The Department of Health will not test Waimea Canyon School students and teachers for toxic levels of pesticide because it’s not the entity’s practice to do so, the Kaua‘i District health officer said yesterday. The response from Dileep G. Bal
The Department of Health will not test Waimea Canyon School students and teachers for toxic levels of pesticide because it’s not the entity’s practice to do so, the Kaua‘i District health officer said yesterday.
The response from Dileep G. Bal came in the wake of a letter sent Tuesday by the Kaua‘i teachers association requesting the DOH conduct toxicology tests of students and teachers exposed to pesticides from a field leased by Syngenta Seeds adjacent to the school.
Tom Perry, Kaua‘i director for the Hawai‘i Teachers Association, authored the letter asking the DOH to “help provide scientific evidence as to what’s making the students and teachers sick.”
But that’s not the practice of the DOH, the island’s district health officer said.
“We do not conduct toxicological tests on people,” Bal said. “You can’t come to the Health Department and get tested for toxicological exposure. It’s just not something we do.
“We require laboratories and physicians to report cases or suspect cases of pesticides and heavy metal poisoning. Just as they are required to report most communicable diseases.”
The DOA is charged with the task of monitoring synthetic pyrethroids, not the DOH.
There are no practical tests for metabolides or the effects of pesticides on human enzymes or tissues that can be used to confirm exposure, Bal added.
The DOH does, however, work with physicians and laboratories providing toxicological expertise on testing and interpretation of lab results to help them generally and to meet their reporting duties.
Doctors also are required to report incidents of reportable communicable disease outbreaks, but the DOH doesn’t conduct random routine surveillance, Bal added.
Both the DOH and the Department of Agriculture have responded to Waimea Canyon School’s three incidents over the past two years, which included the DOA taking swab samples of the school following the first complaint filed by teachers on Nov. 14, 2006, and the DOH’s response with medical staff Jan. 25 of this year, within 45 minutes of receiving the call that students were ill.
In the three incidents, dozens of students and teachers complained of symptoms on Jan. 23, 2007 of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache and stomachache. None of the students nor teachers were ever tested for toxic levels.
Following the Jan. 25 incident, 10 students were taken to the hospital via ambulance.
Bal said it is not clear what agent is responsible for the reported health effects from Jan. 25.
“And I don’t think anybody knows,” he said. “It might be anything or one of four reasons: As some have alleged, the stinkweed; a pesticide, as the teachers and school children have alleged. It could very well be some other agent that none of us is aware of that happens to be in the ambient air, or it could be an element of group hysteria…We don’t really know.”
As the DOH is not mandated to conduct toxicology testing on humans, Perry said he might have to pursue other options to get students and teachers tested, such as possibly using a private laboratory.
What is certain are his plans to talk with Area Superintendent Bill Arakaki today, he said.
“I just want students and teachers safe,” he said. “This might be one of those issues where we have to organize parents, teachers, community members and the Legislature to try to change polices.”
The DOA will get a list of the pesticides used in the two weeks before Jan. 25, however, since Syngenta property holdings dot the Westside and he would prefer that they have requested the list of pesticides used within 1,500 feet of the school.
• Amanda C. Gregg, assistant editor/staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or agregg@kauaipubco.com.
