[twinklesweep]

I grew up in and lived for decades in a fruit-growing region. It was the only income source in the area, virtually all for small growers. Without statistics, lawsuits, and such, it was simply a given that spraying times were announced, and particularly for those who lived adjoining the orchards, if you couldn’t be away at spraying time, you had to seal yourself into your own home. While the local health services urged awareness of cancer issues, particularly for those who lived closest to the orchard areas, equally serious were respiratory issues stemming from the chemical sprays.

Living in an area like that, it was more or less a no-brainer that the closer one was to pesticide and herbicide spraying, the greater the potential for health risks. For me, it’s hard to imagine rationalizing living around these chemicals as “Oh, they’re no big deal.” Potentially they ARE a big deal, and we don’t need statistics that prove it! Anyone with concerns about these kinds of chemicals should probably not live in an area where they are used routinely, which has to be worse than the need to spray orchards on a regular but far from daily basis.

For those who feel that there is NO risk at all in pesticide and herbicide spraying, TV does indeed offer a wonderful lifestyle. For those who feel there is some concern, they can choose to avoid living by areas with the greatest concentration of these chemicals, such as facing a golf course (which are ironically called “premium lots,” just as lots around a manmade catchment basis are called “premium” because they have a water view!). And for those who know the horror stories and/or are particularly traumatized at even just the thought of deliberately choosing the exposure, frankly those people need to find an altogether environmentally different place to live, where the focus is not on pristine lawns and even more pristine golf courses.