In May of this year, a grower applied a fumigant, metam sodium, to a  carrot field surrounding Cuyama Elementary School in northern SB  County.  Metam sodium is a Proposition 65 chemical, known to the state of California to cause cancer and reproductive harm.
Although the application took place over the weekend, both children and staff began exhibiting symptoms of pesticide exposure upon returning to school.

Subject:   PESTICIDE POISONS ARE HAZARDOUS---------
Date:     Sat, 09 Oct 1999 12:18:35 -0400
From:     Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To:     Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
 

Lyndon, I thought you might like to see how just one of your "registered" poisons is affecting the People of California:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1999 10:11:02 -0700
From: EDC <edc@rain.org>
Reply-To: CHECNET-FORUM <CHECNET-FORUM@checnet.org>
To: CHECNET-FORUM@checnet.org
Subject: [CHECNET] schools & pesticides

My name is Eric Cardenas and I work with a non-profit environmental  organization in Santa Barbara, Ca., the Environmental Defense Center  (EDC).  Recently, an incident occurred in our county which highlights the hazards posed by pesticides, especially when used in close proximity  to schools.

In May of this year, a grower applied a fumigant, metam sodium, to a  carrot field surrounding Cuyama Elementary School in northern SB County.  Metam sodium is a Proposition 65 chemical, known to the state of California to cause cancer and reproductive harm.

Although the application took place over the weekend, both children and staff began exhibiting symptoms of pesticide exposure upon returning to school.  By Wednesday, 17 children and 5 staff members had complained of  symptoms commonly associated with exposure to metam sodium.  These  included headaches, nausea, teary and itch eyes, trouble breathing, and  fainting.   On Wednesday afternoon, the school was evacuated at  the direction of the Fire Dept. and the County's Agricultural Commissioner.

Upon investigation, serious issues have been raised about how this case was handled by the various agencies involved.  First, the Agricultural Commissioner was not notified of the incident until Wednesday, even though both the Fire and Sheriff's Depts. had received calls from the public complaining of a strange odor on Monday and Tuesday.

Second, the school apparently lacked an emergency evacuation plan for  this type of incident.  Although the children and staff exhibited  symptoms of exposure, the school failed to realize that pesticide may be the cause.  When pesticides were finally determined to be the cause of the illnesses, the children were sent home with notes saying that the  children were being evacuated for their own safety, yet made no  mention that pesticides may be the cause.  Additionally, the note was sent home in English, even though a majority of the parents are monolingual Spanish speaking.

Lastly, although an interim one mile buffer zone was implemented around metam sodium applications near occupied structures during the Agricultural Commissioner's investigation, the grower violated this order, again applying metam sodium within .8 miles of the school.  This proves that although California may have strict regulations, they  are not always followed nor enforced.  Though this interim one mile buffer has now become a county regulation for this type of application, it does NOT apply to workers who may be in an adjacent field at the time of an application.

We are currently working on establishing emergency evacuation plans for schools for these types of incidents, though few, if any schools seem to have these in place.   Additionally, we are working through the county in an attempt to improve the communication between various county agencies in responding to these events.  If anyone has comments, questions, or ideas, please call the EDC at (805) 963-1622 or
email edceric@rain.org
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Eric A. Cardenas
Community Organizer
Environmental Defense Center
edceric@rain.org
(805)963-1622 ph.
(805)962-3152
www.rain.org/~edc

"Wilderness need no new defense,  Only new defenders." EA

Well Lyndon, you would not be having any more of these health problems or the "need" to have emergency evacuation plans if you would only ("legally") allow safe (and more effective) alternatives to your "registered" poisons.  Haven't enough people died and/or become ill?  What do you think?

Respectfully,  Stephen L. Tvedten.
 
 
 

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