Got sprayed by a crop duster yesterday

[670cc]

Watch out for low flying planes and wear your gear. Yesterday the wife on her Reflex, and I on my NC, we're taking a countryside ride to a restaurant. I should have known better after seeing a plane spraying a cornfield, but we proceeded down the public county highway only to get directly in the path of the spray. The corn being 8 feet tall blocking our view, plus having ear plugs muffling the sound, gave no warning until the plane swooped over the highway directly ahead, sprayer still going. I guess these types don't care who's in their path, they just have a job to do.

Anyway, now I'm heading out to go wash the bikes and our jackets. I don't know what the stuff was.

 

[Bert]

It's probably nothing you would want to touch without gloves and a mask.

 

[Bug Dr.]

I worked on a catfish farm for two summers as a college student. My boss and I were driving the levees and watched a crop duster spraying a rice field when the wind was blowing about 25 mph. The spray drifted into two of the ponds and it took about five minutes before fish started going belly up. He called the local flying service while sitting on the levee. It was a conversation I wish I had recorded.

Just think, they used to use human markers with a tarp that would walk so many paces along the edge of the fields before they put GPS inside the planes.......and pesticides have generally become safer over time. Yikes!

I worked with some pretty nasty stuff when I was doing my doctoral research in cotton called Aldicarb, trade name Temik. At the time it was the most toxic substance the EPA still registered. They said you could kill a man by lunch if you sprinkled some Temik in his shoes in the morning. As your feet would sweat your body would absorb a lethal dose. It smelled pretty bad too.

But I'm sure you'll be fine

Launder everything and take a shower
Mike

 

[670cc]

There's was a big news item locally a couple years ago where a sprayer plane sprayed a field with young people working in the field, probably detasselers (removing corn tassels as part of the cross pollination process). They were taken to the hospital for detox. The crazy thing was the sprayer pilot was somehow never identified and no one took responsibility. How could law enforcement not figure out what company was spraying fields and where that day?

 

[JDE]

Wow! That sucks! Yes, wash everything!!! Twice maybe. I almost got hit by one a few weeks ago during my commute home from work. Luckily I had enough time to see it coming and slow way down so I didn't catch much of the spray. I work for a chemical company and make agricultural weed killers for a living, you definitely don't want much exposure to that stuff. If you both haven't already, take a shower too.

 

[670cc]

Thinking of contacting the county health department Monday just for info. It's a county with a total population of about 18,000, so their resources are probably limited. If nothing else I'll write a letter to the local newspaper and it would probably be published.

 

[pahondafan]

Your gear probably saved you, even if it was mesh. You probably already rinsed it off but I hope you were careful not to touch the runoff.

In addition to the County Ag department you could try the FAA. You appear to be in this region:
Regional Offices & Aeronautical Center – Great Lakes Region

I see they have a 24hr incident response line. I'll bet you could get someones attention at that number.

 

[670cc]

Your gear probably saved you, even if it was mesh. You probably already rinsed it off but I hope you were careful not to touch the runoff.

In addition to the County Ag department you could try the FAA. You appear to be in this region:
Regional Offices & Aeronautical Center – Great Lakes Region

I see they have a 24hr incident response line. I'll bet you could get someones attention at that number.

Great info. Thanks. I just got off the phone with a sheriff's deputy who is going to locate the property owner and determine who they hired to spray that field. The deputy brought up a good point that it could have been worse for a bicyclist or pedestrian with no protective gear on.

 

[L.B.S.]

Good grief! Hope you two have no ill effects from this!

Stuff like that freaks me out, to be honest. Climate change, hah! I think all the bazillions of bizarro chemicals, pesticides, growth hormones, genetically diddled food sources, rampant pharmaceutical drug experimentation, etc., etc., are far more likely to do us all in or have more long term profoundly bad consequences...

 

[ziggie]

That's sucks.I see them all the time but never got sprayed.wash good.hopefully dosent clog up your air filter.hope nothing bad got on you.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Mike Cash]

I would try to get them to replace my riding gear and pay for a thorough cleaning of my bike.

 

[Bug Dr.]

I would try to get them to replace my riding gear and pay for a thorough cleaning of my bike.

Damn! This isn't agent orange! If the chemical doesn't melt anything then simple soap and water will safely remove any residue. You can wash yourself and your clothes and they will be fine. Nobody knows what was being sprayed. Herbicides, fungicides and insecticides have drastically differing rates of acute toxicity in humans and then it depends on what group of chemicals those come from. Most people's yards are several times more toxic if they use pesticides than agricultural fields. The homeowner's stance is: if a little works a lot must be better. Farmers can't afford that same mentality.

