Unfounded environmental fears notwithstanding, there's a bunch of North New Jersey parents freaking out right about now, and with good cause. It turns out that the dirt at their kids' school is full of pesticides, some of which have been banned for decades due to their toxicity. Parents fear that their children's seizures, aching joints and frequent
colds and fevers have been caused by the pesticides.
I would be freaking out too: "The pesticides found in a pile of soil at the school are so dangerous
they were banned by the federal government two decades ago. Chlordane,
dieldrin and aldrin are neurotoxins, working on humans as they do on
bugs -- by attacking the central nervous system. But because of the
lack of research, doctors and scientists can give parents and teachers
only vague information about the long-term risks."
Yikes.
Practically all the school's teachers are freaking out, too, and most have retained legal representation and are also being tested for various maladies including autoimmune disease.
And this is just one school. What's in the dirt at your kids' school? Is it right that we have to worry about all this?
