Enosburg — I have lived in my home in Enosburg, Vt., for over 20 years, and worked for years in agriculture. For the last nine months, I have been struggling with formaldehyde poisoning and hypersensitivity.
Unknown to me, and many others, dairy farms in my community have been spreading tainted manure around my property. Initially, because my symptoms were so vague and changing, doctors thought I might have lupus, M.S., a brain tumor and various other awful illnesses.
Eventually, I checked my house for formaldehyde, and found levels that were at 10 times the acceptable limits.
I then searched for the source and found that levels in the manure from my neighbors’ 1,200 cow barn were over 10 times the acceptable OSHA limits. It turns out they, like a dozen or so other large dairy farms in Vermont, use formaldehyde foot baths on their cows to control hairy wart.
They use dozens of gallons per month, and no one seems to be regulating the use or the disposal in agriculture – despite the fact that formaldehyde is a known toxic substance that is highly regulated in other settings, and is known to be a cause of nasal and pharyngeal cancer, leukemia, and possibly brain tumors. It’s also being studied for its relationship with various autoimmune diseases also.
When I talked to more people in the area, I found at least 35 people with unique telltale symptoms of formaldehyde exposure—tingling of facial nerves, numbness of face and extremities, panting which is unlike breathing problems, heart palpitations, fatigue, and dizziness, and burning eyes.
My options are limited once my diagnosis of formaldehyde poisoning was confirmed, my doctors told me to leave my home. That doesn’t seem right to me—where am I to go?
To protect our health, and to allow us to live in our homes, we need the Vermont Departments of Agriculture and Health to step in and work with farmers to either find other ways to prevent hairy wart or to properly dispose of formaldehyde waste.
Treatment alternatives exist; they must be used or more Vermonters will be suffering like me.
Amy Cochran
Enosburg
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