Posted on: Saturday, October 13, 2001

Insecticide sickens Pahoa students

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

PAHOA, Hawai'i — Pesticide drift from a neighboring farm sent seven students and two staff members from Pahoa Intermediate and High School to Hilo Medical Center yesterday with dizziness and nausea.

Parents of about a half-dozen other students brought their children into the emergency room as a precaution. A small decontamination shower was set up in the parking lot for them.

The source of the drift was a farmer spraying malathion, an insecticide commonly used to control mosquitoes and a variety of insects that attack fruits, vegetables and other plants. Malathion also is used to control ticks and fleas on pets.

Pahoa Principal Maring Gacusana said two students reported to the school health room around 11 a.m. with nausea and dizziness. More children soon experienced symptoms and were rinsed down at the physical education facilities with the help of a fire department crew and were given a change of clothes.

Those taken to the hospital were expected to be held for several hours for observation.

Police were called in from their Pahoa substation to help control a growing crowd of concerned parents and students, as officials developed a plan of what to tell families.