How not to kill a raccoon: People are victims of pesticide blunders

SACRAMENTO
March 26, 2008 12:01am

Californians were burned, blasted, poisoned and otherwise injured in 2007 by the improper use of various pesticides, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation says.

The department’s latest list of “top pesticide blunders” will help show to help people avoid needless injury and illness, it says.

"Pesticides include a wide variety of over-the-counter products -- including mold and mildew cleaners, disinfectants, weed killers and pool chemicals -- that can be used safely, but only if consumers recognize them as toxic chemicals," says DPR Director Mary-Ann Warmerdam. "Careless misuse of these products can expose homeowners, children and pets to serious hazards."

The DPR’s "top pesticide blunders" from its illness report database:

1. When Orange County residents complained of a raccoon problem, a friend overseas sent them a black, granular pesticide. The wife mixed it with meat as bait for raccoons.

The raccoons did not eat it, so she labeled and froze the meatballs. Some time later, her husband cooked and ate the meatballs.

He became seriously ill and drove to a hospital. (Suspected pesticide-poisoning victims should never drive themselves to treatment, since they may be impaired by the toxin, DPR notes.) The victim survived both his mistakes. Later analysis of the pesticide showed that it was 9 percent aldicarb, a highly toxic insecticide; one teaspoon of the pure ingredient could kill five healthy adults.

2. In Los Angeles County, a woman put some insecticide into a soft drink bottle and gave it to her sister to take home. The sister left the bottle on a table, where her husband and four-year-old daughter drank from it.

They recognized their mistake and made themselves vomit before going to an emergency room; both recovered.

3. In San Joaquin County, an apartment dweller set off a "bug bomb" sitting on top of his gas stove. When the aerosol came in contact with the stove’s pilot light, the resulting blast blew out the apartment’s windows, pushed out walls and raised the roof.

A neighbor’s windows also blew out, according to firefighters who responded to the scene. "

Bug bombs" should never be used in any structure until all ignition sources - - including gas pilot lights - - are turned off, the DPR notes.

4. A Kern County homeowner left a container of pool chlorine powder in the sun on a warm day. When he opened the container, the heated and pressurized powder blew into his face and eyes. He sought medical treatment for symptoms that included eye irritation.

5. An Imperial County homeowner activated six "bug bombs" inside his kitchen cabinets without turning off the gas stove’s pilot light. He then waited at the kitchen entrance because he wanted to see the cockroaches die.

The pilot light ignited the fogger propellant, causing extensive damage. The victim suffered burns to his face, arms and legs, but he did not require hospitalization.

No word on the fate of his cockroaches.

6. A Los Angeles woman poured a bleach solution into a water bottle to sanitize it. When she placed several drinking water bottles in her refrigerator, she mistakenly included the one containing sanitizer as well, and later took a drink of the bleach.

7. A Monterey County apartment resident poured three cleaning products into a toilet bowl -- an inappropriate mix, DPR notes -- left the bathroom, and returned a short time later. When she entered the room, she inhaled the vapors from the chemical reaction, began to experience breathing problems, and had to call 911 for assistance.

Comments on this story

Stephen Tvedten 3/27/08 5:37 AM (steve@getipm.com)
How to kill pests without killing yourself or the earth...... There are about 50 to 60 million insect species on earth - we have named only about 1 million and there are only about 1 thousand pest species - already over 50% of these thousand pests are already resistant to our volatile, dangerous, synthetic pesticide POISONS. We accidentally lose about 25,000 to 100,000 species of insects, plants and animals every year due to "man's footprint". But, after poisoning the entire world and contaminating every living thing for over 60 years with these dangerous and ineffective pesticide POISONS we have not even controlled much less eliminated even one pest species and every year we use/misuse more and more pesticide POISONS to try to "keep up"! Even with all of this expensive and unnecessary pollution - we lose more and more crops and lives to these thousand pests every year. We are losing the war against these thousand pests mainly because we insist on using only synthetic pesticide POISONS and fertilizers There has been a severe "knowledge drought" - a worldwide decline in agricultural R&D, especially in production research and safe, more effective pest control since the advent of synthetic pesticide POISONS and fertilizers. Today we are like lemmings running to the sea insisting that is the "right way". The greatest challenge facing humanity this century is the necessity for us to double our global food production with less land, less water, less nutrients, less science, frequent droughts, more and more contamination and ever-increasing pest damage. National Poison Prevention Week, March 18-24,2007 was created to highlight the dangers of poisoning and how to prevent it. One study shows that about 70,000 children in the USA were involved in common household pesticide-related (acute) poisonings or exposures in 2004. At least two peer-reviewed studies have described associations between autism rates and pesticides (D'Amelio et al 2005; Roberts EM et al 2007 in EHP). It is estimated that 300,000 farm workers suffer acute pesticide poisoning each year just in the United States - No one is checking chronic contamination. In order to try to help "stem the tide", I have just finished re-writing my IPM encyclopedia entitled: THE BEST CONTROL II, that contains over 2,800 safe and far more effective alternatives to pesticide POISONS. This latest copyrighted work is about 1,800 pages in length and is now being updated at my new website at http://www.thebestcontrol2.com . This new website at http://www.thebestcontrol2.com has been basically updated; all we have left to update is Chapter 39 and to renumber the pages. All of these copyrighted items are free for you to read and/or download. There is simply no need to POISON yourself or your family or to have any pest problems. Stephen L. Tvedten 2530 Hayes Street Marne, Michigan 49435 1-616-677-1261 "An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." --Victor Hugo "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -- Martin Luther King Jr.

Erik Hodson 4/1/08 4:29 PM (whitworthpestman@comcast.net)
People are very worried about the environment, and rightly so in many instances. There are a few pest control companies out there that ignore how their practices impact the environment. But consumers' worry and guilt about pesticide usage from the professional pest management industry as a whole is misplaced. Pesticides make our food supply safe, lower our risk from disease, and protect our homes from destruction by wood destroying organisms. And all of this has been achieved with lower pesticide usage. According to the "Pesticides Industry Sales and Usage" report from the EPA, pesticide active ingredient usage decreased by 40% in the pest control industry from 1982 to 2001. Consumers overall are well served by pest control companies using IPM techniques. They should not oversimplify "going green" by sacrificing science to far-left agendas.