By Jay Syrmopoulos
<p><img src="https://thefreethoughtproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/gmo-mosquito-696x366.jpg" width="696" height="366"/></p>
<p>Washington, D.C. — An environmental activist, Milagra de Mier, known &nbsp;as Mila, who had traveled from Key-West, Florida to Washington D.C. to &nbsp;drop off an anti-GMO mosquito petition with nearly 200,000 signatures to &nbsp;the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drug &nbsp;Administration (FDA), was found dead in her hotel pool on Tuesday &nbsp;morning. Authorities arrived at the Cambria Hotel &amp; Suites &nbsp;Washington, D.C. Convention Center on Tuesday morning after&nbsp;a witness &nbsp;found an unconscious&nbsp;woman floating face down inside the rooftop pool &nbsp;and called 911, according to Fox 5. According to the <a href="https://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/drowning-reported-at-dc-convention-center-pool">report</a> by Fox 5 News:&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote><em>Authorities said they&nbsp;were called to&nbsp;the Cambria &nbsp;Hotel &amp; Suites Washington, D.C. Convention Center in the&nbsp;890&nbsp;block &nbsp;of O Street, NW at about 9:40 a.m.</em> <em>According to a police report, a witness found an unconscious&nbsp;woman floating inside the rooftop pool and called 911.</em> <em>When emergency crews responded to the scene they found the woman &nbsp;facedown and attempted to revive her but she was&nbsp;pronounced&nbsp;dead at the &nbsp;scene.</em> <em>Authorities later identified the woman as 45-year-old Milagro Demier&nbsp;of Key West, Florida.</em> <em>Detectives said a death investigation&nbsp;was underway to determine &nbsp;the circumstances surrounding the drowning. No other details were &nbsp;immediately available.</em></blockquote>
<p>In addition to petitioning the EPA and FDA, de Meir was in D.C. to &nbsp;raise awareness surrounding a controversial plan by a UK biotech &nbsp;company, Oxitec, to release 50 million genetically-modified mosquitoes &nbsp;per week in Texas and Florida ecosystem. Mila’s <a href="https://www.change.org/p/tell-the-epa-no-to-gmo-mosquitoes">petition</a> on Change.org states:&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote><em>Right now, a British company named Oxitec is planning &nbsp;to release genetically modified mosquitoes into the fragile enviroment &nbsp;of the Florida Keys and Texas. The company wants to use the Florida Keys &nbsp;and Texas as a testing ground for these mutant bugs. Even though the &nbsp;local community in the Florida Keys has spoken — we even passed an &nbsp;ordinance demanding more testing — First,&nbsp;Oxitec is trying to use a &nbsp;loophole by applying to the FDA for an “animal bug” patent. Now, the hot &nbsp;potato has passed to the EPA and Oxitec is at it again. This profit &nbsp;driven biotech company wants to release more than 50 million GMO &nbsp;mosquitoes per week into Florida and Texas. These GMO mosquitoes could &nbsp;pose major risks to fragile ecosystems like the Florida Key&nbsp;and Texas &nbsp;and may pose risks to public health and safety. &nbsp; &nbsp;</em></blockquote>
<p>Additionally, de Meir’s petition points out that the experimental &nbsp;nature releasing genetically-modified mosquitos into a live ecosystem, &nbsp;noting:&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote><em>GMO Mosquitoes are created with E-Coli bacteria, &nbsp;herpes-simplex virus and other ingredients. This is very premature &nbsp;technology with very little information, a lot of questions need to be &nbsp;answer[ed].&nbsp;</em><em><strong>The Center for Disease Control notes that Oxitec’s trials are not set up to test for disease reduction</strong></em><em>. &nbsp;If the experiments goes forward, there would still be enough non-GMO &nbsp;mosquitoes in the environment, including in peoples’ homes and &nbsp;backyards, to spread disease.</em></blockquote>
