Skeeter Spray Nightmare

Juan Gonzalez / NY Daily News 24jan01

NYC poisoned spray workers

At least six men who worked in the city's war on the West Nile virus last summer say the Anvil pesticide they sprayed made them sick and their employer failed to properly protect them.

In sworn affidavits and interviews with the Daily News, the men said they've been plagued by ailments including fatigue, severe headaches, difficulty breathing, loss of hair, nausea and even sexual dysfunction.

All claim their problems started after they began working for Clarke Environmental Mosquito Management, the Illinois-based firm that was paid $4.6 million by the city's Department of Health to conduct massive spraying of Anvil.

Pesticide-spraying trucks were common this summer during the West Nile scare. In a recent complaint to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the men said Clarke supervisors gave them little or no training on applying the chemical or information on its dangers.

They say they were sent out alone in spray trucks from their first day on the job, were not given proper safety gear and that company officials later dismissed their complaints of adverse health effects.

Federal and state law requires that pesticides like Anvil be administered only by licensed applicators, or by apprentices who have at least 48 hours of training. And apprentices can only spray under the direct supervision of a licensed applicator.

Jim Mendelson, OSHA area director, confirmed this week that his agency and the state Department of Environmental Conservation are investigating whether Clarke violated regulations.

The company denied that its New York managers acted improperly.

"Clarke has always been committed to stringent safety precautions and training for its employees," spokeswoman Laura McGowan said. "Without exception, our employees received the state-mandated training."

"We had no training whatsoever," said Samuel Gowrie, 46, who for three months was one of Clarke's $11-an-hour nighttime sprayers. "They told us we had nothing to be afraid of, that Anvil wasn't dangerous."

The Environmental Protection Agency says Anvil is one of the safest pesticides on the market, but that no pesticide is completely safe. A 1998 Material Safety Data Sheet for Anvil describes it as "harmful if absorbed through the skin," and warns:

"Applicators and handlers should wear coveralls over all clothing, chemical-resistant gloves ... chemical-resistant footwear plus socks."

But in his first day on the job, Gowrie said, he was given a spray route and sent out alone in one of the company's 50 small pickup trucks without any protective gear. Mounted on the back of each truck was a tank of Anvil and a sprayer.

Half the trucks, including his, had no air conditioning, Gowrie said. That meant windows stayed open as he drove behind a police escort for his first six-hour shift and blanketed the streets and himself with pesticide mist.

The next day, according to Gowrie, he woke up with a bad headache, sneezed constantly and his nose began bleeding.

"My body was jumping, too, and I had chest pains," he said. "When I told them [the supervisors] they should at least have tablets for the headaches, they just laughed."

Kent Smith claims his skin was drenched with insecticide. As time went on, the symptoms got worse. They included diarrhea, hair loss and sexual dysfunction. Like most of his co-workers, Gowrie said, he had no health insurance and didn't go to see a doctor.

Kent Smith was one of Gowrie's co-workers. A community leader in the South Bronx, he persuaded several neighborhood youths to go with him to apply for jobs at Clarke, which occupied the old Loral electronics factory nearby.

Smith was assigned to one of the company's three all-terrain vehicles and sent to spray Yankee and Shea stadiums and various golf courses and cemeteries. He sometimes worked 16 hours a day, and his skin was constantly drenched with the pesticide, he said.

"They only had two respirators in the whole place and wanted us to share them," he said. "I refused and forced them to get me my own respirator."

"There wasn't even a place to wash up after you finished spraying. Just a fountain where you washed your hands," he said.

While the men were paid $11 an hour, the city paid Clarke $650 an hour per truck.

After a month or so, the men said, they got to see an OSHA film about pesticides.

Company spokeswoman McGowan confirmed that the men were sent out alone, but they were always under the supervision of one of the company's certified applicators, she said, since each man had a Nextel phone to communicate with his supervisor.

According to state DEC spokesman Peter Constantakes, state law says when an apprentice is spraying with pesticides like Anvil, the licensed applicator who supervises him "must be physically present and within voice contact."

"There was no one checking on us," Smith said. "The only time we called a supervisor was when a truck broke down or got into an accident."

In September, one of Smith's co-workers, Corey Gregory, had just such an accident late one night on the FDR Drive.

The fumes from the spraying, he said, "made me nauseous, and I started vomiting in the truck. I lost control of the vehicle and ricocheted from one side to the other of the FDR. All the Anvil spilled out of the truck."

When Gregory told his supervisors what had happened, they reassigned him to the yard.

The six former Clarke workers eventually sought help from environmental lawyer Joel Kupferman of the No Spray Coalition. Kupferman said yesterday he plans to file workers' compensation claims on their behalf.

McGowan said the city and state both supervised the company's spraying campaign and found nothing wrong at the time.

'We have not heard any reports of health problems with workers," said city Health Department spokeswoman Sandra Mullin.

City's Out in Front on Pesticides: Study (10/19/00) W. Nile Virus Kills in N.J. (9/28/00)

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