My family & I used to live next to a vineyard and we got sprayed on average once a week.
When we complained to the farmer we were told that he was there first and that if we did not like it we should sell our house and move back to the city. The farmer also told us that nothing that he sprayed was harmful to man and the environment.
It was only after our 5 week son started having respiratory problems, and he ended up in ICU after his system crashed, that we started to do our own research, and with the help of Professor London, discovered just how toxic many of the products were.
6 years down the line, and after numerous court cases [which we won], we were advised by our doctors to sell up and move away from the toxins. I had spent Xmas of 2007 in ICU and my wife had spent several weeks in hospital,early in 2008, with pesticide induced arthritis.
Many of the products that the farmer sprayed a few years ago, are now no longer permitted to be used and have been banned by GlobalGap as further research has proven that they are highly toxic to humans by exposure.
Its best to always err on the side of caution and to assume rather that a product is dangerous to human health until such time as it has been proven to be safe for use.
Having seen the list of what Nitida has admitted to spraying close to the school, and having researched the active ingredients, there is absolutely no way that I would want my children to be exposed to any of these products.
The school must be moved to a safer location. That is unfortunately the truth, as hard as it is going to be to accept, that is going to be the only solution to this problem.
For those of you who are clearly in denial - I have a proposition for you. Why don't you and your children allow yourselves to be sprayed with a cocktail of what Nitida has admitted to spraying? I will arrange for a registered pesticide applicator to spray us with the same products and at the same concentration & volume that Nitida would spray at.
I will stand alongside you and may even pay for your upfront blood tests and then further blood tests after our exposure. I am certain that we will get ill as a result, some of us immediately whilst others may have a delayed reaction.
There is a wealth of research out there with dozens of books written on the subject. There have also been countless lawsuits filed against the chemical giants like Bayer as a result of people falling ill following their exposure to agricultural chemicals.
Each and every agricultural chemical registered for use in South Africa has a hazard rating. Dichlorvos , Dicarzol & Thioflo for example, are rated 1b by the National Dept of Agriculture and World Health Organisation. They are rated 1b because after extensive research they have been found to be HIGHLY TOXIC. The above 3 products are used often in the vineyards of the Western Cape. We were sprayed with them weekly. Thioflo [Endosulfan] has now been banned , and Bayer, its manufacturer, has been ordered to retrieve all stockpiles of it. 2 years ago it was considered such a safe and 'wonderful' product - to be used extensively in agriculture in South Africa. Alas its turned out to be so very toxic. We were exposed to it and the damage is done and ill health is the legacy that we have left for our children.
We should have sold our house sooner. But we chose to deny that there was a problem and instead continued with the renovations, using the 'unfinished' house as an excuse to hold onto our dream of living in the country next to a vineyard. Ironically we are not "tree hugging greenies" at all - in fact we are far from that.
But the damage to our health has been done and its something that money cannot now buy back.
Jurgen Schirmacher
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