LETTER TO THE EDITOR - Fall 2006
Dear Editor, It was a day in late July. A spray plane swooped low, dumping its payload of Lorsban onto a canola field in the Swan Valley, to control an infestation of Bertha army worms. Nearby, the owner of a small acreage and her son were outside doing chores. The woman says her son got a dose of what she calls the “direct drift.” According to the woman, both became “instantly nauseous with burning eyes.” Her husband developed the same symptoms, even ‘though he didn’t arrive home ‘till about 20 minutes after the incident. They’re all are okay now, but she says she suffered from a low-grade headache for about three weeks afterward. (And she doesn’t normally get headaches.) She even noticed one of her miniature horses became unusually listless right after the incident. She says they now wonder whether they should even keep grazing the animals on the grass that has also been sprayed. No one can seem to help them with advice. The woman claims agricultural authorities were wa
