Illinois Town Becomes Center of Battle on Safety of Pesticides

June Larson knew something was wrong when her 8-year-old daughter came home from Brownie camp.

“She was staggering all over like she was drunk,” Larson said. The child had an unquenchable thirst, tense muscles and an upset stomach, and was very tired.

An allergist determined that Kathleen Larson had been exposed to a pesticide and was highly allergic--so allergic, in fact, that exposure to minute amounts could be life-threatening.

Ordinance Enacted

That was 27 years ago. Ever since, Larson, 65, has fought the pesticide industry. Last year, her personal battle resulted in the Pesticide Public Policy Foundation’s filing a lawsuit against this town of 5,700 persons. The suit, expected to be decided in June, challenges an ordinance that requires lawn care companies to post signs warning that children and pets should be kept off areas that have been sprayed with pesticides.

Dr. Edward Calabrese, a professor of toxicology at the University of Massachusetts, believes that the amount of pesticides generally used on lawns won’t hurt most people, but “there are high-risk groups.”

“There are people who respond in a hypersensitive way for a variety of reasons,” he said. “That’s one of the toughest issues to deal with in a community, the one or two people who are chemically sensitive. There’s not much you can do about it, except try to isolate yourself from it.”

This town of modest wood-frame houses, 40 miles northwest of Chicago, has a shop-lined Main Street and a Dog ‘n’ Suds drive-in. Bangs Lake, adjacent to Main Street, is ringed by summer bungalows. Yet little Wauconda is a legal battlefield over the safety of pesticides.

Fights Spraying

When the town considered spraying pesticides to control mosquitoes, Larson forced reconsideration. When she learned that the state highway department sprayed pesticides to control roadside weeds, she persuaded officials not to spray within a mile of her home.

Her house has no wallpaper because wallpaper paste contains pesticides. When mother and daughter travel, Larson checks every roadside restroom to make sure that they haven’t been sprayed before allowing her daughter inside.

Kathleen Larson, 35, who is confined to a wheelchair with muscular dystrophy, gets a painful, burning facial rash when she is exposed to pesticides. Her eyes swell shut and she has trouble breathing.

When the lawn care companies rolled into town, Larson led another fight and succeeded in getting the ordinance passed. In addition, she has letters from three doctors that she gives to the companies, requesting that she be given 24-hour notice before spraying begins.

“I have advised her to do everything she can to avoid being around any form of pesticides,” one of the letters states.