CYA Staff Sue Over Spraying of Broccoli Field

Sixteen employees of a state correctional facility near Camarillo alleged this week in a lawsuit that they suffered medical problems after pesticides were sprayed negligently on an adjacent field.

The suit, filed Monday in Ventura County Superior Court, says the employees suffered dizziness, swollen glands, nausea, headaches, breathing difficulties and chest pains after Pleasant Valley Helicopters sprayed an adjacent broccoli field with a pesticide called “Monitor.” Some have experienced recurring symptoms, according to the suit.

The employees, most of whom teach at the Ventura School, a California Youth Authority facility that houses 900 students, have asked for unspecified monetary damages. The suit also names as co-defendants the property’s owners, its operators, the chemical company that manufactured the pesticide and the pest control advisers who recommended spraying the field.

Medical Treatment Sought

Martin H. Flam, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said the spraying incident that prompted the lawsuit occurred as the employees were arriving for work Feb. 25 and forced them to seek treatment with private doctors and at the school’s infirmary. Flam said the employees also became sick when the pesticide was sprayed on two occasions in 1987.

The suit charges that the defendants “failed to exercise ordinary care” and “negligently injured the plaintiffs.”

“It’s not proper to spray in a time or place or manner that’s going to cause people who are in the area to become ill,” Flam said.

David E. Oliver, manager of Pleasant Valley Helicopters, declined to comment on the case.

The Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, which investigates complaints about pesticide-related matters, investigated the case but found no violations, said Dale Mitchell, a county agricultural biologist.

Mitchell said the landowners had obtained the proper permits to spray the fields. The Agricultural Commissioner’s office attempted to test the area adjacent to the Ventura School to see whether there was an unusually high amount of pesticide residue, but the California Department of Food and Agriculture test lab misplaced the sample, Mitchell said.

In addition to Pleasant Valley Helicopter Co., other defendants named in the suit are: property owners Roy Sakioka and Sons and the Kathleen M. Duntley trust; farm operators Donald D. Dufau and Dufau Ranch, helicopter firm manager Oliver; helicopter pilot Gary S. Jenkinson; chemical manufacturers Griffin Corp., Chevron Chemical Co. and Mobay Chemical Co., and pest control advisers Santa Clara Chemical Co. and Neale McNutt.