Australian Pesticides Map

Opinion

LETTER: Why spray chemicals everywhere?

29th Dec 2015 Bundaberg News Mail

MY QUESTION is, why do they do it?

With reckless abandon. Anywhere and everywhere. By the tank-fulls. Sloshed here, sloshed there.

Like dogs round a lamp post, it’s got to be done.

What am I talking about?

The spraying of chemicals by councils and contractors, of course.

Utterly oblivious to the angst, worry, concern they cause to those who maybe downwind of the stink that spreads from the spray from the waving wands and booms held with gay abandon by those who “are only doing their job”.

Recently I was woken by the bedroom suddenly filling with chemical spray drift.

Horribly, nose-stinging strong. I leapt out of bed, fearing the worst, having bad experiences with spray drift before.

I slammed the window shut but the house was already full of it.

Driving out onto our stretch of Childers Rd, it all was clear. For right along our 220m frontage, all the roadside grass had turned the yellow brown from being sprayed.

From the smell, it was not Glyphosphate/Roundup, which has little smell.

It must be something like 2-4D which lingers in the air for days and is a broadleaf weed killer.

It is vicious and scares the pants off me.

More so these days because 20 months ago I had my bladder and prostate removed because of an aggressive cancer.

Bladder cancer is attributed to “chemicals”.

I now live by the three-monthly oncology test and wait another year to get over the three-year hump to be reasonably confident of lasting five.

So at 73 you can understand my contempt for those who consider bottom lines and budgets and efficiency, in front of community wellbeing and health and peace of mind.

N VENTERS Bundaberg

https://www.news-mail.com.au/news/chemical-spraysmy-question-is-why-do-they-do-it/2884350/

2015 December: Childers Road Bundaberg. Pesticide: 2,4-D?

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Opinion

LETTER: Why spray chemicals everywhere?

29th Dec 2015 Bundaberg News Mail

MY QUESTION is, why do they do it?

With reckless abandon. Anywhere and everywhere. By the tank-fulls. Sloshed here, sloshed there.

Like dogs round a lamp post, it’s got to be done.

What am I talking about?

The spraying of chemicals by councils and contractors, of course.

Utterly oblivious to the angst, worry, concern they cause to those who maybe downwind of the stink that spreads from the spray from the waving wands and booms held with gay abandon by those who “are only doing their job”.

Recently I was woken by the bedroom suddenly filling with chemical spray drift.

Horribly, nose-stinging strong. I leapt out of bed, fearing the worst, having bad experiences with spray drift before.

I slammed the window shut but the house was already full of it.

Driving out onto our stretch of Childers Rd, it all was clear. For right along our 220m frontage, all the roadside grass had turned the yellow brown from being sprayed.

From the smell, it was not Glyphosphate/Roundup, which has little smell.

It must be something like 2-4D which lingers in the air for days and is a broadleaf weed killer.

It is vicious and scares the pants off me.

More so these days because 20 months ago I had my bladder and prostate removed because of an aggressive cancer.

Bladder cancer is attributed to “chemicals”.

I now live by the three-monthly oncology test and wait another year to get over the three-year hump to be reasonably confident of lasting five.

So at 73 you can understand my contempt for those who consider bottom lines and budgets and efficiency, in front of community wellbeing and health and peace of mind.

N VENTERS Bundaberg

https://www.news-mail.com.au/news/chemical-spraysmy-question-is-why-do-they-do-it/2884350/