How I (and my son, and my neighbour) Got Poisoned in a New South Wales Department of Housing Unit When it was Treated With Pesticide.

My name is Murray Thompson, I am a professional artist (see my websites) and I live in a Department of Housing (DOH) unit in North-Western Sydney. Despite my giving the DOH four warnings over four years regarding my chemical sensitivity (this was prior to accepting a DOH unit), my unit was 'nuked' with a synthetic pyrethroid termiticide (quite a common agricultural poison) -- one classified by the USEPA as a possible human carcinogen -- without so much as a mild caution in terms of even basic toxicological cautions or public health warnings.

(Click on picture to visit Poisoned People website.)

See my warnings, as listed in 4 consecutive DOH Eligibility Review Surveys (each 4 pages long) that I had to fill out as I waited for a unit to become available:

I had originally advised the DOH was that there were termites in the fence only. A thorough inspection of my unit by the first pest technician resulted in a clean bill of health for my unit. There were not only no termites in the unit, the technician also asserted that the particular timbers used in my unit's construction were not palatable to termites and would therefore not attract their attention. In other words, he said the termites would not move from the fence line into my unit.

And yet, to add insult and injury to the acute symptoms of headache, nausea, dizziness and crippling fatigue I developed immediately as the first termiticide spraying was actually taking place outside my front door, I also had a second spraying forced upon me a few weeks later when the first failed to annihilate all the termites in the side fence.

Even though I pleaded with this new pest technician to not spray the fence (I had asked the DOH only to remove the destroyed fence), he said he had to because he had to be seen to be doing something productive in the eyes of the DOH. The pest technician didn't listen to me. And the DOH strangely don't want to know me, now that I've informed them of 3 poisoned people. At one point I was promised a comprehensive technical reply to my toxicological concerns, but that never materialized. It seems that if there is a chance of an organization being revealed as incompetent, that organization just closes ranks and ignores the complainant in the hopes that sickness or exhaustion (or even death in the case of World War II concentration camp survivors and the I. G. Farben corporate parentage of companies like Bayer, BASF, etc) eventually shuts down the 'problem'. This is human corporate nature (an interesting, but very dangerous animal): the corporation is most important; it must survive and be seen to be right, good and professional; all else (including the truth) is of much lesser importance.

In fact, the DOH have ignored over 90% of all my letters and emails to them over this poisoning issue. As well, because I am active in trying to help other DOH tenants (which automatically means I am a "troublemaker", right?), I am also soundly ignored in terms of other safety and ethical issues relating to elderly DOH tenants living in my area. Every one of my -- I think it was -- FOUR letters that I sent to the DOH regarding a massive buildup of leaves on the roof of a DOH block of units for senior citizens was ignored. No written replies at all to my concerns over the huge fire risk that these leaves posed to these elderly people were forthcoming from the DOH's local Richmond office. The leaves were eventually cleaned up, months after my initial contacts with the DOH. Obviously this all means that DOH tenants' safety does not rate highly in the eyes of the NSW Department of Housing hierarchy! Certainly it means that getting a reply from the DOH is akin to getting blood out of a stone. The DOH do not communicate. They don't try. They don't care. This is unofficial 'housing policy'.

The very strong impression I get from the many DOH tenants I have talked with is that tenants feel they are essentially just a resource from which to extract rent. As well, the internal perspective of the DOH hierarchy seems to incorporate the view that the tenant is the enemy. This is reinforced by the persistent reminders in regular DOH letters that the tenants are just one mistake away from breaching DOH laws and suffering severe penalties. This point was driven home to me one day when I was accused of destroying DOH property. The DOH Maintenance Line Operator raised his voice and said I would be fined the $100+ full cost of replacing a faulty smoke alarm that had awoken my child and I in the early hours of the morning.

This alarm did not have a 'mute' button on it and would not stop beeping. I had to disable the alarm there and then in order for my child and I to be able to get back to sleep. Yet this action was immediately interpreted as an offence in the presumptuous and unprofessional view of the DOH Operator, because DOH property was involved and it was assumed that because I inhabited a DOH residence that I was the scum of the earth... Our sleep, peace of mind, and health were not important. (The technician that replaced the smoke alarm signed a statement affirming that my actions in disabling the alarm were not unreasonable.) In terms of termites also, the tenant plays second fiddle, even in regard to the potential impact of highly toxic nerve agents, to the precious residence they are occupying. Poisoned people are not a concern. Many of us DOH tenants certainly feel that we are not viewed as real people who deserve to be treated humanely and ethically, and in terms of the normal public health imperatives that one might assume would be of concern to a 'professional' organization.

As a result of the termiticide treatments forced on me, I now suffer from chronic fatigue, multiple joint pains (polyarthralgia), polymyalgia, a permanent sore throat, and a nose bleed every time I blow my nose, to mention only just a few of the horrible impacts on my life, my potential, and my outlook. Imagine a very long and particularly distressing two-week period -- as I experienced during 2002-2003 I think -- having 3- 4 vigorous and unpredictable nose bleeds per day. A nice thought to carry with you in anticipation of going shopping or attending a job interview!

But, I am just one of the millions of poisoned people waking up to this onslaught and insult against all that is right and great.

My problems are small problems, especially considering the heroes and heroines who daily overcome monumental traumas and difficulties far worse than these 'tiny' inconveniences (like the entire family poisoned by the Castlereagh Waste Management Centre at Londonderry, who had to move into the country in order to detoxify).

In the months after my unit was treated, my then 9 year old son woke up nearly every morning with abdominal pains (a classic signature of pesticide poisoning in children). A neighbour, whose unit shares the same concrete slab as mine, also -- during 2001 when all my chronic symptoms descended on me like a black nightmare -- developed a distressing cascade of extremely anomalous respiratory symptoms. This poor lady developed double pneumonia in 2001, had two hospital admissions for respiratory problems, and has never been so sick in her entire life. She said she almost died that year (like me!). And this is not an isolated incident in terms of DOH neglect or bungling. It took her 8-9 years -- even with a doctor's certificate -- to get the DOH to remove a tree from her front yard that she was severely allergic to.

Click HERE for scientific information showing that chemicals can diffuse through almost everything, including plastic drinking water pipes and the clay lining of a waste disposal pit! (This link should open up a pdf file in your browser window. Once fully downloaded you may save the pdf file -- which is my comprehensive letter to Australian Standards containing this invaluable research -- to your hard drive.)

As I have a Degree in Environmental Health (though with no specific training in pesticide toxicities), I have heavily researched the effects of pesticide poisoning

and have started developing this website and Support Group. The Support Group will be called, simply, Poisoned People.

Keep an eye on my site over the next few months as I add a great deal of toxicological data, links and stories, including copies of letters and emails from me to DOH, and from DOH to me (what little there are of these!). You will find out what reputable scientific research has to say about pesticides (and other chemicals like weedicides), where to go to get help with your injuries and inquiries, and what I have been told by people poisoned by uncaring bureaucracies.

Believe me, fascism is not dead!