in our voices

No-spraying-near-schools bill well timed

by The Garden Island

We all know the drill.

This past Friday, a noxious smell detected at Waimea Canyon School. Students and staff becoming ill. The fire department, hazardous materials unit, district officials, Department of Agriculture and Syngenta personnel converge on the school. It takes barely any time before someone declares the situation under control. “No worries,” everyone is told, “It is only wild spider flower — stinkweed — an odor from a plant.”

Cleome gynandra.

All is said to be well, back to school, get to classes, no need for hysteria.

In past incidents similar to the one just described samples were taken, compliance investigations were initiated. Reports eventually came out. There were no traces of herbicide at the spots where the samples were taken. It was a plant. Spraying was done according to labeling. All was said to be in compliance with standards.

The situation is pooh poohed as some sort of mass hysteria caused by a bad smell.

Until the next time the fire department, hazmat, the DOA and Syngenta officials are dispatched to the school due to illnesses.

How many more times must this cycle perpetuate before someone wakes up and seeks the greater good?

These are our children.

• Nov. 14, 2006: Between the hours of 8:47 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., 61 students report to health room complaining of chemical smell; 34 are sent home. Those numbers come out only after a Freedom of Information Act request was made of the DOA report by The Garden Island. The number of students who fell ill originally claimed by the school was around 10.

• Jan. 23, 2007: After 3 p.m., several teachers and staff complained of irritated skin and watery eyes while a field adjacent to the school is sprayed. Students had gone home by that time.

“Illness spikes” becomes the term for these incidents. It is discovered there is some correlation between illness spikes and herbicide applications.

• Another illness spike occurs in the fall of 2007.

• Jan. 25, 2008: Some 10 students and one teacher are sent to the hospital.

The illness spike on Friday went a step further than the previous episodes in that hospitalization was the result. A pile of wild spider flower in a nearby field was assumed the culprit, according to officials. Now it will take weeks before any real answers are revealed in compliance investigations.

If these episodes continue to occur at Waimea Canyon School, and all spraying is deemed OK according to standards, then maybe it is time to change the standards.

In February 2007 school administrators met with Syngenta officials to hash out a “spraying protocol.” Among the terms agreed upon: No spraying during school hours within 660 feet of the campus; If there is a sprayer in Field 809 (adjacent to the school) and a complaint comes in from the school, spraying will cease immediately.

Since the protocol was established teachers at the school claim it has not been followed at all times.

We at The Garden Island feel that a new piece of legislation drafted by Kaua‘i Sen. Gary Hooser is a step in the right direction. In November 2007 Hooser sent a letter to Syngenta stating he was concerned about the spraying activities and requesting spraying stop until the company supplies evidence that its activities are not harmful to students. Yet in January of 2008 there is another incident.

Hooser went one step further than a letter in the new year with a bill that asks that spraying stop near elementary schools.

Last week as that newly drafted legislation was unveiled, the most recent illness spike occurred.

Senate Bill 3170 would establish a pesticide-free buffer zone around elementary schools. It would prohibit the backpack application of pesticides within a 1,500-foot radius of elementary schools.

Aerial pesticides may not be applied within a half-mile radius, and all pesticides applied within a five-mile radius of any educational facility must be reported to the Department of Education so that parents are ensured of notification.

It would benefit our children, teachers and parents to know that the school where they all converge is a safe environment.

Keep Bill 3170 alive during the 2008 session.