The Los Angeles Times‘ Amy Littlefield reports on children, in this case in California’s San Joaquin Valley, who are sprayed with pesticide while waiting for school buses or on the buses.
There are laws and regulations in place to keep such incidents from happening but Littlefield’s opening anecdote is the third reported case in seven months. The three children were sprayed with a blend of liquid sulfur, gibberellic acid, insecticide and fertilizer.
“Children are almost like a different species in terms of how they metabolize,” said Nina Holland, the lead researcher of a UC Berkeley study that found children are more susceptible than adults to organophosphate pesticides. “We are talking about a very significant difference. We really need to look at protecting children.”
Two of the children in the latest incident say the tractor driver who was spraying the chemicals saw them but didn’t stop, a mental blow that one expert said is “as bad as the effects of the chemical or even worse.”
