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2/16: Bill watered down/ Syngenta agrees to stop spraying for the rest of the school year Click here for more

The Issue:
by The Garden Island

We all know the drill.

This past Friday, a noxious smell detected at Waimea Canyon
School. Students and staff becoming ill. The fire department,
hazardous materials unit, district officials, Department of
Agriculture and Syngenta personnel converge on the school. It
takes barely any time before someone declares the situation
under control. "No worries," everyone is told, "It is only
wild spider flower — stinkweed — an odor from a plant."

Cleome gynandra.

All is said to be well, back to school, get to classes, no
need for hysteria.

In past incidents similar to the one just described samples
were taken, compliance investigations were initiated. Reports
eventually came out. There were no traces of herbicide at the
spots where the samples were taken. It was a plant. Spraying
was done according to labeling. All was said to be in
compliance with standards.

The situation is pooh poohed as some sort of mass hysteria
caused by a bad smell.

Until the next time the fire department, hazmat, the DOA and
Syngenta officials are dispatched to the school due to
illnesses.

How many more times must this cycle perpetuate before someone
wakes up and seeks the greater good?

These are our children.

• Nov. 14, 2006: Between the hours of 8:47 a.m. and 1:30
p.m., 61 students report to health room complaining of
chemical smell; 34 are sent home. Those numbers come out only
after a Freedom of Information Act request was made of the
DOA report by The Garden Island. The number of students who
fell ill originally claimed by the school was around 10.

• Jan. 23, 2007: After 3 p.m., several teachers and staff
complained of irritated skin and watery eyes while a field
adjacent to the school is sprayed. Students had gone home by
that time.

"Illness spikes" becomes the term for these incidents. It is
discovered there is some correlation between illness spikes
and herbicide applications.

• Another illness spike occurs in the fall of 2007.

• Jan. 25, 2008: Some 10 students and one teacher are sent to
the hospital.

The illness spike on Friday went a step further than the
previous episodes in that hospitalization was the result. A
pile of wild spider flower in a nearby field was assumed the
culprit, according to officials. Now it will take weeks
before any real answers are revealed in compliance
investigations.

If these episodes continue to occur at Waimea Canyon School,
and all spraying is deemed OK according to standards, then
maybe it is time to change the standards.

In February 2007 school administrators met with Syngenta
officials to hash out a "spraying protocol." Among the terms
agreed upon: No spraying during school hours within 660 feet
of the campus; If there is a sprayer in Field 809 (adjacent
to the school) and a complaint comes in from the school,
spraying will cease immediately.

Since the protocol was established teachers at the school
claim it has not been followed at all times.

We at The Garden Island feel that a new piece of legislation
drafted by Kaua'i Sen. Gary Hooser is a step in the right
direction. In November 2007 Hooser sent a letter to Syngenta
stating he was concerned about the spraying activities and
requesting spraying stop until the company supplies evidence
that its activities are not harmful to students. Yet in
January of 2008 there is another incident.

Hooser went one step further than a letter in the new year
with a bill that asks that spraying stop near elementary
schools.

Last week as that newly drafted legislation was unveiled, the
most recent illness spike occurred.

Senate Bill 3170 would establish a pesticide-free buffer zone
around elementary schools. It would prohibit the backpack
application of pesticides within a 1,500-foot radius of
elementary schools.

Aerial pesticides may not be applied within a half-mile
radius, and all pesticides applied within a five-mile radius
of any educational facility must be reported to the
Department of Education so that parents are ensured of
notification.

It would benefit our children, teachers and parents to know
that the school where they all converge is a safe
environment.

Keep Bill 3170 alive during the 2008 session.