Saratoga News

Letters

City should ban toxic gas in city

I have recently returned from a five-day exile due to the use of toxic materials at a nearby house.

For background, I was disabled from exposure to repeated, unnoticed pesticide use in my workplace for more than 14 years. I became chemically sensitized, a condition that is life-threatening. I am disabled and can no longer attend a workplace or freely go about in the environment. When I must go out, I must ingest charcoal to prevent anaphylaxis.

California statutes require that pesticides not be used where and when drift will go onto another's property or affect bystanders, yet a house in Saratoga can be fumigated without any prior notice to neighbors. The homeowner whose house is being fumigated, of course, knows and can plan his removal well ahead of time. But a neighbor may not know what is going on until the tent goes up--far too late to alter his plans or protect himself and his family.

When I saw the tenting beginning, I called the company, told them of my disability and requested they not treat the house with chemicals but use one of the other nonchemical alternatives the state has found equally effective. Though they had not yet finished tenting, the representative of the company asked me how I felt and claimed they had already started the chemical application. He asserted that since I wasn't in acute distress at that time, I wouldn't be affected by what they were doing.

I developed a severe headache about 8:30 p.m. New Year's Eve that continued through the night. My husband went to the house early the next morning. Signs posted on the tent showed the company had begun the gas application at 8:30 p.m. I threw a few clothes in a suitcase as fast as possible and, with my charcoal mask, got a seat on a plane and went to stay with family for five days, leaving behind very important family obligations and deadlines. I got sick again when I returned, and still experience headaches, fatigue, pain and increased rashes since this gas application.

An ordinance is needed requiring actual noticing of neighbors well ahead of any poison gas or broadcast toxic applications. And some kind of appeal process is necessary.

City business licenses should not be given to companies that refuse to use anything but broadcast poisons for pest control. Where safe, nontoxic alternatives have been officially used effectively, as is the case with termites in California, there is no reason poison gas should ever be tolerated anywhere in our city.

I ask the City Council to please focus attention on this issue and take urgent action to protect the citizens of this city from these very dangerous and unnecessary practices.

Cheriel Jensen
Quito Road

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