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Katherine H of Rootsown Ohio
Katherine H of Rootstown Ohio
The following writing is Katherine’s direct description of her experience with her neighbor.
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On June 25th, 2019 my husband witnessed the neighbor standing near the border of our property
line spraying in an arc into our property onto and around one of our vegetable gardens.
He hurried outside to stop him stating, "stop, you're poisoning our vegetables." The neighbor
replied, "I'm sick of your plants." He continued spraying the border of our property and beyond for
another 15 minutes approximately.
I weeded the vegetable bed on June 27th and felt ill with a headache that lasted a couple of days.
On June 28th, I took well intentioned advice, prior to knowing the chemical substance that he
sprayed and washed some kale from the garden. Made a salad and ate it.
Over the next several days, my gut function slowed and then stopped. I suffered with constipation
and my stomach wasn't emptying for hours after subsequent meals. I felt ill and suffered with a
headache for approximately 5 days.
Then my digestion shifted between constipation and diarrhea for several weeks. It is important to
note that I teach holistic health and my digestion was quite optimal prior to this incident.
I avoided interaction with my lawn and garden for several weeks and on July 23, 2019, I mowed, did
some weeding in a flower garden, and used a string trimmer on the lawn. I noticed certain species
of plants were brown and wilted. I also noticed that the once rich and loamy soil was absent of any
earthworms.
The next morning, I woke with diarrhea and terrible stomach cramps. I did a basti (verbalized
enema and found no relief. I brewed some "happy gut" tea and roasted some vegetables and
cooked some white rice to try to ease the painful condition.
Sleep was difficult that night. I woke intermittently with abdominal and chest pain and a wheezing
sound coming from my lungs. My bowels felt raw. The splitting headache continued.
I made an appointment to see my doctor. She said there was a GI thing going around. When she
palpated my abdomen, she said that this was different and ordered an x-ray. My bowels were
severely inflamed.
I ate 2 bananas that day and spent most of the day sleeping.
On July 26, 2022, I started to feel a bit better. I finally had a well formed stool. The bowels were still
sore but not in a debilitating way.
On August 13 I weeded the garden wearing long sleeves and gloves. In about 12 hours my sinuses
became irritated and mucousy. This lasted for about 14 hours.
Every time I interacted with the garden for the rest of the summer, I had an adverse reaction even
though I was careful to wear protective clothing.
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Karens’ story is a common occurrence we hear from our callers, where when they ask a neighbor to
avoid spraying their property, the neighbor becomes either dismissive or combative and
antagonistic and even intentionally sprays the other’s property.
Beyond Pesticides often provides callers like Karen's with some of the following:
• Our reminders to Document everything and to keep the incidents on file with their State
Pesticide agencies.
• Our What To Do page as a checklist of items to keep in mind
• Our Tips on working with Lawyers including our attorney’s lists for the state the incidents
are happening in and who have a history of working on toxic tort cases
• Other lab and testing information
• Soil remediation option information