I just wrote a letter to my state representatives, Bill Culpepper and Marc Basnight about how I am experiencing discrimination here with the mosquito spraying. I was feeling wonderful before the spraying started here just over a week ago. Now I've been knocked down again, unable to even get work done at home.
I of course can't make it to NY to speak, but I would if I could. The letter give only a brief account of what I've endured over the past 20 years with chemical poisoning, but I would like someone to read it at your meeting if anyone cares to.
Good luck.
Susan
From: Susan W Vaughan
To: billc@ncleg.net, marcb@ncleg.net,
dmoreau@email.unc.edu
Dear Mr. Culpepper;
I am a resident of Dare County, N.C. I'd like to make you aware of some of the major problems I am having living here because I am disabled by chemical poisoning. The poisoning happened over a period of years when I was working my way through college at UNC-G, working at an auto parts store, then later as a commercial art student where I was exposed to xylene, toluene, mercury and other hazardous chemicals in a tightly closed, unventilated building during the energy crisis of the '70s. I was pregnant part of this time, and to make matters worse, we moved into an old house that did not get renovated as our contract required, and peeling paint was everywhere --then new paint with mercury was used to renovate. I was never given any warnings about the effects all these exposures would have on me or my unborn child -- though manufactureres knew full well the consequences to adult males -- much more so to women and the unborn. Later I tried to work, but every job environment had something that made me ill. A job at a publishing company - my dream job- finished me off. My life never returned to normal.
Before, I had been an honor student, held offices and received high honors, played in the band and orchestra and excelled in art and sports. After these exposures, I was confined to my house -- suffering from chronic respiratory infections, and other severe symptoms-- on antibiotics constantly.
The city and my house was making us all so ill, I gave up my house and everything else to move to the Outer Banks, hoping for some recovery. I tried to teach, but became even worse after the water heater burst, wet the carpet and created mold. I was in severe pain -- I could no longer tolerate medicines. I would have died had I not found out about a foundation for the chemically poisoned. With very strict diet and avoidance of exposures, and many supplements and a candida killer, I was able to recover partially. I later decided to stay and make my home here. I started painting with water-based paints and won awards for my work - but received very little money.
My children's father's death gave us enough income to get by without my having to work outside my home -- until they graduated high school. I stayed here and had a house built because Dare County had respected my disability when I made that decision. The person in charge of mosquito control promised not to spray my house and to warn me when the truck was on the street. I chose a low mosquito area to build my house -- away from the trees and the sound. But now there is no respect for anyone with compromised health. We are all sprayed, without any prior warning whether or not there are any mosquitoes to even justify it -- all this based on false reports of disease last year. This is discrimination under ADA, but that doesn't matter in Dare Co -- It should, but it doesn't. My daughter, whose father died from agent orange exposure is also chemically sensitive -- she was exposed to the lead in our house and other chemicals in my school before birth -- the most dangerous time to be exposed. When she is here, she is also exposed to the mosquito spray.
My friend just had a baby, she asked not to be sprayed -- Dare County doesn't care. Her baby was born with a birth defect -- the mother was exposed to spray while pregnant because Dare county refused to bypass her house when she was pregnant.
I have four other acquaintances who live on the OB and are chemically poisoned -- one thinks it's because she was driving behind the mosquito truck a few years ago when she first moved here and didn't know what it was -- easy because there were no warnings on the truck, just like there were no warning on the chemical products that poisoned me at school and the workplace. I know several others who don't want to be sprayed, but all of us are ignored by the county -- we are told that our rights do not count -- our disability does not count. There are safer and better ways to control mosquitos -- any entomologist will confirm this fact, but that doesn't matter to Dare Co. -- they have the trucks, and they're going to spray, says County Manager, Wheeler. On top of the extra health risks and health costs incurred by our family because of this outdated method of mosquito control, my daughter and I are discriminated against in the local job market. No one will hire me because of my disability -- they will have to accommodate me if they hire me. My daughter could not get a bagel store employee to stop smoking inside -- and that employee smoked where they serve the bagels in a building about the size of a small bedroom, when she could have easily stepped outside. My daughter was berated for talking about her needs to her employer. That's because NC laws allow small businesses to do just as they please. My daughter was in the honor society and so was I. She was named most valuable student at one of her schools. I and she were considered among the most trustworthy students in our schools. We were always trusted with responsibility. Now we are reduced to poverty and taking the little work we can find to do at home. She has a full scholarship to any NC University, but it has been hell -- pure hell, trying to get a univeristy in this state just to agree to stop spraying hazardous chemicals indoors! It's as if NC never heard of ADA!
I heard that the Governor just proclaimed last week (or this one) MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities) Awareness Week, but as far as I know he never mentioned this to the press, and he doesn't have the proclamation on his website or anywhere else by which the public can be made more aware.
How many good, honest, hard-working people will have their lives destroyed before we act as a state to prevent this poisoning and we act as a state to respect and care for those whose lives have already been violated by this continued lackidaisical attutude toward use of hazardous chemicals. Is it only OK to consider the economy from the advantage of the rich industries and not from the viewpoint of the now millions who have lost their careers, homes, and health to this modern-day plague? We need your help. We deserve to be able to work, and we deserve to live without exposure to hazardous chemicals in N.C., especially when effective and cost-effective alternatives are already being used by the honest and caring communities and businesses in other places in our country and abroad.
Sincerely,
Susan Wells Vaughan
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