Another Needless Victim Pleads for Mercy

"I accept partial responsibility for my illness due to my employment and life ignorance," she said, "but I will not take responsibility for being poisoned by pesticides in our own home and on our own property. "

Brown said she believes a highly toxic pesticide known by the brand names Guthion or Sniper 2-E has been sprayed every year since at least 1992 near her farm.
 

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[ Pesticide Poisoning and Kids ] * [ Symptoms of Pesticide Poisoning ]
[ MEMORIAL TO VICTIMS ]

Subject:      Another Needless Victim Pleads for Mercy------------
 Date:          Mon, 20 Dec 1999 07:43:06 -0500
From:         Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

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

 
Dear Lyndon, I thought you might like to read another story from the BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE) - December 9, 1999, and a reply on how your "registered" POISONS are harming innocent people: http://www.bangornews.com/

Family pleads for curb on pesticides - Blueberry growers back farm in Hope -By Tom Groening Of the NEWS Staff

  UNION -- Twelve-year-old Codey Brown never set foot in the basement of the Union town office Wednesday, but her story visibly moved some of the 200 people at a hearing there of the state Board of Pesticides Control.

A board member wiped away tears after hearing Codey's sister describe what she said was a life of pain and isolation that Codey faces daily.

Codey suffers from chemical sensitivity brought on, her physician and family say, by exposure to insecticides and herbicides sprayed by a neighboring blueberry farm.  The condition is so bad that Codey can't attend Hope Elementary School for fear of having violent reactions to chemicals in perfumes, soaps, detergents and carpeting.

Codey and her father, Bruce Brown, her mother, Debbie Brown, and her sister Haley say they have all been devastated by the effects of the spraying.  The family has petitioned the Board of Pesticides Control for a rule that would prohibit blueberry farmer Tim Crabtree and his father, Everette Crabtree, from using pesticides within a half-mile of the Browns' home.

If granted, the ban would be the first "critical pesticide control area" designated for a homeowner in Maine.

Tim Crabtree and his supporters argued that any symptoms the Browns suffer are coincidental to the spraying and that unless a definite medical connection could be proved, the board could not prevent the farmer from legally applying pesticides.

Close to half of those in attendance Wednesday appeared to support Crabtree. Many wore buttons distributed at the door that read, "I Support Maine Farmers. " When people supporting the Crabtrees had their turn at the microphone, they explained that if a ban on pesticides could be adopted in a 1-square-mile area of Hope, it could be adopted anywhere in Maine, thereby threatening the livelihood of farmers.

Reading from a prepared statement, Debbie Brown described her family's life on Crabtree Road in Hope for the past 8 1/2 years.

Both she and her husband operated a small, homestead-type farm, raising ducks and chickens, and growing strawberries, raspberries and fruit trees.

Brown said she was first exposed to chemicals in a job at a local manufacturing company with improper ventilation.  In 1992, she said, she became so ill she had to leave work.

"I accept partial responsibility for my illness due to my employment and life ignorance," she said, "but I will not take responsibility for being poisoned by pesticides in our own home and on our own property. "

Brown said she believes a highly toxic pesticide known by the brand names Guthion or Sniper 2-E has been sprayed every year since at least 1992 near her farm.

"During our first years, Bruce and Codey were just outside our home when a helicopter flew directly over them, still releasing visible spray," she said.  "Codey vomited the next morning.  In May of 1994, after an aerial spraying, both of our children were very ill with vomiting and diarrhea. "  In July 1998, Brown said, her husband had a reaction from the apparent drift of Sniper 2-E sprayed by a helicopter, she testified.  Debbie and the two girls were inside sleeping.  Bruce closed the windows, "but it was too late.  The stench had permeated our home. " Codey was ill for days, and the chemical sensitivity became pronounced, her mother said.

"Codey's life now includes many doctors' visits and a constant vigilance of avoidance.  At a time when she should be blossoming socially, her experiences have been ripped away," Debbie said.

