Timberland herbicide spraying sickens a community
Companies deposit thousands of pounds of herbicides each year on Oregon forests.
GOLD BEACH, OREGON
It began with the whir of a helicopter and a bad smell and the even worse memories that the smell invoked, memories better left on the other side of the world. Within 24 hours of the incident, Keith Wright had a terrible cough, and blood poured from his mouth onto his naked body, staining the shower pink.
Outside, the October day was gray, the sun having slid off to a better place. The winds, swept aloft by the nearby Pacific Ocean, swirled above the stands of fir trees that rise above the small, clean one-story house. Wright’s uncle, Jack Cox, who lives with him, had a ferocious nosebleed. At the same time, 33 other people, scattered up rabbit-hole roads throughout the valley, suffered in different ways: Strange rashes bloomed on their arms and foreheads, and some victims crouched over the toilet for hours, crippled by sudden diarrhea. Others were struck by nausea, headaches and asthma attacks. Wright, struggling with his own symptoms, was unaware of his neighbors’ troubles. All he knew is that up until the yellow-and-white helicopter flew overhead, he’d felt just fine, working on the carburetor of his ’79 Dodge truck in his front yard.
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Over the next several weeks, local doctors and nurses were mystified by the ailments that plagued members of this coastal town, a picturesque spot nestled at the mouth of the Rogue River, where it empties into the Pacific Ocean. Many people stayed sick, or got even sicker. A horse went blind. One dog died.
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