
Experts predict mosquito and tick bites and subsequent infections will continue to rise as warmer climates expand insect habitats and populations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that pest-borne diseases are "a large and growing public health problem in the United States." Cases of diseases from mosquito, tick and flea bites more than tripled in the U.S. from 2004 to 2016.
According to a new report by the nonprofit research group Climate Central, there is an increased risk of transmission of mosquito-borne diseases across many American cities. The report highlights that changing temperatures have resulted in an increase in the number of so-called mosquito disease danger days across more than 90 percent of the cities analyzed. Danger days have temperatures averaging between 61 and 93 degrees, the range required for mosquito-borne disease transmission.
Climate Central analyzed nearly 50 years of temperature data for 244 cities. Reno, Nevada, topped the list, with an increase of 52 mosquito disease danger days since 1970. San Francisco was second, with an increase of 47 danger days. The full list of cities is here.
As mosquito disease danger days continue to rise, it's important to protect yourself. The Environmental Working Group's (EWG) recently updated Guide to Bug Repellents can help you find the right product to protect yourself and your family.
No repellent works every place against every pest, so you should research the diseases that insects and ticks carry where you plan to spend time outside. The most effective repellent option for a hike in the woods with ticks may be different than the best repellent for a day at a beach with mosquitos.
Always choose an EPA-registered repellent at the concentration rated for the amount of time you'll be outdoors. You can find our recommended concentrations and timespans on the Top Repellent Choices page of our guide.
Whether you are in your backyard or on vacation, here are quick tips for avoiding bug bites:
- Wear pants, socks, and shirts to reduce amount of exposed skin. Tuck pants in socks to protect the ankles.
- Use repellent products in lotion, pump or towelette form.
- Use nets, screens, and/or fans over outdoor eating areas, and place nets over strollers and baby carriers.
- Don't use treated wristbands, repellent candles or clip-on repellent fans—they are not as effective at protecting you from bug bites.
- Don't use more than 30 percent DEET on anyone.
To learn more about our advice for avoiding bug bites, visit EWG's Healthy Living Tips.
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Carlo Ratti, Ida Auken
On the window of a bike shop in Copenhagen, a sign reads: Your next car is a bike.
By Carey Gillam
For the last five years, Chris Stevick has helped his wife Elaine in her battle against a vicious type of cancer that the couple believes was caused by Elaine's repeated use of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide around a California property the couple owned. Now the roles are reversed as Elaine must help Chris face his own cancer.
The last 50 years have been brutal for wildlife. Animals have lost their habitats and seen their numbers plummet. Now a new report from a British conservation group warns that habitat destruction and increased pesticide use has on a trajectory for an "insect apocalypse," which will have dire consequences for humans and all life on Earth, as The Guardian reported.
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By Jake Johnson
A Greenpeace report released Tuesday uses a hypothetical "Smart Supermarket" that has done away with environmentally damaging single-use plastics to outline a possible future in which the world's oceans and communities are free of bags, bottles, packaging and other harmful plastic pollutants.
By Irene Banos Ruiz
Pediatricians in New Delhi, India, say children's lungs are no longer pink, but black.
Our warming planet is already impacting the health of the world's children and will shape the future of an entire generation if we fail to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (35.6°F), the 2019 Lancet Countdown Report on health and climate change shows.
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The FBI is looking into how the state of Pennsylvania granted permits for a controversial natural gas pipeline as part of a corruption investigation, the AP reports.
Three cows who were washed off their North Carolina island by Hurricane Dorian have been found alive after swimming at least two miles, The New York Times reported Wednesday.