Hawaii’s roadsides routinely sprayed with herbicide

Posted on Jul 09, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Government Regulation, MCS, Susie Collins

People with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity have reported experiencing dizziness, brain fog, asthma attacks or neurological problems that make it difficult to walk and talk after exposure to roadside herbicides.

Honolulu Weekly reports on The last Roundup: Herbicides are more than just a headache for Hawaii residents.

Reporter Joan Conrow takes a look at the problem of roadside spraying here in Hawaii, using as one of her primary sources a woman with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

This is a well researched report and Conrow does a good job explaining the problems associated with the ubiquitous use of Roundup herbicide on virtually all our roadways. It can be a nightmare for people with MCS. Not your vision of paradise, is it?

Diane Koerner travels with an oxygen tank in the trunk of her car, all the windows rolled up and the air conditioning on recirculate. The Big Island resident, who suffers from severe Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, takes such precautions because smelling the herbicide Roundup can leave her with a debilitating migraine. And given that chemicals are used to suppress vegetation along nearly every mile of roadway in the Islands, an unpleasant chance encounter is not an unlikely risk.

Koerner is not alone. Other persons with MCS have reported experiencing dizziness, brain fog, asthma attacks or neurological problems that make it difficult to walk and talk after exposure to roadside herbicides. And even those who haven’t been diagnosed with MCS complain of headaches and flu-like symptoms after traveling in areas that have been sprayed. Still others worry about the impact of weed-suppression chemicals on children, pets and the environment.

Link to full report.

Photo credit, a roadside on Kauai that’s been sprayed with Roundup. Virtually all county and state roadsides in Hawaii are lined with an ugly, dead strip of foliage that’s been sprayed with Roundup. As soon as it starts to rebound, workers come along and spray it again. The spraying is done from trucks without much thought to the way the wind is blowing. During application, where the truck moves slowly along the shoulder as the spray is applied, it’s not unusual for the herbicide mist to be floating or blowing all over the road onto and into passing vehicles.

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Tags: Chemicals, Children's Health, Environment, Environmental Health, EPA, Hawaii, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Pesticides, Policy, Pollution, Stink, Toxic

8 Responses to “Hawaii’s roadsides routinely sprayed with herbicide”

Jeanne

09. Jul, 2009

Susie,

Thank you for posting this! As I emailed you the other day, I had to politely ask the “lawn care” truck parked in front of my house the other day to leave. He had just pulled over to total up his customers for the day. Sorry, mister, you’ll have to do the math elsewhere. I don’t need a pesticide truck in front of my house. Thanks anyway!

Jeanne

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Denise in Honolulu

09. Jul, 2009

Susie, the more I learn about the assaults on our environment and ourselves by corporations and our government the more I realize we can count on them to harm us and it is rare for them to protect us.
I am reading Life’s Delicate Balance – Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer by Janette D Sherman, MD, from 2000, in it she states on page 52, “Long Island has a sole-source aquifer. This means that all the water used by people living on Long Island lies, as in a pocket, under the land where they live, work, dump chemicals, apply pesticides, operate incinerators and nuclear facilities, … Rainfall carries the contaminants into an aquifer to mix and migrate throughout the water supply underlying the land. Other communities with sole-source aquifers and the problems of water contamination and cancer are Cape Cod and the islands of Hawaii.” This is especially scary given our history of sprayed pineapple and sugar cane fields and this info about Roundup…. very frightening and sad.

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Mokihana

09. Jul, 2009

“The routine spraying …” is a phrase from the handbook of short-sightedness and chemical brain tampering. I am recovering from the most recent exposure to that practice of routine spring tree farm practices and the maintenance practices on the highways in Washington State. My history with herbicides in Hawaii is a long standing nightmare with governmental misinformation and collusion with herbicide giant Monsanto. The on-going realities with herbicide use require constant care, sharing stories, and solutions that aid us with MCS while we do through the process of healing.

I continue to travel two hours to be treated for these exposures and have found NAET to be a solution (a crisis intervention really) that clears my liver/gall bladder and endocrine system.

Actions like Joan Conrow’s article will add to the education. Whether the leaders of government and community are willing to be educated is a matter all together different. We’ll keep acting as if the education matters!

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Susie Collins

10. Jul, 2009

Jeanne, good for you! Make them feel UNWANTED.

Denise, yep, our water in Hawaii is contaminated with atrazine (as are many many aquifers in the US) and some on Oahu with heptachlor (wells were shut down when that was found some time ago). Other areas have been contaminated with chemical soups mixed by the sugar companies. I encourage everyone to get water filtration systems for their home that filter out whatever is found in your water. Your water dept will supply a report of contaminants upon request. It’s important to match up the right filter to your needs.

Mokihana, I am so very sad that your safe place and body have been violated by pesticides once again. I know you are too familiar with our problems here in Hawaii. In the article it talks about how the Monsanto reps showed up and offered to drink Roundup just to show how safe it is. I’d rather they sprayed it all over their bodies, since that’s how the public is exposed during spraying. The label clearly states that the person spraying should be garbed from head to foot in protective clothing and that no wind should be blowing during application. Of course these safety guidelines are rarely ever adhered to. Pesticide spray can drift quite far esp if atomized into a fine mist. People are not supposed to be exposed to the toxic chemicals in Roundup as stated on the label and yet it’s impossible to apply it anywhere near people without exposure. It’s criminal in my opinion.

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Leslie

14. Jul, 2009

I really feel like it’s a violation of basic rights to be made to breathe crap like that- when are people going to gather together against this junk enough to create a majority, which would force people to stop spraying like this. it’s so gross and out dated!

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Susie Collins

14. Jul, 2009

Leslie, I don’t know if people are ever going to wake up. Roundup use is everywhere here. Most people think Roundup is harmless. Without a personal experience of getting sick from it, or having their own kid get sick from it, I don’t know how that belief can ever be changed in people’s minds.

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Felix Miles

28. Jun, 2010

I have a question. How can I get imformation on how frequent the spraying of herbicides are today. But most of all where can I get imformation on the spraying of the herbicides in the past as far back as 1963-1965 and how often was this done. Thanks so much.

Felix Miles

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- Susie Collins
  
  28. Jun, 2010
  
  Felix, you mean roadside spraying in Hawaii? The roadside spraying is done by the Hawaii State Department of Transportation, but I’d be surprised if they had records from that far back.
  
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