Dow Rep:
I dealt with a well
contamination which had initially been investigated by my state's
health department. This well contamination occurred about six weeks
prior to my getting involved. The state was taking a long time getting results back
to the homeowner from analyzing water samples after what was clearly a
Dursban well contamination. After a lot of frustration in the time
it was taking to get the results, the pest control company that was
involved called me. This wasn't the way well decontaminations
normally occurred. Usually the pest control company calls Dow and
the decontamination process is completed quickly and without any involvement
by
the state health department.
I had the pest
control company follow the "Dow Well Decontamination
Procedure for
Chlorpyrifos". Afterwards a sample of the decontaminated water was split with the
state, both the state and the Dow lab analyzed water from the same
sample. Dow's results came back as non-detectable for
chlorpyrifos. I called the state's representative to determine what
their results were and to informed them of the Dow results. They
said that they also found no chlorpyrifos but did find something
else. They weren't sure what is was and said they'd get back to us
the next day.
I called the next day
and was told that what the water had in it was chlorpyrifos oxon.
Not knowing about this material, I
asked what it was. I asked about the toxicity of chlorpyrifos
oxon and was told by the state representative that very little
toxicology work had been done on chlorpyrifos oxon but it was
thought to be about 3,000 times more toxic than chlorpyrifos.
After ending the
telephone call with the state I called Dow's Chlorpyrifos
Product Development Manager (Dr. Mike Chambers). I asked him what chlorpyrifos oxon was.
He
immediately said, "Oh they know about that too!".
I replied, "What do
you mean 'Oh'. And what does 'Too' mean".
He continued on to
say that, "Two other states had found out about it".
I said, "What do you
mean 'Found out' "?
I was completely
shocked at what I was hearing and I also realized that I didn't
really want to learn what I was hearing. It completely destroyed any
credibility that Dow had with me. I realized that Dow had used me
and all other Dow reps. Dow had taken advantage of all those who had experienced water
contaminations and trusted Dow to do the right thing. All those
families drank chlorpyrifos oxon because of Dow's lies.
He informed me that
Dow knew about the chlorpyrifos oxon for a long time and told me
about the other states' discoveries. It had been a decision by
Holzschu, Howell, and Robertson to not investigate it further or
acknowledge the issue.
That was when I
learned of the hoax Dow had created. It had been started many years
earlier. I had never heard of
chlorpyrifos oxon before this event. I had dealt with lots of well
contaminations. I had been assured by many Dow individuals that the
chlorination process caused the complete destruction of chlorpyrifos in the water. All that was lies. I realized that what
Dow had done and was doing was affecting so many people, entire
families. I still continue to learn more everyday about what Dow has
done
with Dursban. How its problems were covered up to make the product
seem better than it was.
