California Family's History of Pesticide Exposure and Disease

My husband was raised in a farm labor camps with exposures to a cocktail of poisons, by living on or near Kern County, CA ranches from 1942, 1944-1959.

From 1949-1959 he worked or lived on Di Giorgio Ranch located between Arvin and Lamont CA in Kern County (San Juaquin Valley). In 1968 he worked on a small ranch in the Calistoga, CA area specifically helping with the grape vineyards. In 1969 he worked for a short time at Charles Kruge winery during the crushing season helping with the crushing and using sulphur to disinfect the large wood vats where the wine was initially placed to start the fermentation process. In 1961-64 he worked for Alcoa Aluminum in the Los Angles area. He worked several months in the foundry, then as a process inspector, inspecting the inspectors throughout the entire plant.

The past two years have been a nightmare. Initially the doctors thought he had prostate cancer mestastes in the bones. Then they seriously considered multiple myeloma. In 2 sets of prostate biopsies there was no cancer. In three bone biopsies there as no cancer. In a bone marrow biopsy there was no cancer as there was no cancer in spinal fluid or tissue samples. There is a 6mm. growth on an adrenal gland and there is definitely something going on in the bones. It looks like cancer, blastic lesions. The material removed from the pelvis is gray bone that is super hard (bent a bone saw) and is filling in the marrow cavity with this adnormal bone. It is in the pelvis, legs, and spine (causing spinal stenosis).

At age 9, (1950) my husband worked on the diaper crew at Di Giorgio Ranch  while also living in Camp 8, on the ranch. The kids were suckering grapes that were still wet with sprays most days. The next summer after again working on the diaper crew he had the first of many seizures where he passed out completely and fell. (He has been checked for Epilepsy -- there wasn't any sign of it.)

Currently my husband is weak, on oxygen, falls frequently, has seizures that vary from petit to grand mal in appearance, is frequently unable to eat because smells that make others hungry make him nauseous. (especially the smell of meats cooking) The blastic bone lesions seem to be stable but his health isn't. He suffers from the severe pain of peripheral neuropath. The spasticity is unbelievable. Without medications, at night the bed shakes so hard, and continuously, that it feels like there is a vibrating motor under the mattress. The Achilles tendons are drawing up which makes walking hard and contributes to a tendancey to fall backwards. He's dizzy most of the time now. At night he frequently stops breathing. You can see his chest trying to rise and fall with the breathing cycle but nothing is happening. This happens both when he's thin and heavy. The past year he lost weight rapidly. Going from 230 lb down to 164 lb. The doctors put him on steroids and he is up to 215 lb but he wasn't able to regain the muscles or strength. Two years ago he was building a dinning area for our Indian Mission Church, with donated oversized 45 lb cinder blocks. Today he can barely pick up our two year old grandson.

Tentatively there is a diagnosis of Osteopoikilosos, Melorheostosis, and other sclerotic bone diseases. One set of records just reads, multiple sclerotic bone diseases. Could all of this have come from the frequent exposure to sprays and dusts used on the ranches?

About 1970 we were visiting his parents when the areal spaying started on a potato field across the road from their home on Di Giorgio Ranch. The spray drifted into the house. My tongue swelled, my lips tingled, my skin felt like it was crawling and there was a metallic taste in my mouth. I was horrified, they thought this was normal because they used to spray Camp 8 all the time and if it was dangerous they wouldn't be spraying here. They lived next door to the owners home at that time. Besides everyone always worked in  the wet spray on the fields. I was in the early weeks of a pregnancy. At 4 1/2 months I lost the baby. He had died in the uterus, and been dead about three days when delivered.

My Mother-in-law is in a rest home with Alzheimer. Her Mother and a sister also died with Alzheimer Disease. My husbands brothers have both become disabled from bones that failed to heal following surgeries on their shoulders and one on a neck surgery also. The younger brother is sterile as well. All lived on or near the ranch, and worked in the fields and packing sheds in the Arvin area.

Could all of this have come from the frequent exposure to sprays and dusts used on the ranches?  I believe this nightmare is directly atributable to careless use and spraying of chemicals.

Mary Ethridge
PO Box 451
San Fidel, NM 87049
505-552-9734 home phone
505-240-1442 cell phone
wordoftruth1@juno.com
a.bakery@juno.com

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