Students ill after crop dusting exercise near schools

SOME 63 pupils from two secondary schools in Barrackpore fell ill yesterday and had to be rushed to hospital. It is believed that aerial spraying of the nearby canefields shortly after 6 am, caused an infiltration of chemicals into the ASJA Girls College and the Barrackpore Senior Comprehen-sive Schools causing many pupils in both schools to vomit, breathe heavily, feel dizzy and nauseous.  The Sugar Manufacturing Company Ltd.  which took over operations from the now defunct Caroni (1975) Ltd, acknowledged that the incident was caused during routine aerial spraying in the company’s effort to control the froghopper pest in the Barrackpore canefields.

Yesterday, six Emergency Health Services ambulances, a PTSC bus, fire services ambulance and even parents’ private cars were used to take the sick children to the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH). Except for two pupils, all were treated at the Accident and Emergency Department (A and E) and discharged. Police, who were called out after the incident, said that around 6.30 am, a crop duster aircraft sprayed several fields which are in the vicinity of both schools. The ASJA College at GP Road is located a few miles from the Barrackpore Senior Secondary School which is on the main road. One teacher told Newsday that within minutes of the spraying overhead, “Children just start falling.” She added, “You just did not know who to help.” 

Christine Nerotan, a Barrackpore pupil, recalled, “A plane was spraying. Then I just saw children trembling. Some were fainting and vomiting.” Teachers rushed children to the school’s sick-room, but within minutes it became overcrowded. Describing her experience, Amanda Gopaul, an ASJA Girls student, said, “Everybody was outside liming when a plane passed spraying the cane. Then I saw children like they were fainting. I was feeling a trembling inside and real weak.” It was chaos at the hospital’s A and E Department, where parents tried to jostle with nurses and EHS paramedics amid the usual early morning patients, in order to remain close to their children. Vindra Cummings said she, like most parents, was prevented from going into the A and E Department by security guards. Head of the department, Dr Steve Ramroop, said the children were thoroughly examined and the necessary medical care administered. However, he said there should have been a preliminary examination of the children by doctors at the respective health centres. Only the critically ill patients, he added, should have been brought to hospital.