A cautionary tale of pesticide exposure

Bello at work, circa late 1970s. PHOTO: PAUL BELLO

My pesticide accident happened nearly 50 years ago, when our industry’s products and technologies were much different. Still, I share it as a reminder that we use materials that require knowledge and diligence to use safely and successfully.

In the summer of 1977, my second year in the Pest Control Technology program at State University of New York (SUNY) Farmingdale, I was taught by Pest Management Professional columnist and Hall of Famer Dr. Austin Frishman (Class of 2022).

To help keep my college loans to a minimum, I worked as many hours as possible as a pest and termite technician for Suburban Exterminating, Smithtown, N.Y. Owned today by Rentokil and run by Jason Byer, the owner back then was his dad, Marty Byer.

On this day, a Friday, I had been working with what I recall to be a 1970s International Harvester truck. It was equipped with a John Bean 60 gallons per minute (gpm) pump powered by a four-cylinder Wisconsin engine. The spray rig was in the box of the truck, which afforded little room for filling and servicing the spray unit. The 300-foot, quarter-inch, high-pressure hose on an electric reel was heavy and outweighed me. Dragging that hose around houses and half-acre yards to spray customers’ trees was challenging.

‘Just one more’

I had serviced about 30 residences when I returned and parked the truck that afternoon. I looked forward to turning in my paperwork, getting home, taking a shower and then hanging out with my friends.

However, Byer greeted me at the office door with a customer call slip. He asked if I could go spray for Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica) destroying her roses and ornamental fruit trees. He said I could take the Ford F-350 and that it would be quick because the customer’s house was just four miles from the office. Of course, I agreed — I never turned down overtime work. Plus, the six-wheel F-350 was my favorite of our spray trucks, with open-air ventilation on the flatbed.

So, he handed me the keys and away I went. The truck had a V8 with a 300-gallon tank and a 20-gpm four-piston Bean pump. It didn’t have the power of the 60-gpm pump, but filling the tank and mixing the solution was far easier because it was in the open air, providing plenty of room and open-air ventilation.

The truck had a permanently mounted 3-inch air gap fill line, a steel pipe fitted to a swivel. At the front of the flatbed was a large metal toolbox in which the chemicals and supplies were stored. If you left the toolbox lid open, water splashing during the filling process could get into the open toolbox.

Of course, when I arrived at the account, the tank was empty and needed to be filled. Thankfully, there was a county fire hydrant right across the street from her house that I could use to fill as needed. I figured that 30 gallons were needed, so 50 would be plenty.

When you’re filling from a hydrant with a three-inch hose, it doesn’t take long to fill a tank. Here, it took longer to set up the fill than it did to fill the tank. We did this process many times each day.

The author sprays trees for caterpillars of spongy moths (Lymantria dispar dispar) in Hauppauge, N.Y., in the late 1970s. PHOTO: PAUL BELLO

A dangerous mix

The summer sun had been beating on that metal supply box all day. What I didn’t know was that water in the bottom of that toolbox had created a soup of various chemicals therein. This water had splashed into the box because whoever had used the truck previously had left the lid open during the filling process. The chemicals in that box included, but were not limited to, carbaryl, methoxychlor, disulfoton, diazinon and malathion. I was about to tank-mix carbaryl for the account.

So, there I am, about to fill the tank and mix the spray solution. The braided fabric fill hose is connected; the large hydrant wrench and gate valve are in place and ready to go. It’s time to unlock and open the steel toolbox to get the product to be applied. I have my elbow-length rubber gloves and suitable eye protection on. I was not, however, wearing a respirator.

I’ll never forget what happened next: As its steel-topped lid opened, a smoke-like mist emerged from the toolbox.

My assumption is this occurred because of the quantity of accumulated water in the toolbox, in combination with the heat of the sun that had been baking that steel box all day. The chemical smell was pungent, and I turned my head and jumped off the flatbed to avoid it as best I could. At that time, I didn’t think much of it.

I finished the filling and mixing process. Looking into the toolbox, I could see about an inch of water, which had fouled many of the paper and cardboard containers. I closed the lid and secured the equipment.

I then moved the truck to the curb in front of the customer’s house. This was going to be a quick and easy application because her tallest tree was about 35 feet tall. That meant the Bean gun could easily fog all the trees and shrubs. Dragging the hose would take some work, though, because the yard was large enough to require all 300 feet.

The trick to doing this work, as I was taught, was to pull all the hose to get around and behind the house so that I could work my way back toward the truck. I did the backyard first, then the front. When the spray application was completed, I shut down the rig and the hose depressurized.

I’ve always taken pride in having a neatly rolled hose reel. I set the hose in line with the reel so it could be easily pulled and guided onto the reel in an orderly fashion.

Feeling the effects

It was at this time that I began to notice something was wrong in front of the customer’s home. I was 22, in good physical condition. I lifted weights and participated in sports regularly. But suddenly, I could hardly drag the hose into place. Everything else was OK, but it was as if I had little or no strength or control of my muscles to do this work. I was extremely tired, but there was no pain or dizziness.

I chalked it up to having done a long day’s work.

The truck was parked on the street near a maple tree that shaded the area. I was so tired that I decided to roll up a jacket to serve as a pillow and take a quick rest on the grass in the shade.

Back at the office, Byer was waiting for my return. He thought I’d be back in about half an hour, maybe forty-five minutes at most. After an hour, he got in his car and came looking for me.

There I was, sleeping on the grass in front of a customer’s home. When Byer woke me up, I saw he was visibly shaken and nervous. I felt groggy, as though I’d just awakened from a full night’s sleep. I didn’t know what happened, where I was or how I got there.

Water bottles weren’t a thing at that time. We’d drink from a garden hose or spigot if needed. I got a quick drink and felt better. I really don’t know how long I slept, and no one came out of the house to see whether I was OK. Byer had many questions and together, we figured it out.

It seems the pesticide cocktail to which I was accidentally exposed included a mixture of carbamate and organophosphate insecticides. The LD50 — a term for the lethal dose necessary to kill 50 percent of the test population — of these products ranged from 2 milligrams per kilogram “danger” label to more than 2,000 milligrams per kilogram “warning” label.

Lessons learned

As I approach nearly 50 years in the pest control industry, I learned many lessons I would like to share:

• Respect all pesticide products to properly mitigate risk when filling up. Our whole team knew the toolbox lid had to stay closed when tank mixing. Someone didn’t follow that rule earlier that day,
  and I almost paid a hefty price.
• Treat every pesticide as if your life and safety depend upon it, because it can.
• Remember that the most hazardous time we deal with pesticides is when handling the concentrates.
• Use protective measures when handling pesticides as directed by the label, such as wearing impermeable gloves, long pants, long-sleeve shirts and/or an apron. Had I been wearing the proper respirator, I would not have almost succumbed to the exposure.
• Have a change of clothes on hand in case pesticides contaminate your clothes.
• Always wash your hands immediately after handling and applying pesticides.
• Store all pesticides properly in a dry, locked storage container.
• Have proper spill and contamination safety equipment on hand to properly deal with such situations.

<p>The post A cautionary tale of pesticide exposure first appeared on Pest Management Professional.</p>

from Pest Management Professional https://www.mypmp.net/2025/02/17/a-cautionary-tale-of-pesticide-exposure/
Sacramento CA