WOMAN POISONED BY FARM PESTICIDE USE, LAWSUIT STATES.Byline: Don Holland Daily News Staff Writer A woman who once lived next to a Ventura strawberry farm has filed a lawsuit claiming her health was ruined after she was unknowingly exposed to dangerous levels of a pesticide. In her suit, Rochelle Gordon contends that she was not warned in August 1996 when a section of Montalvo Ranch was treated with methyl bromide methyl bromide Toxicology An insecticide and rodenticide, which is a volatile fumigant 3-fold denser than air and absorbed through skin, producing narcosis, pulmonary edema, renal tubule damage, jacksonian convulsions, CNS depression, peripheral neuropathy; . Tarps, required by law to help contain the pesticide, were torn, the lawsuit claims, allowing the methyl bromide to escape. And the fumigation fumigation: see disinfectant. operation exceeded the bounds of a 30-foot buffer zone buffer zone n. A neutral area between hostile or belligerent forces that serves to prevent conflict. Noun 1. buffer zone between her home and the strawberry field Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army children's home in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool, England. The earliest reference to 'Strawberry Field' dates to 1870. In 1912 it was transferred to a wealthy merchant whose widow sold the estate to The Salvation Army in 1934. , according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the suit, filed Monday. ``The long duration of the plaintiff's exposure could have been avoided if defendants simply had told the truth,'' says Gordon's complaint, which claims damages in excess of $1 million. An attorney for Trical, the company hired to treat the field, said the suit is baseless and is the result of panic exacerbated by anti-pesticide activists. ``This is all part of the hysteria out there surrounding Montalvo Ranch,'' said Trical attorney Dennis Nino. ``That job was inspected by the Ventura County (agriculture) commissioner . . . and there was nothing irregular with that job whatsoever.'' Located in Ventura, Montalvo Ranch also is named as a defendant. The ranch's telephone is disconnected, and a representative could not be reached Tuesday. Methyl bromide is a pesticide that is injected into soil. The federal Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and is phasing out production and importation of the chemical by 2001. Symptoms of moderate methyl bromide poisoning are similar to those of the flu, making them difficult to diagnose. In August 1996, some neighbors of Montalvo Ranch began experiencing many of those symptoms. |
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