Google is seeking federal approval for a new program called “Debug” that would release up to 32 million mosquitoes in California and Florida to combat disease-carrying mosquitoes already found in the wild.
Pitched as a program to “stop bad mosquitoes by raising and releasing good ones,” Google’s Debug brings together a group of scientists and engineers to create technology to breed and release sterile mosquitoes to try to eliminate the ones that transmit diseases to animals and humans.
The Federal Register noted on May 1 that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reviewing Google’s request for an experimental permit under section 5 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. Public comment on the permit request must be received by June 5….