BLM Investigates After Company Sprays Pesticide On Public Land Without License . News | OPB

 "Since 2010, state and federal agencies awarded Applebee Aviation more than $1 million in contracts to apply fertilizer and pesticides on public land in Oregon and Washington.4 During that same span, Applebee Aviation tallied more complaints, violations and vehicle crashes than any other aerial pesticide operator in Oregon, according to state and federal records.

Complaints are not rare for companies in the business of spraying chemicals on Oregon forestland, which is both highly visible and controversial. Many licensed operators have at least one complaint against them, according to Oregon Department of Agriculture data.

Applebee Aviation has 15, more than any other aerial pesticide operator in the state.

Applebee also has been cited for violations in four different cases in Oregon and one in Washington since 2010. In those cases, Applebee Aviation staff failed to review pesticide labels before applying them, allowed chemicals to drift onto a bicyclist and sprayed a weed killer toxic to fish over a creek where salmon and steelhead spawn. Two other cases are pending.


Also during the past six years, Applebee Aviation has been involved in three crashes, according to FAA data. One was fatal.7

Meanwhile, Applebee Aviation has won nearly $1 million in bids for aerial herbicide spraying from the Washington Department of Natural Resources over the past six years.8 In 2015, the company won two contracts from the Oregon Department of Forestry, totaling near $50,000.9

Kevin Vanderlei, a former Applebee Aviation truck driver and pesticide handler, claims he was exposed to pesticides during jobs on DNR land. He recalls refilling a helicopter with broken nozzles, which caused pesticides to drip on him.

“I’m not talking about an occasional drip,” he said. “I’m talking about being doused in chemical every time I had to fill the helicopter.”"

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BLM Investigates After Company Sprays Pesticide On Public Land Without License . News | OPB

Health History

September 2014 - Arctic Regional Slope Corporation (ARSC) A "Fit For Work" physical was required to be allowed in the remote oil fields of Alaska. This test is very extensive in regards to respiratory and heart function due to the fact the nearest hospital isn't a quick ambulance ride away

December 2014 - Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 2ed Class Medical Certificate - A1 Health



April 215 - Mercy Medical Center, Roseburg, OR ER "Acute Chemical Exposure"

Whistleblower films Oregon timber workers getting sprayed with toxic herbicides | Righting Injustice

"At first Mr. Ivy wasn’t concerned. He listened to the assurances of company foresters and helicopter pilots who told him the chemicals wouldn’t harm him, and he trusted his strong physical constitution and good health.

After being repeatedly soaked with the chemicals, however, Mr. Ivy’s health began to deteriorate. He started taking refuge in his truck, closing the windows and doors, whenever the spraying occurred. Within weeks he was in an isolation unit of Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, Ore., diagnosed with a spectrum of health problems including burning lungs, a hacking cough, and “acute contact dermatitis” doctors attributed to “acute chemical exposure.”

To this day, Mr. Ivy coughs up blood and is pursuing a workers compensation claim with Applebee’s.

“When I was on site I was thinking I’d bounce back really quick,” Mr. Ivy told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “But it’s got me a little worried. I can’t breathe right.”

According to The Oregonian/Oregon Live, one of the weed killers that rained down on him and other workers was Velossa, which can cause irreversible eye damage. Another chemical used, 2 4-D, irritates skin and causes dizziness when inhaled.

Seneca Jones and Applebee Aviation coat the forest in herbicide to kill any weeds that compete with tree saplings. The timber company has just a brief window of time to control the weeds, so they douse the forest with chemicals heavily and frequently."

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Whistleblower films Oregon timber workers getting sprayed with toxic herbicides | Righting Injustice

Darryl Ivy Interview: People Don't Realize That These Chemicals Are a Threat

Kathleen Hallal, GMO Free News: There are other people around and there's like a lady with the kid with the dog kind of in the stream and you guys are working and you're dumping the bucket that's been full of.... Darryl: I think it was atrazine being rinsed and filled in the stream and the truck's leaking all over the place right next to the stream and everyone knows what's going on and what's surprising to me is how casual everybody else is while handling these chemicals you know. Kathleen: We know about Tyrone Hayes and his findings of atrazine especially in streams you know changing the sexes of frogs and causing deformations and wreaking all kinds of havoc and how the company Syngenta hired private investigators to harass him and try to ruin his life and get him fired from Berkeley so we know the hazards of these chemicals because brave scientists like Evan (E.G. Vallianatos) and like Tyrone Hayes have been brave enough to speak out about these chemicals and you kind of had an idea, right? You're not feeling so well, you're around these chemicals and you're not feeling so well, but what's interesting is how other people who are handling them are so casual about it. She has her baby right near where they're putting it in the stream, and her dog. I think that at least for me what strikes me about your story is how... how many people don't realize that these chemicals are a threat. You were feeling it, you were seeing it, and you'd been to a talk prior to the job so you knew that something was going on that people needed to be aware of, so you started filming this. So why don't you talk a little bit about that? Were you the only person that knew that things were being mishandled? Darryl: No, everybody knows that. In some of my videos my coworker --the other driver-- you know, he also admits to being sprayed and getting welts on his arms. That was one of the reasons I discounted maybe that these chemicals are really, really bad because the other driver had been there for quite a bit longer. My pilot had been there for twenty years, been spraying and he was a really, really good guy and he didn't look blotchy, and he didn't look like he had any what we would all assume is somebody who's been dipped in a chemical toxic bucket.

