E. coli conservatives (15): spraying poison by schools

Not to fear, America's brave and stalwart regulators are on the case on the matter of drifting pesticides, which an AP investigation [1] has found has exposed perhaps thousands of schoolchildren "to farm chemicals linked to sickness, brain damage and birth defects. The family of at least one California teenager suspects pesticides caused her death."

Some highlights:

• "There are no federal laws specifically against spraying near schools."

• "In the majority of cases, people who didn't follow the laws received at best a $400 fine."

•"The Environmental Protection Agency does not keep comprehensive national figures on students and teachers sickened by drifting pesticide... EPA officials say they have no idea how often pesticides waft onto school grounds. The EPA must register pesticides before they are sold, but federal law does not restrict where they can be sprayed."

•"When citrus trees blossom and grapevines climb trellises, {Domitila] Lemus [whose granddaughter goes to school 150 feet from an orange grove] prays to the Virgin Mary that her granddaughter won't come home with her eyes watering and head pounding, unable to breathe."

Their prayer-and-family-values bases thereby covered, we here at The Big Con predict conservatives will prove indifferent at the news.