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| Unintended Casualties
Five Children Whose Lives
Were Profoundly Affected by
Pesticide Exposures at School
April 2000
Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides
PO Box 1393
Eugene, OR 97440
(541) 344-50444
www.pesticide.org
Preface
This packet contains five stories of children whose health
and lives were affected in profound and permanent ways
by pesticide exposures at school. In two of the cases,
parents and doctors consulted by the family believe that
pesticide exposure caused or contributed to the children’s
deaths.
This packet is intended to accompany the report,
Unthinkable Risk: How Children Are Exposed and Harmed
When Pesticides are Used at School. That report documents
98 school pesticide exposure incidents.
Michael Storey:
A Near Death
Experience
First-grader Michael
Storey was not the
intended “pest” the
day that a pest
control contractor
came to his Yakima,
Washington elementary school to apply an insecticide
around the roots of the huge old maples on the school
ground in an effort to control aphids. However, Michael
did end up as an unintended casualty of the application
when he unknowingly touched and tasted the “sand”
(actually granules of a highly toxic nerve poison) that he
found in a pile under one of the trees a few days later.
Shortly after returning home from school, he began
experiencing blurry vision, heavy drooling, chest and
throat pains, and uncontrollable vomiting. He passed
out in his mother’s arms, and was rushed to a hospital
emergency room. Fortunately an astute physician made
the right diagnosis (organophosphate pesticide poisoning)
and administered the correct antidote. Michael survived,
though he spent two days in intensive care "fighting for
his life" and another week in the hospital following the
incident.
Because of the immediate and acute symptoms, there is
no doubt that Michael’s harrowing experience was caused
by exposure to the pesticide applied on his school ground.
Luckily, he survived, but his family and doctors say they
will probably never know what may be the long-term or
permanent effects of this near-death experience [WSDA
Case # 10-89; Pers. comm., Kathi Storey, 1990].
Emily Schultz:
Cancer Claims a
Young Life
Surely no one intended to
harm Indiana eighth-grader
Emily Schultz on the pleasant
spring day in 1994 that she
returned to her junior high
school classes. The day should
have been a joyful occasion--
the girl’s first day back after grueling months of
chemotherapy treatment for cancer--but it turned into
an upsetting experience instead. When Emily’s mother
came to pick her up after school, she noticed a strong
chemical odor. Much to her horror, she soon determined
that an herbicide had just been applied to the school’s
lawn as part of the district’s routine applications to kill
dandelions and keep the grounds looking neatly groomed.
The weed-killer used by the school had been associated
in human studies with increased risk of the type of cancer
(non-Hodgkins lymphoma) that Emily had battled.
Emily’s mother already knew this from research she had
done trying to understand what could have caused her
daughter to contract this deadly disease. Emily’s parents
had shared their concerns about the herbicide with school
administrators, and had asked them to suspend use of
the chemical while Emily was attending school. They were
stunned and horrified to find that the lawns had been
treated again while she and other students were present.
The Schultz’s had thought the problem had been dealt
with and that their daughter would be safe at school.
Instead, they unknowingly brought her into contact with
the chemical on her first day back and while she was in a
weakened and vulnerable condition. Emily did not
experience any noticeable illness that day, but,
heartbreakingly, her lymphoma did return within the
month. She died before summer’s end that year.
Unlike Michael’s family, Emily's parents know that neither
they nor their family’s doctors will ever know with
certainty whether the girl’s initial cancer, or her relapse,
were caused by exposure to the herbicide used at the
school. However, they do know that their daughter had
no other known risk factors. They also know that exposing
their daughter to this chemical that has been associated
with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, especially when her
immune system was suppressed from chemotherapy, was
a risk they would never have considered taking. They do
not believe that the school should have considered taking
that risk either [Pers. comm., Kathy and Jerry Schultz, 1994, 1999].
