On a Sunday morning in May, Clelia Sheppard was walking her dogs near her home in Cape Charles when she inhaled a gust of moist air.
“You can sort of tell you’re walking into an invisible cloud of something,” she said. “It kind of felt like a giant Febreze went into my face.”
She could see it was coming from a small plane spraying pesticides on the agricultural field across the street.
During the following days, Sheppard said she felt disoriented and sick, including developing a migraine and irritated eyes.
She quickly started thinking it must be linked to the aerial spraying. She visited a doctor, but they could not provide any insight into how to directly make a connection.
The experience prompted Sheppard to learn about the potential health and environmental impacts of pesticide exposure and the challenges of managing the issue.
Now, she’s spreading the word.
“It’s a very serious issue to me that has decades-long consequences, and I just wish we could do more to let people know that they're not being a villain or a complainer for having legitimate concerns about what they might be exposed to.”
In June, Sheppard filed a complaint with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, or VDACS, asking officials to investigate.
A state investigator later confirmed the chemical used by the aerial applicator that May day was a fungicide called Eluvium, but has not followed up since, Sheppard said.
WHRO could not reach the owner of the Cape Charles farm property for comment.
VDACS spokesperson Mike Wallace said in an email that the agency does not confirm or deny the existence of a pesticide investigation until it is formally concluded.
The state regulates the use of pesticides to ensure compliance with the Virginia Pesticide Control Act and related regulations, he wrote. That includes certifying pesticide applicators, registering products, licensing businesses, conducting routine inspections and investigating allegations of misuse.
“For investigations in which there is substantial evidence that a violation(s) of any of the provisions of the Act or Regulations has occurred, enforcement action may be taken,” such as civil penalties, Wallace said.
It is legal and routine nationwide to spray pesticides, allowing farmers to treat large fields without damaging soil with heavy equipment.
Misuse could include doing so without a license, failing to properly dispose of pesticide materials or using a banned product, according to VDACS.
Eluvium is legal in Virginia in adherence to state and federal regulations.
Sheppard said she grew up on the Eastern Shore and has seen crop dusting as a regular part of life. But she always wondered about potential ramifications.
Her suspicions deepened after a health scare with her cat, Jamie, in May of last year.
Jamie often wanders outside of the house, Sheppard said. After one venture, the cat started struggling to breathe and was rushed to a veterinarian, where he survived after time on a ventilator.
When Sheppard felt sick around the same time of year, she saw it as a pattern and dove into more research.
That included connecting with Beyond Pesticides, a nonprofit that advocates for nontoxic farming practices to protect human health and the environment.
Director Jay Feldman said the issue described by Sheppard is a common one known as “drift,” when pesticide droplets move through the air or water to a site other than the intended area.
Beyond Pesticides has raised the issue with regulators that exposures associated with drift “are not calculated as part of the determination on safety of the product,” he said.
That makes it hard to enforce violations or prove damages.
“Causation that a chemical exposure caused an adverse health effect is a difficult proposition, given that we are exposed to mixtures of chemicals, household products, residues in food, all the time, day in and day out,” Feldman said. “To define that particular exposure as related to an adverse health event can be done, but it requires some pre-planning and monitoring.”
That’s the responsibility of officials, he said.
“The burden should not fall on the people who are exposed to prove after the fact that their exposure, which we know is going on, causes them illness.”
The nonprofit recently wrote to Virginia’s agriculture department on Sheppard’s behalf, noting that the fungicide used is known to be associated with health problems such as organ damage, neurotoxicity, respiratory irritation, fatigue and headaches.
Pesticides can also contaminate waterways, contributing to issues in the Chesapeake Bay, the group wrote.
Feldman said as part of the state’s investigation, officials should go beyond asking the farmer what chemical was used, and physically evaluate residues around the site.
His organization advocates for transitioning to organic farming methods, such as using natural pesticides, beneficial insects and crop rotation.
On a societal scale, such changes would require significant investment to help and incentivize farmers, Feldman acknowledged. But the current system also comes with health costs to individuals, including those doing the spraying.
Sheppard said she’d love to see the industry shift away from pesticides. But in the short term, she wants officials to develop a warning program to notify residents about pesticide use.
“How can we all work together with the various farmers here to let us know when they're out there? And so ‘for this day, steer clear.’”
Agriculture is a key piece of the Shore’s economy and heritage, and she doesn’t want to threaten that.
“Two things can be true at once. We can allow the thriving agricultural community to succeed and go on unimpeded, while also asking for a little more transparency and paying attention to our own health concerns and advocating for members of our community.”