Let's not call attorneys just yet.
Mike

 

[Mike Cash]

Damn! This isn't agent orange! If the chemical doesn't melt anything then simple soap and water will safely remove any residue. You can wash yourself and your clothes and they will be fine. Nobody knows what was being sprayed. Herbicides, fungicides and insecticides have drastically differing rates of acute toxicity in humans and then it depends on what group of chemicals those come from. Most people's yards are several times more toxic if they use pesticides than agricultural fields. The homeowner's stance is: if a little works a lot must be better. Farmers can't afford that same mentality.

Let's not call attorneys just yet.
Mike

I didn't say I would expect them to replace my gear and wash my bike. But I would sure as hell mention it.

The most I would expect is the cost of cleaning and an offer to wash my bike.

I don't recall suggesting anything about attorneys. Surely reasonable responsible adults can handle something like this without them, can't they?

 

[Cyclerosis]

I'll write a letter to the local newspaper and it would probably be published

Great idea! Let them do something worth while for a change!

 

[MZ5]

Was there a very strong, probably-offensive odor, Greg? If not, it was _probably_ not an insecticide, or at worst a very 'soft' insecticide (many now are sufficiently target-specific that they would have trouble causing a human much harm unless you got into the concentrate). Strong and not-pleasant odorants are added to the more dangerous insecticides, to warn people away. Wash well, pay attention to how you feel. I bet you'll be fine, if/since you haven't had trouble yet. I've been very lightly over-sprayed by an airplane before, in shirt sleeves while I was walking somewhere, for some reason. I must've run out of gas or something. No clue why I kept walking (or didn't run past); I saw the plane.

Just think, they used to use human markers with a tarp that would walk so many paces along the edge of the fields before they put GPS inside the planes...

Well... perhaps if you go far enough back. All the planes I used to see (and hire; I was a farmer for a long time) used streamers very like toilet paper, with a square of cardboard at the end as a weight. They dropped them at the end of the pass so they knew where to start when they turned around.

I worked with some pretty nasty stuff when I was doing my doctoral research in cotton called Aldicarb, trade name Temik. At the time it was the most toxic substance the EPA still registered. They said you could kill a man by lunch if you sprinkled some Temik in his shoes in the morning. As your feet would sweat your body would absorb a lethal dose. It smelled pretty bad too.

Temik is a terrific product. Used to use gobs of it in potatoes. It's dangerous if mis-handled, but like all 'dangerous' inanimate things, perfectly fine if you handle it properly. A neighbor's hired man died (YEARS ago) after he put an empty Temik sack over his head one day (with eye holes cut out) to keep the dust off him. It was very sad. No idea what he was thinking.

The odor is an additive to tell you to STAY AWAY.

 

[MZ5]

Forgot:
The state's Department of Agriculture is involved with pesticide labeling, and recordkeeping requirements relative to applications.

 

[NCer]

Sucks big time! Good to hear that you are OK and working on the solution!

 

[Bug Dr.]

I would try to get them to replace my riding gear and pay for a thorough cleaning of my bike.

So, you would "try to get them to replace" (emphasis yours) your riding gear without expecting it? Alrighty then. Cost of cleaning the bike? They would probably tell you to ride up to the end of the runway where they could hose off your bike with a garden hose.

Yes, I've seen those cardboard markers dropped from planes. I've also seen a guy on each end of the field with an orange tarp and I'm not that old. I've never farmed but I've been around it my whole life and have worked in research, industry and academia.
Mike

 

[Mike Cash]

So, you would "try to get them to replace" (emphasis yours) your riding gear without expecting it? Alrighty then. Cost of cleaning the bike? They would probably tell you to ride up to the end of the runway where they could hose off your bike with a garden hose.

I make it a habit to choose my words and compose my sentences carefully and appreciate when people react to what I wrote instead of to whatever they think I wrote (such as leaping to the conclusion I suggested suing them, for example). There is no logical inconsistency between my two statements.

If they would rather wash the bike themselves than pay to have it done, that would be fine by me.

 

[Bug Dr.]

Unrealistic expectations was all I was trying to point out Mr. Cash. Also, the direction the thread was heading was to an apocalyptic demise of the OP and I simply tried to pull in the reigns. Sorry if you misunderstood my "let's not call the attorneys just yet" was any implication that YOU were going to sue anyone. Being located in Japan I fail to see how that would accomplish anything useful........much like this banter.

I still believe your original comment was based on unrealistic expectations.

I'm done
Mike