Poisoned Minds - Kids sprayed with pesticides at school

A school is sprayed for weeds while classes are in session and has to be evacuated after students and staff are treated by paramedics. Another school reports dozens suffering from the effects of ant killer, and one staff member describes the odor as being "like nothing he had experienced since tear gas in the military."

Subject:    [sickbuildings] Poisoned minds
Date:       Thu, 22 Jun 2000 08:47:42 -0400
From:        Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
          Senior Research Scientist
          State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation - Integrated Pest Management

Dear Lyndon, I thought you might like to read another article on the dangers of using your "registered" POISONS, it is located at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/423807.asp and is entitled: Poisoned minds - Is your kid's school being sprayed with pesticides? By Francesca Lyman - SPECIAL TO MSNBC.

June 21 - A school is sprayed for weeds while classes are in session and has to be evacuated after students and staff are treated by paramedics. Another school reports dozens suffering from the effects of ant killer, and one staff member describes the odor as being "like nothing he had experienced since tear gas in the military."

ORGANOPHOSPHATE pesticides like chlorpyrifos, recently banned by the Environmental Protection Agency, are routinely sprayed in the nation's 110,000 schools. Hundreds of kids and teachers have become sick, according to government reports and pesticide watchdog groups.

So federal lawmakers are beginning to demand better data on how and where children are being exposed - usually without parents' knowledge or consent. "There's growing concern and interest in the health risks of these chemicals in schools," says Becky Riley with the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP), based in Eugene, Ore.

"Unthinkable Risk," NCAP's April 2000 report on pesticide sprayings that were hazardous to human health, illegal or misapplied, cites one harrowing incident after another of children or teachers being severely injured in schools around the country.

Some 2,300 cases of pesticide poisoning have been reported in the nation's school districts, according to another study by the Government Accounting Office released last November.

Victims of school sprayings sometimes face legal battles after they've been poisoned. Christine Manfredi, a teacher and mother of four children, believes that she herself was poisoned by chemicals sprayed for ants and mold in a school in Mulkiteo, Wash. "Many of the staff noticed the awful smell after the school sprayed our classrooms with insecticide for flying ants, but they never associated this with their severe headaches and other problems," says Manfredi. But now, she charges, the school is refusing to accept liability for any medical problems. Hers, she says, include severe memory and neurological deficits, as well as thousands of dollars in doctors' bills.

School classrooms and playgrounds and lawns, like many public places, can become breeding grounds for problems maintenance crews view as "pests" -everything from weeds crawling under fences to molds and bacteria and even rodents. Strapped with tight budgets and staff constraints, schools "often go for the quick chemical fix, believing it be the easiest, cheapest solution," says Riley. "They've been sold by the TV commercials that so-called 'pests' have to be treated with 'pesticides,' when the final costs may not be so cheap." They use herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, carpet cleaning solvents, sterilants and a host of other chemicals (POISONS) , says Riley.

Pesticide manufactures and distributors have long argued that chemicals ("registered" POISONS) used in schools are safe, provided they're used properly according to labels and requirements set by the EPA. ("They" continue to say this even though it is against the federal law! How come no "regulator" stops "them"?) The industry argues that these chemicals are needed to protect students from be exposed to dangerous, disease-carrying pests, particularly with the latest rise of new infectious diseases like Lyme Disease, West Nile virus and asthma related to dust mites. But a growing number of advocacy groups argue that these chemicals should be reduced, saying that students frequently are exposed to unhealthy levels of pesticide residues in classrooms and on playgrounds.

"It's a pervasive problem," says Jay Feldman, director of the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, based in Washington, D.C., "and many more children are exposed than their parents would ever realize."

Organophosphates account for about half (by amount sold) of all insecticides used in the U.S. In addition to major crops such as cotton, corn, and wheat, they are used on many important minor crops. Some also are used for mosquito control to protect public health against diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and encephalitis.

The federal pesticide law (the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act) was written to limit unsafe pesticides and unsafe uses (not to restrict safe and far more effective alternatives), but critics like Feldman say the law often fails. Because there are no special precautions for safely applying pesticides in schools, says Feldman, this responsibility falls to the states, and state governments "aren't adequately protecting children from pesticides used in and around schools either."

For example, says Feldman, the standard that the EPA has principally used is "that school classrooms should only be treated when students are not present and that all treated surfaces should be dry before the students are allowed to return." But that is not a safety standard, he argues. He says pesticides that have dried on the surface of a desk, lunch table or play area, chair or couch contain residues that can enter the skin or be inhaled or ingested "well past the pesticide drying on the surface."

"The public is very trusting of pesticide applicators and regulatory agencies and figure that the only harm can come to the workers themselves not to the teacher and students," adds Cheryl Holt of the Washington Toxics Coalition in Seattle. "But harm can come unintentionally because the workers may not know enough about chemicals and how long they last in the environment, or because the scientific data is not there, because many ofthese chemicals haven't been adequately tested."

There are no credible statistics on the overall amount of pesticides used in the nation's schools nor how they might be affecting children in schools, according to the GAO, because record-keeping is not required.

In response, some legislators are asking for stronger federal action. Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) , Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) introduced legislation in January that would require schools to notify parents before pesticides are used and require schools to adopt pest-management plans that rely less on toxic chemicals. Lieberman also called on the EPA to better protect students from pesticide exposure.

But the EPA faces a long backlog of chemicals to study for their effects on children, both contained in food residues and non-dietary exposures under the Food Quality Protection Act.

"Of these," says Feldman, "the vast majority can cause debilitating and life threatening health effects: 21 can cause cancer, 27 can adversely affect reproduction, 31 are nervous system poisons, 31 can cause liver/kidney damage and 17 can cause birth defects."

Christine Manfredi, the teacher, believes the severe neurological problems she developed while working in the Explorer Middle School were due to Dursban and other chemicals sprayed in her poorly-ventilated classroom. But she can't prove that she and 15 others who she says suffered symptoms, were victims. And the school system, where she can no longer work, contests their case.

"There's been no correlation between the indoor air quality in the classrooms and the symptoms shown by the staff," says Dan Foster, directorof maintenance for the school system, who admits to using pesticides for ants. However, he adds, "we don't spray anymore."

Francesca Lyman is an environmental and travel journalist and editor of the American Museum of Natural History book, "Inside the Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest" (Workman, 1998).

Well Lyndon, "they" still are not even looking at all of your unregistered "inerts", metabolites, contaminants, synergistic health effects and/or at chronic health effects. Even "dry" pesticide POISONS can and do continue to volatilize for months and/or years! When the public finally understands why their child can not read and is now "special" - there really will be some class action lawsuits. I believe those people who knowingly allowed the POISONING of America should be held criminally responsible. What are you waiting for?

"People who wait for something to turn up might start with their own shirtsleeves."

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