Herbicides are more than just a headache for Hawai‘i residents
Diane Koerner travels with an oxygen tank in the trunk of her car, all the windows rolled up and the air conditioning on recirculate. The Big Island resident, who suffers from severe Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, takes such precautions because smelling the herbicide Roundup can leave her with a debilitating migraine. And given that chemicals are used to suppress vegetation along nearly every mile of roadway in the Islands, an unpleasant chance encounter is not an unlikely risk.
Koerner is not alone. Other persons with MCS have reported experiencing dizziness, brain fog, asthma attacks or neurological problems that make it difficult to walk and talk after exposure to roadside herbicides. And even those who haven’t been diagnosed with MCS complain of headaches and flu-like symptoms after traveling in areas that have been sprayed. Still others worry about the impact of weed-suppression chemicals on children, pets and the environment.
“There you are, walking your baby, thinking you’re getting healthy walking, or riding your bike, or riding in the back of a pick-up truck, and you didn’t even know you were being poisoned unless you got home and had a headache,” said Caren Diamond, a North Shore Kauai resident who has been active for nearly two decades in efforts to halt the use of herbicides along public roads.
Source: Joan Conrow, Honolulu Weekly
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