Matthew Matelko
(and others):
Asthma, Stomach Aches
and Bleeding Scalp
When school administrators
installed automatic insecticide
dispensers in classrooms,
restrooms, and the cafeteria at Jurupa Hills Elementary
School their intent was to control the flies that were a
chronic problem due to the school’s location just across
the street from a chicken ranch. When these same
administrators hired a pest control firm to do additional
spraying on a monthly basis for other “pests” such as
crickets, silverfish, ants, earwigs, spiders and roaches,
undoubtedly they believed they were helping create a
better learning environment for the children in their care,
and it surely never crossed their minds that the “solution”
they were providing might cause more harm than the
“pests.” But that is just what did happen.
Parents began to notice strange symptoms in their young
children after they began attending the school. Five-yearold
Matthew Matelko suffered rashes and blisters on parts
of his body that came into contact with classroom surfaces.
Matthew also developed a smoker-like cough, diarrhea,
stomach pains, and shortness of breath. One fifth-grader
experienced fatigue and unbearable stomach pains, and
was eventually hospitalized. She missed months of school
due to her illnesses. Another kindergartner began to suffer
bleeding blisters on his head and hair loss when he started
attending the school. Other children also experienced
asthma-like symptoms. The day after a dispenser was
installed in one classroom, the teacher returned to find
that silkworms that she had been rearing for a class project
had all died.
Pyrethrins, the active ingredient of the pesticide used in
the automatic dispensers, can be readily absorbed via
inhalation. Symptoms of overexposure include contact
dermatitis, allergic respiratory reactions such as rhinitis
(inflammation of mucous membranes in the nose) and
asthma, and some irritant or sensitizing reactions.
According to information from the manufacturer,
symptoms of exposure to the specific product used in the
dispensers include headaches, nausea, vomiting,
abdominal cramps, and dermatitis.
The families’ doctors were initially baffled by the children’s
strange symptoms. Matthew’s mother was the first to
suspect that pesticide exposure at the school might be the
cause of her child’s ill health. She contacted the county
Department of Agriculture to request pesticide application
records from the neighboring chicken farm, and then
learned that the school itself was applying pesticides. Her
request for records triggered an investigation of the school’s
pesticide use practices by the Department of Agriculture.
Investigators did find some violations of pesticide laws
(some of the pesticide dispensers in the school’s cafeteria
were located too close to food handling surfaces). But no
air or surface swab samples were taken in classrooms or
anywhere else.
Following the initial contact by the Department of
Agriculture, the school principal ordered that the
automatic pesticide dispensers be turned off. However,
school officials continued to assure parents that pesticides
were not the cause of their children’s health problems.
“Experts” consulted by the school district, relying on
strictly theoretical calculations, wrote letters stating that
any exposures the children would have received from the
pesticide mists that were automatically dispensed over
their heads every fifteen minutes would be far lower than
a dose that could conceivably cause harm. The parents
of one child were told that his bleeding scalp was likely
caused by the family’s shampoo.
Skeptical parents were not convinced. Several families
initiated lawsuits against the school and/or the pest control
company that serviced the pesticide dispensers. One case
is still pending [Matelko, Janine. Pers. comm. ; Friedman, Michael.
Pers. comm. Hixson, Lorena. Pers. comm. 12/99-1/00; 1995. Pesticide
Episode Investigation Report. San Bernardino County Department
of Agriculture, 3/28; 1998. Lethal consequences. Inland Valley Daily
Bulletin (Ontario), 2/10; 1999. EPA Recognition and Management
of Pesticide Poisonings; 1990. MSDS, Purge III Insect Killer, Waterbury
Companies, Inc. (8/1)].
