Pesticide Exposure at Waimea Canyon Middle School

The legislature passed two pesticides bills this year, HB1646 and HB1641, drawing attention to the increasing problem of pesticides exposure in our neighborhoods and around our schools. In the past year, three schools were forced to close due to toxic fumes from pesticide spraying; the most recent incident was Kahuku High School which closed for several days in May 2007.

Now a group on Kauai, called Maluia-WCMS (Waimea Canyon Middle School), made up of staff, parents, and concerned community members, have created a blog to document an on-going problem with pesticide spraying. Here is the link to their blog, which contains a You Tube video of the spraying activity. The group claims that the press has given the public safety issue facing Waimea Canyon Middle School minimal attention. They also claim that Syngenta, the company that is spraying pesticides on agricultural lands west of the school, has broken their agreement not to spray before 3:30 p.m., while students, teachers and staff are still on campus. They report that since then there have been a number of complaints of symptoms indicative of pesticide exposure.