MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Protesters gathered Wednesday morning inside and outside Miami Beach City Hall to express their concerns about the chemical being used in aerial mosquito spraying efforts to eradicate the Zika virus.
Wednesday's city commission meeting was so packed that some protesters had to sit outside and watch the meeting on TV screens.
The protests stem from Miami-Dade County's use of Naled in its efforts to fight the mosquito-borne virus.
"We would like a two-week halt on the situation," protester Michael Capponi said. "Two weeks, they stop the spraying of Naled, we go hardcore on all of the other alternatives, and we count the mosquitoes in two weeks. If the mosquito count went up, then we can have a debate about Naled."
Some of the protesters wore gas masks, driving home their argument that Naled is more dangerous than the Zika virus.
"I think rushing hastily into using a toxin like Naled in our environment needs to be very carefully thought out and measured," Dr. Michael Hall said.
The group protested outside before the meeting, and some were able to go inside the commission meeting. Their goal is to show their concern and offer alternatives, like a Larasan Pharmaceutical product called Bug Juice.
"It can be put into water. It can be put on your skin that can be rubbed in," Rick Nash said. "You can drink this product and it will not hurt you."
The meeting was tense, at times sounding more like a sporting event than a city commission meeting.
"If poison falls from the sky, guess what? It's not just falling on you. It's falling on me, too," Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez told the protesters in attendance.
Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco has publicly criticized the use of the chemical in the county's aerial spraying. He has proposed a resolution to ban the use of Naled in aerial spraying in Miami Beach.
"I now ask my colleagues to help me stop this," Grieco said.
His colleagues didn't. In fact, the resolution didn't even go to a vote, sparking arguments.
"Somebody has to be the grown up here, and I don't think it's commissioner Grieco," Rosen Gonzalez said.