Chrissy Garavito
Loss of Consciousness
and a Sudden Death
Due to Cardiac
Arrhythmia
When a middle school in
Fontana, California hired a
pest control firm to apply
insecticides in an effort to control flies and other insect
pests at the school, surely school administrators did not
believe that they could be putting children at risk of serious
harm or death. When eighth-grader Chrissy Garavito
started visiting the school nurse multiple times a week
after experiencing headaches, nausea, and dizziness in
class, the nurse was concerned enough to phone her
mother, but no one suspected pesticides might be the cause
of the girl’s health problems. Even after Chrissy
experienced multiple frightening episodes at the school
where she inexplicably stopped breathing, lost consciousness,
and had to be rushed to the emergency room, school
officials and medical experts did not connect pesticide
exposure with her condition. Doctors diagnosed her at
different times as having epilepsy, hypoglycemia, and
finally, “psychosomatic” illness.
Finally, just a month after completing her first year in
high school, Chrissy suddenly stopped breathing and
collapsed into a coma while playing baseball at a local
park. She was rushed to a hospital, but this time she was
not so lucky--doctors were unable to revive her and she
never regained consciousness. She died six days later, after
being taken off life support.
Electrocardiogram (EKG) tests taken during the week she
was on life support showed that Chrissy was experiencing
an unusual and very serious disturbance in her heart
rhythm. It was also during this week that Chrissy’s mother,
Janine, first learned that an EKG taken after one of her
daughter’s earlier episodes at the middle school had also
shown the same abnormal heart rhythm. These EKG
results now led doctors to speculate that Chrissy might
have had a previously undiagnosed genetic ‘syndrome’
known to put certain people at heightened risk for the
heart rhythm disturbance.
Things might have been left at that, except that Chrissy’s
mother was not content with these vague answers.
Wanting to find an explanation for why her athletic young
daughter would suddenly collapse and die, she ordered
extensive genetic testing on her daughter’s body tissues.
The results failed to identify any known genetic factors
that might have predisposed the girl to the heart rhythm
abnormality.
Continuing her search of the medical literature and
consulting with experts, Janine learned that the heart
rhythm disturbance that killed her daughter can also be
triggered by exposure to some specific classes of chemicals,
and that these chemicals include certain medications, as
well as certain nerve-poisoning insecticides.
Doctors ruled out exposure to medications as a cause of
Chrissy’s problem. Janine then requested the pesticide
application records from her daughter’s middle school and
from other local agencies, and learned that the herbicide
Roundup, and several nerve-poisoning insecticides,
including diazinon, chlorpyrifos, cyfluthrin, and
cypermethrin were used regularly at the school during
the time that the girl had experienced seizures and other
illness symptoms. Insecticides were also regularly sprayed
in the community by the County Vector Control agency,
and various herbicides and other pesticides were used
regularly in the park, including on the baseball field where
the girl died.
Several major classes of insecticides, including
organophosphates and synthetic pyrethroids, kill insects
by disrupting their nervous systems. While these
chemicals do not all act by exactly the same mechanism,
they all disrupt electrical signals in a way that has the
potential to cause heart rhythm abnormalities. Perhaps
more surprisingly, exposure to some commonly-used
herbicides, including those used in the park, can also cause
rapid heartbeat, heart palpitations, disruption of electrical
signals in the nervous system, or other adverse neurological
(nerve-poisoning) effects in humans.
Though initially sceptical, a cardiologist (and director of
electrophysiology) at Loma Linda Medical Center consulted
by the family now believes that exposure to nervepoisoning
pesticides is the only likely explanation for what
could have triggered the heart arrhythmia episodes that
eventually killed Chrissy Garavito. The school district
has signed a legal settlement with the family, and a lawsuit
is still pending against the city and county [Matelko, Janine.
Pers. comm. 12/99, 1/00; Platt, Dr. Mark (Loma Linda Medical
Center). Pers. comm. 12/99, 1/00; 1996 and 1997. Pesticide use
records from Southridge Middle School and Fontana’s Village Park.
San Bernardino Department of Agriculture; 1998. Pesticides. Inland
Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario), 2/9].
