We live on a small farmstead that is surrounded by fertile farmland in a valley. Those darn cropduster planes are constantly flying around here spraying all kinds of fertilizer (and pesticides?) all over the nearby fields. When they are spraying, I keep the windows closed in the house. Can't help but feel that we are being poisoned. Am I just being paranoid? Seems that this just can't be healthy for us. Any comments?

-- kim (barkinbarnyard@rrv.net), July 21, 2000

Answers

I suspect all you can do is have your attorney send the neighbors who use aerial spraying a letter saying you don't appreciate being included in their spraying program and mentioning legal action if it continues.

When I was probably 8 to 12 or so in Florida every so often a truck would could through the neighborhood spraying for mosquitoes. Us kids would run behind it keeping inside the smoky spray. I've since wondered exactly what was in it. No problems noted after about 40 years.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 21, 2000.

Ken, I, too, lived in a neighborhood where the trucks came thru and sprayed for mosquitoes. In those areas, they're finding a higher rate of breast cancer in women, and I don't know what in men. (I lived there for 7 yrs.)

They did some kind of spraying from a helicoptor for weeds or mosquitoes halfway between here and Wichita last week. It's the way my husband takes to work, and we drove by there 3 days AFTER they got done with the spraying and you could still smell whatever they used. No one knew anything about it, had never heard of spraying from helicoptors even...

-- Louise Whitley (whitley@terraworld.net), July 21, 2000.

I grew up in the South, cotton country, and we were constantly exposed to something, pesticide, defoliant on the cotton when the crop was ready to pick, herbicides, or mosquito fogging. The drift from such a method of application is horrendous and if you are trying to run an organic or even low 'cide homestead, just forget it. Call anyone you can who will listen because there are laws to protect the little guys in most states and laws governing the conditions under which, it can be used--wind speed and direction, cloudy, the forecast, etc. You also have recourse if your own crops, plant or animal, are damaged.

Cancer rates down there are ridiculously high and if Ken has stayed healthy all these years, thank goodness for him. Children are born with problems, allergies, asthma and leukemia more commonly than makes me comfortable. One of the best things I ever did for myself was to get out of there. I joke with friends from the same state that the best thing about being from _________, is being FAR from _______. Sadly, it's not a real joke.

We sued the man hired by a neighbor to spray 2 miles of her roadside and she told him to spray us as well, as though she had gotten our permission. Nothing could have been further from the truth as we had actually denied her permission. The other frustration was that we had hired him to take down some trees near a power line so he couldn't plead ignorance of who owned the property. The neighbor had originally built the house, sold it to another family from whom we bought it. We would have preferred to sue the neighbor as well but that's a whole other story. Circumstances at the time wouldn't allow us to take it to court because I really wanted to get a precedent on the books but we settled out of court for reimbursement for our damanges and cleaning up dead vegetation. The only funny thing about the whole mess was that the man used a different chemical than they had discussed. It was not cleared for use on pastures or hay fields for one year after application and the neighbor lost far more than we did. I would love to have known what transpired between her and the man who did the spraying. We moved away shortly after and had no way to know.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), July 21, 2000.

Use to use banvil and 24d to spray lawns[landscape mant]there was a study done which should dogs in yards that were sprayed got cancer much more often, who plays on lawns? Kids and dogs!They are finding malathion in sucluded mountain lakes,Bugs are growing resistent to chemicals[ to bad people are not]Nothing kills white fly any more,Breast cancer rates double if you regularly have your home sprayed,Its time to take a step back and use IPM [predator bugs, bt ect]in conclusion I will leave you with my fav saying, Only when the last tree has been felled, the last river poisoned, the last fish caught will you recognize that one can not eat money [cree]

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), July 21, 2000.

Ken, I grew up in Florida too, Daytona Beach, and remember years ago the trucks coming through spraying for mosquitoes and that fog all over the place. I'm talking late 50's. Could it have been DDT? So far, I have not had any health problems from it that I know of but sure wouldn't want to be around that now. Although come to think about it, I did develop severe asthma about that time and now that I'm away from there, the asthma is gone!

-- bj (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), July 22, 2000.

Kim, you should approach the crop spraying company, they are normally very approachable professional people who would more than likely be quite happy to hear your concerns, and find out exactly what they are spraying and ask if they can contact you when they are in the area so that you can take the necessary precautions. Aerial crop spraying is a vital part of agriculture and often is viewed in a very negative way by people who have not researched the subject and spoken to the operators or pilots to find out all the facts.

-- Rob (r_adams50@hotmail.com), July 10, 2001.