Pesticides may be making kids sick at school

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But keeping students inside may not be enough. Two years ago, 600 students and staff members were evacuated from an Edinburg, Texas, elementary school after pesticides drifted from a cotton field into the school’s air conditioning system. Thirty-nine people developed nausea and headaches.

EPA officials say they have no real idea how often pesticides waft onto school grounds. The EPA must register pesticides before they are sold, but federal law does not restrict where they can be sprayed.

“We implement the laws that Congress gives us,” said Ruth Allen, an EPA epidemiologist.

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Once the EPA approves a product, federal law requires manufacturers to report any “unreasonable adverse effects on the environment of the pesticide” that their products cause. Activists say industry is essentially allowed to police itself.

CropLife America, a national organization representing suppliers of farm pesticides, said their use near schools is well-regulated.

“We’re really committed to public safety,” said spokeswoman Donna Uchida. “Any kind of use of a pesticide has a labeling requirement that is imposed to protect human health and the environment.”

California has some of the strictest pesticide laws in the nation. Under state law, growers and pest control companies can be fined if pesticide drifts from a field and sickens people.

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A 2002 state law allows county authorities to establish a no-spray buffer zone of a quarter-mile around schools. But Tulare County has not done so. State officials said they did not know how many counties have set up such buffer zones.

Lemus and environmentalists are pushing for pesticide-free zones throughout California.

“Why don’t they tell us they’ll spray beforehand so we can bring our children inside?” Lemus said.

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