Michael Eash
Chronic “Flu” and
Chemical Sensitivity
When school officials at
Montgomery Elementary
School hired a contractor to
make regular pesticide
applications in the cafeteria (and elsewhere) to control
ants, undoubtedly they believed they were acting to
protect the health of the children and staff at the school.
However, the evidence suggests that the pesticides
themselves were responsible for triggering chronic “flulike”
symptoms in many children, and chemical sensitivity
in one boy.
According to his pediatrician, Michael Eash was a healthy
child until he began attending first grade at the school in
1992. There, he missed 30 days of school due to “flulike”
symptoms. After starting second grade in the fall of
1993, the boy continued to experience low grade fevers,
intermittent bouts of diarrhea, and daily headaches and
nausea. His mother, Connie, noticed that his symptoms
increased over the week, but cleared up over the weekend,
and that his headaches and nausea seemed to occur
when he was in the school cafeteria or after lunch. She
began to pick him up and take him out for lunch each
day.
By late October, Connie was in constant contact with
the school, and with her family’s doctor, trying to
determine what was making her son so sick. Among other
things, she learned that the school was making regular
applications of the organophosphate pesticide Dursban
(chlorpyrifos) in the kitchen, cafeteria, and teacher’s
lounge in an effort to control ants. Pesticide “spot treatments”
were also occasionally made to other areas of the
school, though the district and the pest control firm said
that no treatments had been made to classrooms that year.
Still believing that her son might be experiencing recurring
bouts of flu, Connie made an appointment for him to
get a flu shot in the first week of November. Meantime,
at a conference with her son’s teacher in early November,
she learned that the teacher and at least eleven other
students in his class were also experiencing frequent headaches,
stomach aches, and low grade fevers, and that one
girl suffering from the symptoms had a grand mal seizure.
When she arrived at school to pick up her son for his
doctor’s appointment a week later, Connie noticed that
the classroom has a strong odor. Not only that, but
Michael was again at the nurse’s office, complaining of
headache and nausea, and with a low-grade fever. Two
other mothers who went to the classroom that afternoon
also noted the odor, and reported feeling ill after being in
the room. After looking at Michael later that afternoon,
his doctor suggested that Connie contact state and federal
agencies and have the school tested for environmental
contaminants.
The next day, she did contact numerous federal, state,
and local agencies. She also contacted other parents, who
returned with her to the school and again noticed the
odor in the classroom. Also, after doing her own research
on the subject of pesticides, Connie learned that a blood
cholinesterase test is the diagnostic tool for
organophosphate pesticide exposure. She requested that
this test be done on her son, and it was done in mid-
November. The results showed abnormally low levels of
cholinesterase, indicating a recent exposure to
organophosphate insecticides.
Michael’s mother took him out of school and began home
schooling him. His cholinesterase levels were checked
again two weeks later, and at five weeks. The levels were
significantly increased at two weeks after leaving school,
and had returned to a normal level at 5 weeks. He
remained symptom-free while he was out of school.
Both Michael’s mother and his doctor believe that
pesticide exposure at school caused his constant “flu-like”
symptoms. His doctor also wrote a letter stating that he
believes the boy is now chemically-sensitive, and will
develop headaches, nausea, and other symptoms whenever
he is re-exposed to even small amounts of pesticides or
similar compounds [1994. Law targets school pesticide use. The
Morning Call (Allentown, PA), 1/26; Letter from Dr. Jeffrey Fogel,
MD, 8/7/95; 1993. Indoor Air Quality Report for Montgomery Elementary
School. Montgomery County Health Dept., 11/15; Eash,
Connie. Pers. comm. 12/15/99 and 1/16/00; Uram, Joe (Pennsylvania
Dept. of Agriculture); Pers. comm. 12/8/99; Riecke, Bob (US EPA).
Pers. comm. 1/20/00; Scott, Marilyn (Oregon Health Division). Pers.
comm. 1/18/00].
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