Chemical sickens 125 farm workers

RENO -- About 125 farm workers in western Nevada were treated at a rural medical center Wednesday when they were sickened by an agricultural chemical used on an adjacent field, authorities said.

Workers began feeling ill shortly after 8 a.m. while working in an onion field owned by Peri & Sons near Yerington about 65 miles southeast of Reno, said Jeff Page, Lyon County's emergency manager.

The company, owned by David and Butch Peri, farms about 1,800 acres in the Mason Valley, according to the company's Web site.

Page said a nearby field had been treated on Monday with chloropicrin, a fumigant used for agricultural pest and fungus control. It once was used as a chemical warfare agent during World War I.

Page said the chemical gives off gases that generally blow away, but a weather inversion that trapped cold air in the valley early Wednesday kept the fumes near the ground.

"Farm workers in an adjacent field were breathing in those fumes," Page said. "The chemical is similar in properties to tear gas.

"This stuff is used on a regular basis in farming throughout the country," he said. "Had we not had this inversion, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Two workers were taken by ambulance to the South Lyon Medical Center, Page said. The others were transported by company buses.

By early afternoon, all but one had been treated and released, said hospital administrator Joan Hall. The remaining patient was kept for observation and was expected to be released later in the day.

"It's all over. All the farm workers seem to be OK," Hall said.

Most complained of respiratory and eye irritation, she said.

"They first people we saw were pretty woozy," she added.

Twelve were treated in the emergency room, and a triage center was set up in the parking lot where the rest were checked out, she said.

The company refused to answer questions.

"No comment," said a man who answered the phone and identified himself as Nathan.

He replied, "Not important," when asked his last name and job title, before hanging up.

Page said state representatives from environmental protection, fire, agriculture and occupational safety and health agencies were investigating the incident and reviewing the response.