by Edward Husar, Quincy Herald-Whig

A national study found pesticide use in or near U.S. schools sickened more than 2,500 children and school employees over a five-year period.

While most of the illnesses were mild, the number of people affected has increased, the study found.

The report by researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health raised concerns about the use of chemicals used to kill insects and weeds on school grounds, disinfectants and farming pesticides that drift over nearby schools.

The Quincy School District, however, has not had any reported problems with pesticides or other chemicals in recent years, according to several school officials.

"I don't know of any students in Quincy schools who have been affected," said Rich Royalty, the district's business manager.

Dennis Peters, director of maintenance, said he can recall no chemical-related incidents in the 10 years he has worked for the district.

"In that 10 years I've not heard of any students or children ever being hurt or sick because of pesticides — or anything else for that matter," Peters said.

The study's lead author, Dr. Walter Alarcon, said one of the largest

recent incidents occurred in May when about 600 students and staff members were evacuated from an Edinburg, Texas, elementary school after pesticides sprayed on a cotton field drifted into the school's air conditioning system. About 30 students and nine staffers developed mild symptoms, including nausea and headaches.

The study, which appeared in a recent Journal of the American Medical Association, covered events from 1998 to 2002. None were as big as the Texas incident, Alarcon said.

The authors tallied reports from three pesticide surveillance systems, including a national database of calls to poison control centers. They found that 2,593 students and school employees developed pesticide-related illnesses in the five years studied. Only three illnesses were considered severe.

Most of the illnesses were in children. The number of children affected each year climbed from 59 to 104 among preschoolers and from 225 to 333 among children aged 6 to 17.

"I don't think we want to overwhelm people, but the study does provide evidence that using pesticides at schools is not innocuous and that there are better ways to use pesticides," said study co-author Dr. Geoffrey Calvert.

Claire Barnett of the Healthy Schools Network advocacy group said the total is likely a "deep undercount" because there are about 54 million U.S. schoolchildren and yet no comprehensive national tracking system.

The authors said the study underscores the need to reduce pesticide use through pest management programs that typically require schools to use pesticides as a last resort and to implement advance written notification when the chemicals are used. The guidelines also often recommend that spraying in schools or in nearby fields should occur only when students and staffers are not present.

All of those precautions, and others, are followed by the Quincy School District.

"We normally do not spray pesticides anytime but summertime so that we avoid the children at all cost," Peters said.

Likewise, herbicides used to control weeds are only used "when the children are not around," Peters said.

"We never would put any children at risk, ever," Peters said.

Peters said the district tries not to use pesticides to kill bugs when schools are in session. "We use sticky traps and a lot of different methods," he said. "Very seldom, I would say, do we ever use a chemical on the bugs."

Superintendent Tom Leahy said the district is required to notify parents if it is planning to use any pesticides while school sessions are under way. "You have to let them know what's being used and what's there," he said. "Kids may have an allergy to something."

Royalty said safety guidelines "have changed significantly over the years" in the use of pesticides and other chemicals around schools.

He recalls working in another district years ago when pesticides were used without all the guidelines that are in place today.

"If you had roaches in the kitchen, someone would just go in and spray and not tell anybody," he said. "They would just come in and spray the buildings, and students were there, employees were there. That's not the case anymore."

Activists seeking to reduce pesticide use contend many commonly used pesticides, including some involved in the study incidents, can increase risks for cancer, birth defects and nerve damage.

"The chronic long-term impacts of pesticide exposures have not been comprehensively evaluated; therefore, the potential for chronic health effects from pesticide exposures at schools should not be dismissed," the authors wrote.

Still, the overall rate of pesticide illnesses in schools is small — 7.4 cases per million children and 27.3 cases per million school employees, the authors said.

Jay Vroom, president of CropLife America, which represents suppliers of farming pesticides, said the report is alarmist and that pesticide use around schools "is well-regulated and can be managed to a level that does not present an unreasonable health risk."

Allen James, president of RISE, a trade group for makers of pesticides used in schools, faulted the study for relying on unverified reports and said the numbers nonetheless suggest that incidents are "extremely rare."

Angela Logomasini, a risk expert for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the protest over pesticide use is "hype" from anti-chemical activists.

"For decades, environmentalists have been trying to scare the public about pesticides when, in fact, pesticides pose little risk when used properly and are a critical part of controlling disease outbreaks and pest-related risks at schools," she said.