Seneca Timber forestry representative, who is monitoring the job site, with her child and dog at the creek we used to get water and wash buckets. (See Video)

He seemed normal. And so I just assumed it was all normal. But, as far as the forester there with her child, that was really disheartening because I tell people I'm 45 years old. I'm done making babies but if these chemicals, in days, can put me into an emergency room with the hazmat team trying to burn my clothes and me in a decontamination unit getting zapped by this high powered water and then a special ventilation room as if I had ebola, you know, its really disheartening to think what would these chemicals do to a pregnant lady or developing child? And here I am driving Kathleen: Go back...you skipped a really interesting part of your story . So you eventually got very sick, and you were put in the hospital ? Darryl: Oh yes, seventeen days in. I could no longer function properly. I could not breathe right. I had lost so much sleep that I actually drove off... -- I have never done this in my life ever --- I fell asleep on a mountain road with thousands of gallons of chemicals in the back of my truck and have not admitted this to anybody up until right now. I was so tired--- so sleep-deprived and so messed up by the chemicals--- that I drove off the side of the road and just by blessing it was a big muddy little swampy area that I drove into and another truck was able to come back hook up to me, and pull me out. I poured bottles of water over my head and I realized Holy Moly! I can't even operate... I can't even even drive this truck on a forest road much less on a road where there's other people that I could run into, and it really started hit me hard. I had no choice but go to the hospital. I could not function anymore. And it was disgruntling, because normally I'm more resilient than the guy next to me. I always try to be the..you know in Alaska, we have a saying you know you don't have to be the fastest runner you just have to if a bear's chasing you you just have to run faster than the slower guy and I didn't want to be that guy. Kathleen: So you end up in the hospital and what's their reaction when they see you? Darryl: They made me stand outside the emergency room. They didn't even want me in the emergency room. And this is a testament to the two different sides of the stories that I heard from Beyond Toxics that night at the town hall meeting,and of course you know I've learned since then a lot of people would like to tell you these chemicals are very, very safe and then some of these people--- when you show up in the emergency room--- and they do research on the federal data sheets, make you stand outside the emergency room until they get their decontamination room ready and they strip you naked and take your clothes. They put them in hazmat buckets and I mean it goes to show that some people that are in the industry that are receiving financial monies will tell you that these chemicals are just fine and then a gentleman with Roseburg Fire Department his only job---his oath--- is to protect the public and not to protect the chem, not to say anything bad about the chemical---, His job was basically to protect people in that emergency room, to isolate me from them and so he knew what he was dealing with. And so I have to take sides with the public health officials that these chemicals are bad for you They treated me as if I just came out of an ebola situation and I thank them for it. They did a great job.

Darryl Ivy Interview: People Don't Realize That These Chemicals Are a Threat - YouTube:

"Our Daily Poison:" A Stark Look at Our Toxic Food Supply

 
"Our Daily Poison:" A Stark Look at Our Toxic Food Supply: The film “Our Daily Poison” covers a spectrum of toxins most people are exposed to on a regular basis, including agricultural chemicals, food additives, and endocrine-disrupting plastic chemicals

Your toxic burden is largely related to your purchasing decisions and lifestyle, as primary routes of chronic exposure include your diet, and personal care and household products

A report by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics warns that chemical exposures now represent a major threat to human health and reproduction

Pumping Out Of Creeks

pumping out of creeks from North Fork Studios on Vimeo.

Pumping Out of Creeks on Vimeo

Aviation company stops spraying, faces fines - Oregon - Capital Press

 "“Applebee Aviation demonstrated that it will ignore or fail to comply with any or all pesticide application requirements if compliance will cost it money,” the agency said in a civil penalty order.

The ODA claims that the company’s owner, Michael Applebee, asked the agency for an exception to the license suspension because the BLM contract was worth $3 million but was told such exceptions aren’t possible.

By disregarding the suspension order, Applebee Aviation has undermined the “level playing field” for pesticide applicators who follow the rules, which justifies “immediate and severe consequences,” ODA said in a court filing.

“Defendants’ actions threaten to cause irreparable harm by sending a message to the pesticide industry that pesticide operators may continue to operate even when they intentionally and blatantly violate the law,” the filing said."

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Aviation company stops spraying, faces fines - Oregon - Capital Press: