Fallout Still Felt From Last Year’s Herbicide Spray Incident

ABINGDON, Va. – A year after some children at Miss Amy’s Child Care were sprayed accidentally with herbicide, at least one child is still suffering health effects from the incident.

“My son seems fine, he seems OK, his [symptoms were] mainly eyes and rash and stuff, so I don’t think he breathed it in nearly as much,” said Sara Ballou, whose son Riley, now 3, required two months of medical treatment after being sprayed with chemicals outside the day care center last July. “The other kid, he got it the worst.”

Four children were standing by a fence that overlooks railroad tracks at the day care center when a train passed by spraying herbicide on weeds along the track.

Ballou said one boy suffered lung and eye damage that will probably be with him for life. She said he is still undergoing treatment.

The child’s father said his family is represented by an attorney, to whom he referred questions. The attorney declined to comment.

NaturChem, the company responsible, was fined $5,500, said Doug Edwards, field operations supervisor for the state Office of Pesticide Services.

“That was based on their application of material in conflict with label instructions,” Edwards said, adding that the label includes an instruction that the product not be applied in such a way to contact people.

He said the company paid the fine in October and did not contest the violation.

Two of the chemicals involved – glyphosate and imazapyr – are considered slightly toxic. A third chemical, triclopyr, is considered highly toxic, Edwards said.

It was not the first violation for NaturChem, which in 2004 was assessed a total of $194,000 in fines by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture for 809 violations.

According to records of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the company was fined $3,000 for misuse of pesticides in Virginia in 2005 and another $1,000 for a certification violation. It was fined $2,000 by the state for misuse in 2006.

“We’ve had some activity with them,” Edwards said of the company. “That’s a little more than the typical.”

Brian Hook, vice president of safety and compliance for NaturChem, said his company has done everything possible since the incident last July to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

“We’ve updated, upgraded, our training manuals. We’re attempting to make sure all of our technicians who are spraying are licensed and certified by the various ... regulatory agencies,” Hook said.

“We have taken great steps, great strides, to update all of our training things and just ensure that our people know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing,” he continued. “I think every day in my position, ‘What can we do a little better?’ ”

Amy Bowie, owner of the day care center, said the company did everything she asked after the incident.

“I think that it was an honest mistake that they were not aware [the children were at the fence] ... and I think certainly they would not have done that on purpose under any circumstances,” she said.

Bowie said the children returned to the center the day following the incident.

Hook said the day care has been added to maps employees use when spraying that area of railroad right of way. He said the employee involved in the spaying incident will not be working in that particular area, and he added NaturChem is made up of “just normal, regular, hard-working people.”

He said the employee responsible remains with the company but the incident has been detailed in his personnel file and he “has suffered greatly.”

“He had tears rolling down his face,” Hook said. “He has small children himself.”

Hook said he’s available to provide answers and help to the spray victims and their families, including the payment of medical bills associated with the incident.

“We regret that incident occurred, we have worked very hard, we have paid the price,” Hook said.  “We apologize [to the families] because of all the inconvenience they had to go through because of this.

We apologize to Norfolk & Southern [railroad], we apologize to the community of Abingdon and we apologize to Miss Amy ... and all the children.”

Ballou says no one from the company has ever contacted her.

“I’m real disgusted with NaturChem,” she said, adding her family had spent upwards of $1,500 for Riley’s treatment. “I think this was a completely avoidable thing if people had done their job.”

Ballou said the company’s fine should have been much higher.

“That doesn’t hurt enough for them not to do it again,” she said. “It’s not like it was somebody’s rose bushes. These were kids.”

Bowie said the day care center staff learned from last summer’s incident and is now more prepared in the event of a future emergency.

“We’re hopeful for an uneventful summer,” she said.

| (276) 791-0701