Last Wednesday my coworkers and I were notified that our school's campus would be treated with pesticide that Friday. The spraying would be no biggie for the kids because Friday was scheduled as a non-school day for students. It would, however, be a bigger biggie for us adults because Friday was scheduled as a staff development day for all employees.
Why would pesticides be sprayed on a day that staff are on campus and students aren't, rather than on a day when the school is vacant? Long story short, as part of Special Ed. I am an employee of the county, not of the district in which the school our program is housed on belongs. The pesticide spraying was scheduled by the district, to take place at all schools in the district, occurring on a staff development day when all district employees were scheduled to work offsite. Meanwhile, my county colleagues and I were still scheduled to work on our campus site, spray or no spray.
To be honest, when I read the email with the pesticide warning I didn't think much of it. It was when I went to lunch in the staff room that day that I heard the concerns of my colleagues who weren't sure if working on campus during the spray would be a good idea. While the notice only warned caution and did not state that it would be unsafe for staff to be present, some of my coworkers with allergies and autoimmune systems were concerned with the possibility of exposure. And then there was me; with a bun in the oven and an obviously dense pregnant brain... could I be at risk, too?
It was a near unanimous opinion among my coworkers that I shouldn't be at school the day of the spray. When I filled Eric in on the debacle, he also felt very strongly about me not being around the pesticide on Friday. So I called Kaiser, who forwarded me to the advice nurse, who forwarded me to my doctor's office, who forwarded me to CTIS Pregnancy Health Information Line, where I was unable to reach a live representative. I left a message and went to their website to try connecting to their chat counseling service, but it was offline. I submitted an email query instead and began playing the waiting game.
CTIS returned my call the next day and I spent nearly an hour on the phone with a counselor listening to her read from medical studies and reports and MSDS about the affects of the active ingredient in the pesticide that would be used. All the research summed up to inconclusive results as the toxicological properties of the chemical have not been thoroughly tested on humans, let alone pregnant women and unborn human fetuses. In the end, it was pretty much my decision to make based on my comfort level whether I would choose to err on the side of caution or take the chance that there would be no assumed risk. Because Eric had so clearly spoken his mind on the issue, I decided to support his feelings on the subject.
When I called Kaiser back to report my 'findings' from CTIS to my doctor's office, they agreed to write me a doctor's note requesting that I work at a different location during the day of the pesticide spray. I then called my offsite manager to explain the situation and she was more than generous about the issue and agreed that I had an "understandable concern." Without hesitation, she scheduled me to work at her office for the day and asked my on-site supervisor to send projects over for me to work on. Needless to say, I was extremely thankful for the manner in which everyone took care in my (and Eric's) worry and made the necessary arrangements to accommodate my safety, as well as my child's, without the slightest debate or disapproval.
Spray day came and went and I enjoyed the time spent working in my boss' office. Baby and I are very grateful to be surrounded by so many fabulous people in my workplace and appreciate everyone who voiced their concerns in my favor. And Eric is satisfied that he didn't have to open up a can of whoopass on anyone threatening to not let him get his way!
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