<p>Oxitec claims it is simply <a href="https://projects.jsonline.com/news/2017/10/5/mosquito-battle-gets-political.html">working with local mosquito control</a>, but rather than traditional spraying, they are using a genetically-modified strain of&nbsp;<em>Aedes aegypti</em>, &nbsp;officially known as OX513A, which is engineered to have two genes &nbsp;inserted into its DNA: one makes the insects glow, the other makes them &nbsp;self-destruct. The fluorescent gene verifies that the gene modification was &nbsp;successful and helps researchers track them in the wild. The lethal gene &nbsp;then kills the mosquito in two to three days, which allows enough time &nbsp;for a male to mate and spread the genes to its offspring, killing the &nbsp;larvae before they can fully develop. The problem is law of unintended consequences, as de Meir’s petition presciently warns:&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote><em>Nearly all experiments with genetically-modified &nbsp;crops have eventually resulted in unintended consequences: superweeds &nbsp;more resistant to herbicides, mutated and resistant insects also &nbsp;collateral damage to ecosystems…</em> <em>Are there any studies being conducted to see if these mosquitoes &nbsp;will harm the native bat population? Why would we not expect GM &nbsp;(genetically modified) insects, especially those that bite humans, to &nbsp;have similar unintended negative consequences? Will the more virulent &nbsp;Asian tiger mosquito that also carries dengue fill the void left by &nbsp;reductions in A. aegypti? Will the dengue virus mutate (think antibiotic &nbsp;resistant MRSA) and become even more dangerous? There are more &nbsp;questions than answers and we need more testing to be done. Will the &nbsp;public be able to stop this program from happening if we don’t want it? &nbsp;We were told that “public opinion would be taken into account.” Dengue &nbsp;fever has been absent from the Florida Keys for years, which indicates &nbsp;the current methods of control and public education are working. What’s &nbsp;the rush for this radical approach? Where is the third-party, &nbsp;peer-reviewed research on effectiveness and safety of GM mosquitoes &nbsp;other than Oxitec’s own claims of success?</em></blockquote>
<p>Furthermore, as GeneWatch <a href="https://www.genewatch.org/article.shtml?als[cid]=576198&amp;als[itemid]=576847">explained</a>, one of the major concerns about Oxitec’s GM&nbsp;<em>Aedes aegypti&nbsp;</em>mosquito is that if natural populations of&nbsp;<em>A. aegypti</em>&nbsp;are reduced, a competing mosquito species can then take their place. In the Florida Keys, the biggest threat is&nbsp;<em>Aedes albopictus</em>, another invasive species that feasts on human blood. The key here is that the new dominant mosquito will likely be much more difficult to control with traditional pesticides than&nbsp;<em>A. aegypti,&nbsp;</em>thus &nbsp;forcing communities to be continuously dependent on Oxitec to produce &nbsp;new streams of GM animals – a rather ingenious business model. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Mila’s website, <a href="https://neveragainkw.wordpress.com/2016/09/30/gmo-mosquitoes-cause-increase-in-competing-disease-carrying-species-oxitec-offers-2nd-gmo-mosquito-fix/">Never Again</a>, &nbsp;founded in the wake of the 2010 BP accident, explained that Oxitec’s &nbsp;applications to the Caymen court noted the company’s intent to sell a &nbsp;second “animal drug” to fix problems created by the initial release: <em>Oxitec’s application to the Cayman court makes it clear that the &nbsp;company intended all along to design and release&nbsp;Asian Tiger mosquitoes &nbsp;as well as&nbsp;aegypti. It refers to both species throughout, stating from &nbsp;the outset that the company intends to sell a second “</em><a href="https://neveragainkw.wordpress.com/2016/09/07/oxitec-avoids-human-drug-trials-makes-no-claim-of-zika-reduction/"><em>animal drug</em></a><em>” to fix the ongoing problems created by the first.</em> The final tweets by de Meir indicated she was hopeful EPA head Scott Pruitt would grant an extension for public comment. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>https://twitter.com/MiladeMier/status/983400731767201793</p>
<p>Her final tweet on April 9, indicated she was eagerly awaiting a call back. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>https://twitter.com/MiladeMier/status/983420083195252737</p>
<p>The tenacity of de Meir to rally people around this important and &nbsp;under-reported cause made her a formidable nemesis to the GMO biotech &nbsp;industry in Florida and beyond, and while there is no evidence at this &nbsp;time to suggest her activism played a part in her death, the facts &nbsp;surrounding her mission against genetically-modified mosquitos most &nbsp;certainly warrant a deeper investigation into her untimely death to &nbsp;ascertain if there are any connections.&nbsp;</p>
<p>When asked whether de Meir’s death was being investigated as a &nbsp;homicide, D.C. Metropolitan Police refused comment, telling The Free &nbsp;Thought Project, “It’s still under investigation at this time, and we &nbsp;have no further comment until that investigation is completed.”&nbsp;</p>
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