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Two thoughts about this incident.  First of all, I have used alot of Malathion
over the years and have been doused a couple of times.  It definitely has an
effect like that described in the article.  It was a good idea to stay out of
the spray.  On the other hand, in small exposures, such as walking through a
field that was sprayed an hour earlier, there is no real risk.
It doesn't surprise me that the Ginnie Springs employees weren't wearing any
protective gear.  Those good ol' boys probably liked the buzz they got from
huffing 'thione spray!  Sort of like shine with a stiff dose of wood alcohol!
Wendell G

fernando deguilla wrote:

> We arrived at Ginnie Springs at around 9 am Thursday 10/5/00.  My buddy,
> Scuba Steve, noticed right away that there wasn't as much mosquitoes as at
> Peacock three day before.  We heard in the distance a noise coming from a
> leafblower, then noticed a cloud coming from it as a family of three
> strolled by.  I commented to my buddy that this was the answer as to why.
> As the two guys spraying got closer and stopped to make a refill, I asked
> them if that was pesticide they were spraying.  One of them answered
> malathion.  As I made a quick retreat to my vehicle, I commented that the
> stuff was deadly.  The Ginnie employee commented back "think I'd be spraying
> this stuff if it was deadly".  Meanwhile when they spray the same stuff in
> New York, they spray it late in the evening and they recomend for everyone
> to go indoors and close the windows.  During ground spraying, the people
> spraying wear respirators.  The guys at Ginnie were spraying it like they
> were spraying water.
>
> This is the same stuff that was linked to the great lobster die off in Long
> Island Sound.
>
> Here’s a piece from an article I read from Discover Magazine July 2000
> “Silent Summer"  You can read the whole article at
> http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1511/7_21/63035798/p1/article.jhtml
>
> << 1939 Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Muller discovers the toxic effects
of DDT
> on insects. In the decades that follow, authorities spray more than 4
> billion pounds of the insecticide worldwide, including on New York's Jones
> Beach. 1950 Chemists at the American Cyanamid Company synthesize the first
> batch of malathion, one of a new class of organophosphate pesticides When
> exposed to oxygen, malathion turns into malaoxon, which kills insects by
> inhibiting an enzyme, acetylcholinesterase, that breaks down acetylcholine.
> Small quantities of malaoxon seem to be harmless to people, but high doses
> can cause headaches cramps, frothing of the mouth and nose, muscle spasms,
> and coma. When stored improperly (some labels suggest temperatures no higher
> than 77 degrees Fahrenheit), malathion can also break down into
> isomalathion, estimated to be 95 times as toxic.
>
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