"Since the July 1998 spraying, Codey has been plagued with excruciating and debilitating headaches.  Her physical pain has been so intense and repeated that after one particularly bad spell, she looked at me and told me she knows why they are called 'suicide headaches. ' She has visible tremoring and has had to be carried on many occasions to the bathroom, as her legs will not support her. "

Trips to stores or something as simple as a new phone book coming into the house bring on severe symptoms, Brown said.  "Even a much-needed hug can make her ill for days," due to reactions to chemicals in clothing or perfumes and laundry soaps.

Haley, Codey's older sister, told the board what she said it was like to worry about bringing schoolbooks home, "in fear that it will set her off. " Haley, with her father's arm around her, described reading to her sister as she lay in bed, crying from headache pain.

Crabtree told the board that pesticides are "useful, necessary chemicals. " He also disputed the Browns' depiction of their home as being surrounded by blueberry fields.  He said there are no fields to the west or east.

Farmers must use pesticides "or we lose our crop -- it's that simple," Crabtree said.  His relatives live on the same road, and he would do nothing that would endanger their health, he said.

Linda Nash, whose family grows blueberries on 1,000 acres in four counties, told the board, "I am confident that what we are doing is safe. " She said her children help out on her farm, and she doesn't believe they are in danger from pesticides.  If the rule is granted, other requests would follow, she said, and "it would greatly reduce our yields.  It would greatly reduce our income. "

John Olson, executive secretary of the Maine Farm Bureau, said the board should reject the petition for the ban unless there is absolute medical proof the pesticides caused Codey's illness.

"What concerns me most is the potential precedent-setting nature of the board's action," said Fred Olday of Jasper Wyman and Son, a blueberry producer in Washington County.  The relationship between the Crabtrees' use of pesticides and the Browns' sensitivity "is not verifiable," he said.  "It is hearsay, it is coincidental. " Board members questioned Tim Crabtree briefly and learned that all but seven of his 75 acres would be affected by the ban the Browns are seeking.

The board will accept written comments through the end of the year, then will have 120 days to rule on the Browns' request.
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RE:PLY Family pleads for curb on pesticides - Blueberry growers back farm in Hope
By Tom Groening Of the NEWS Staff

To the editor:

I am very saddened to hear that yet another child suffers as mine does from pesticide exposures.  We were exposed to poorly regulated pesticides which were used in our home.  My daughter lives the chronically ill and isolated life of little Codey.  Now 16, my daughter has been disabled by pesticides since the age of 2.  Although an honors student she has never been able to receive her yearly awards formally at school like the rest of the honors students because she can not tolerate the everyday chemical exposures. She has never attended a football game or other sports event or gone to a school dance, nor is it likely that she ever will be able to do so.

We both suffer from neurological, immune and endocrine damage.  We are diagnosed with Toxic Encephalopathy, Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT), Auto Immune disease, Reactive Airway Disease and a blood forming disorder called Porphyria.  I have also developed a rare inoperable brain stem tumor, two types of arthritis, thyroid tumors and diabetes.  We were exceptionally healthy before we were poisoned.  Our injuries were testified to by medical experts and accepted in a court of law as having been caused by our pesticide exposures.  Just because not everyone has their poisoning validated to this degree does not mean they do not suffer the same injuries or others from pesticides.  The many diagnostic medical tests used to "prove" a causal link between injuries and disabilities to pesticides are very stressful and expensive.  The exposures from clinics and hospitals often cause further illness and injury.   These tests do nothing to make the poisoned person feel better.  Less than one half of one percent of poison victims ever receive any form of compensation for this incurable livelong disability in the courts and never are victims "made whole" or fully compensated for their losses.

