Poisoned minds

[Guest guest]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/423807.asp

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.

LEGAL BATTLES

Victims of school sprayings sometimes face legal battles after they'

ve been poisoned. 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.

What are the health risks?

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, says Riley.

Pesticide manufactures and distributors have long argued that chemicals used

in schools are safe, provided they're used properly according to labels and

requirements set by the EPA. 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.

(see graphic at website)

Source: Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Defense Scorecard

The federal pesticide law (the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide

Act) was written to limit unsafe pesticides and unsafe uses, 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 of

these 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.

PROPOSED LEGISLATION

In response, some legislators are asking for stronger federal action.

Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) , Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and 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. "

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 , director

of maintenance for the school system, who admits to using pesticides for

ants. However, he adds, " we don't spray anymore. "

Next Your Environment:

P.U. (Pesticide Use), Part II

Tips for helping to implement safer pest-management and other " green "

practices in your children's schools.

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).