Dream House turns into Nightmare... Dursban Poisoning
Last October 1999 I moved into the house of my dreams. I was to rent it for a year while the folks who own it sold their business in Massachusetts so they could move up here full time. I live in a house surrounded by the waters of Merrymeeting Bay in Bowdoinham, Maine. Step outside my front door and I can cross country ski in the winter and kayak 3 seasons out of the year. It is heaven.
Shortly before I moved in the owners were asking my partner and me about a beetle infestation that had hit our area. My partner lives a mile away and he and I spent our quiet hours after dark each night stepping on dozens of little black beetles that infiltrated our home. While a nuisance, they were in no way a threat. They were field beetles that for some reason multiplied like mad last summer. Many of our neighbors sought solace in pesticides and drenched their homes. But many of those folks live here part time and thus sprayed, drenched and left for their homes further south.
The owners of my house mentioned in passing that they had heavily sprayed this house over a period of a few months before I moved in. They showed me the container in case I wanted to spray again. I said no thanks, I am the Director of the Maine Toxics Action Coalition....we don't spray....
But I didn't think a whole lot more about it because I figured all would have dissipated before I moved in [I didn't know much about pesticides, my expertise is in mercury, dioxin, etc.]
Then I moved in....within 2 weeks I was really sick. Headaches, flu-like symptoms, extreme malaise. I would start to feel better after about 2 weeks and have a relapse. This went on for months and months. Docs could find no cause. I then was diagnosed with Raynauds Syndrome. Much of this time I was weak, couldn't remember ordinary things, couldn't concentrate. Before this time I had run numerous campaigns and was renowned for being able to remember any phone number I had to use without looking it up....since I moved here if I don't make a list the minute I think of something it is forgotten.
Some of the symptoms started to get a bit better and the upper respiratory problems got a bit better. I spend a great deal of time outside even in the winter, but not as much as the summer and I started to feel better, although not completely. In the middle of this last summer I found a dead mouse in the middle of my basement. It had not been there 2 days before and it had almost completely disintegrated. I was stunned and scared.
Then I remembered the owners had sprayed the basement. I went and found the bottle wondering if it was Dursban. It wasn't. I saw a list of ingredients but didn't know that much and went on my way figuring I was making something of nothing. Just about 2 months ago I came across an article on Dursban and in it was the name of the active ingredient: chlorpyrifos. I went back downstairs and sure enough, it was there on the label. I started to cry. I had been sick for so long and everyone was thinking I was some kind of hypochondriac.
I looked up chlorpyrifos on all the sites I could find and it seemed to explain an awful lot of my symptoms. Furthermore, it turns out this pesticide does not break down well unless in sunlight. They sprayed several times [drenched, as they put it] in the basement in all the corners et. al. This is a very dark basement that never sees the light of day. When the owners got back to me they told me they also drenched the foundation of the house outside with diazinon. They went on to tell me that these were perfectly harmless chemicals and not to worry.....
These chemicals were being sprayed all over this neighborhood. People have NO idea how toxic, and it scares me. It is now part of our work at Maine Toxics Action Coalition to educate the citizens of the state on pesticide use and are contacting all the docs, especially those who service the sensitive population, with brochures and info so they may better educate their patients.
But I am at a loss for myself. I have always been extremely sensitive to drugs and chemicals and I stay away from both at all cost....but this house of my dreams has made and kept me ill for over a year. I am moving in April and pray I can find a non-exposed home. In the meantime it is hard to find a doc who can help or many who know and believe that I am likely sick from the chemicals in this house. I don't know how long it takes for chorpyrifos to break down in dark, but when I wasn't keeping doors and windows open when it started to get cold, I started to get headaches again daily, and exhaustion and sleep problems, etc.
Thank you for your work and I would like to help in any way I can in Maine.
Kathleen McGee, Director
Maine Toxics Action Coalition
207-666-3598
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