My point in sharing this is to show that little Codey is not alone in her suffering.  In serving since 1987 as director for Protect All Children's Environment , a pesticide injury support organization, I have spoken with hundreds of similarly injured people of all ages. Please believe me when I say that as convenient as it may be to believe that these injuries and disabilities are coincidental or unbelievable, they exist and they are frequently caused by pesticides.  Just because everyone does not react exactly the same to pesticides does not negate our suffering.  If poisons don't adversely affect your family, is it alright to ruin the health of others?  If you believe it will not hurt you to smoke, is it alright to blow smoke in the face of asthmatics?  Not all soldiers who go to war will be injured.  Does this guarantee no one will be hurt in war?  Are we to be sacrificed for what some consider the convenience and profits found in pesticides?  Do they issue farmers a license to kill with their license to spray?  How many fields of blueberries make up for a lifetime of illness and social isolation?  The answers are obvious.  I pray the County has the wisdom and the morality to protect what health this child has left.  To repeatedly poison her is without conscience.  To demand incontrovertible proof, which is impossible, prior to protecting her is also without heart or conscience.

Tragically, all these assumptions that pesticides are safe or necessary are incorrect.  Pesticide use threatens the health of all Americans through our drinking water, our food and our air to name a few extremely contaminated necessities.  It is against Federal law for manufacturers to even say that their poisons are "safe" in their advertising.  According to the study, The Economics of Organic Grain and Soybean Production in the Midwestern United States,  by the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture, farm profits from organic cropping systems can equal or exceed profits from conventional rotations in the Midwestern United States.   The Farm Bureau has fought against pesticide regulation all over the U.S. and seldom is it ever reported that this giant insurance company is heavily invested in the pesticide industry.

I certainly hope that the farmers of Bangor opt to save the money they spend on pesticides and simultaneously lower the rates of their cancer, asthma, Parkinson's, Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance and other chronic health problems.  Most of all I hope they decide that it is not worth it to further sacrifice the health of a child (any child) when safer and better options exist.  Any farmers who are interested in learning the art of organic growing may contact me for information.  To hide in ignorance and poison children is nothing less than premeditated random homicide.  In Bangor, if something isn't done, little Codey Brown  will pay the ultimate price for pesticide ignorance with what is left of her health.  Don't let the fear of change and trying something new like organic growing and safety zones scare Bangor away from doing the right thing.  Instead of looking at Codey as a threat, look at her as a way to get off the pesticide treadmill.  Pesticide costs are contributing greatly to the bankruptcy of American farmers and giving them the fastest growing cancer rate in America.  It is well past time to stop the poisoning.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth M.T. O'Nan

Protect All Children's Environment
E.M.T. O'Nan
Director
2261 Buck Creek Road
Marion, NC 28752
Phone: (828) 724 4221
Fax: (828) 724 4177
Email: pace@mcdowell.main.nc.us
Web site: http://www.main.nc.us/pace
 

Well Lyndon, the sensible solution would be to solve the above concerns/problems with my safe and effective alternatives. But the real problem is, will I be "legally" allowed to do so?  That is the only question.  The poison "industry" has truly convinced everyone their POISONS are the only answer.  Yet the facts and the needless suffering clearly show us "someone" is lying!  We now have universal contamination, we have ever-increasing pest resistance, we have more and more farmers going bankrupt and we obviously have ever increasing health problems.  My dear friend called me last night and said her leukemia is in its last stages, she knows that pesticide POISONS have done her in, and she can not get out of bed.  The poison "industry" will never claim responsibilty for any of those they have POISONED, so it is up to you to protect the people and the environment  Why do the victims have to plead for mercy?  Why do we have to prove your "registered" POISONS are harmful before you will ban or restrict these terrible toxins - it should be up to the POISON "industry" to prove their entire POISON FORMULATION is truly safe (and the only solution) before it is sold.

When will it be "legal" (in your opinion) to use safe and effective unregistered alternatives to your dangerous "registered" pesticide POISONS?

Respectfully,  Stephen L. Tvedten
 

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