Battle Over Pesticide Pits Demand For Proof Against Precautions For Health
Claudia Angulo and her four children live in Orange Cove, California, a corner of Fresno County known for its citrus. She says when planes fly over the orange grove next to their apartment building and spray pesticides on the trees, she and her family experience headaches , exhaustion and difficulty breathing. But Angulo is concerned about an even more serious health problem in her 11-year-old son Isaac. When she was pregnant with him, she worked at a packing house, handling freshly picked citrus . After Isaac was born, Angulo says she noticed his development seemed slow and strange. “I saw that he didn’t play the same as other kids,” she says. “He didn’t learn the same.” She says his behavior was aggressive and antisocial. And she tells a story about the time he even threatened suicide — when he was only four years old. When he was five, a doctor diagnosed with him ADHD. Angulo says several other pregnant women she worked with at the packing house also had children who developed behav...