NEW Worker At Voluntown Tree Farm Says Pesticides Made Him Sick By Karen Florin Winston Dormer never would talk to Department of Environmental Protection inspectors who showed up at Hartikka Tree Farm to monitor the use of pesticides and other chemicals. The understanding between the Christmas tree farm's owner and general partner, David Hartikka, and the three or four migrant Jamaicans who worked at the Voluntown farm for nine months a year was, “I take care of you (and) you take care of me,” Dormer said. Silent during the 12 years he worked on the farm, the 54-year-old Dormer had plenty to say to the DEP after he became ill and could no longer work. The end result was a consent order between the farm and the state in which Hartikka agreed to pay an $8,000 fine and make several changes in the way the farm workers handle pesticides. The DEP supervised the cleanup of a spill of one pesticide on the farm, screening 14 tons of soil and spreading it over an area of 8 acres. Hartikka sells thousands of Christmas trees each year to private and commercial customers. Most of the threes are grown on the 200-acre farm on Wylie School Road, but the farm also uses fields in Preston and Sterling. The family-owned business is 60 years old. David Hartikka could not be reached to comment for this story. He did not respond to phone messages left at the farm office on three separate days last week. As for Dormer, who spoke in Jamaican patois during a recent interview at The Day and relied, at times, on his wife to translate, he said he is still suffering as a result of the years he spent on the farm and intends to take his complaint further. He walked with a cane and quickly became winded as he made his way to the interview room. He showed pictures of chemicals he had worked with at the farm, their containers labeled with the word “poison” and with the printed skull and crossbones. “They have one chemical in a barrel, if it touches your hand, it crawls up your skin and (your skin) turns white,” he said, gesturing toward his forearm. Dormer thinks exposure to pesticides at the farm made him sick. He had a tumor in his chest “the size of an orange,” a heart defect and other symptoms. He also contends that the hundreds of tick bites he suffered at the farm caused his chronic Lyme disease. A Hartford attorney, John Quinn, is representing Dormer in his efforts to get workers' compensation for his medical costs. Another lawyer, Timothy O'Keefe, said his firm is “currently researching legal options” regarding Dormer's pesticide exposure and illness. Several doctors who have treated Dormer have noted the pesticide exposure in their reports, but none has positively identified pesticides as the source of his illness. More tests are under way. Dormer became ill in 2005, just two months after he married Frederica Dormer of Brooklyn. The following winter, with encouragement from his wife, Dormer told James Kenney, a compliance specialist for the DEP's pesticide management unit, of applying chemicals that melted the rainwear he was given to use as protective gear, according to a DEP report. The report also indicates that Dormer told of chemicals blowing in the faces of workers as they applied the substances with backpack mist blowers and, on one occasion, when a pesticide he called “yellow mix” spilled onto the ground and caused earthworms to rise to the surface and die. He told of blowing yellow mucus from his nose after applying that pesticide and of the water at a local Laundromat turning yellow when he washed his clothes. He said there was minimal training on the application of pesticides and inadequate protection provided by the farm. Dormer talked and talked, and the agency conducted a series of inspections and an investigation that resulted in a long list of violations, some of which went on for years and were punishable with up to $2,500 a day in fines. The use of pesticides and herbicides is not unusual at Christmas tree farms, where aphids, mites and other pests can derail years of work cultivating the perfect firs, spruces and pines. But the state and federal governments regulate distribution and applications of the chemicals and provide strict guidelines for handlers, including regular re-training and protective clothing. The Hartikka case was unique in the agency's experience, according to Diane Josey, an environmental analyst with the DEP. “This rose to the level of consent order,” she said. “The violations that he had were more serious, and based on agency policy, we wouldn't just let that go.” In January 2007, Hartikka wrote to the agency that he had obtained his own private applicator certificate (license) after he was told he could not use that of his deceased father. He said he always trained workers properly though he was not an approved trainer, and supplied them with clean protective gear. He denied improperly storing a diluted pesticide. He said all workers were supplied with eye gear, but one worker failed to use it during the inspection. He said he would “enforce more” and would fire workers who do not obey. He promised to keep more accurate records on use of restricted pesticides. He said staff had not informed him of the spill. “I admit that I have some violations, but I feel this inspector is stepping over the line almost to the extent of being harassed and the report has many untrue statements,” Hartikka wrote. He said the farm has been in business for 60 years. “We work hard for a living and want to preserve our farm,” he wrote. “Our intentions have always been to preserve the environment as well as our workers.” Dormer, who is from Buff Bay, Jamaica, came to the United States through the Jamaican Central Labor Organization, which oversees the migrant worker program. He made his first trip in 1988, and chopped sugar at Florida plantations each year until 1993, when he started going to the Hartikka Farm. He was earning $10 an hour and working at least 30 hours a week when he left the farm in 2005. Hartikka told lawyers in the workers' compensation case that he liked Dormer because he was “a strong guy.” Dormer's wife, who carried a thick folder of billing statements and collection notices to the recent interview, said she is unable to finance her husband's medical care. She sold her house in Brooklyn, and the couple moved to North Carolina seeking a lower cost of living, but she said they are still struggling. She said she has paid many prescriptions out of pocket, at one point using part of the money she had received through a student loan for her own nursing studies. The Jamaican agency that oversees the migrant worker program provided insurance for up to $100,000 in medical costs, but the insurance covers only nonwork-related injuries, and the payments are being contested, according to Frederica Dormer. Migrant workers are eligible for workers' compensation pay in some cases. Dormer said the agency, the insurance companies and the lawyers just keep pushing the responsibility to the next guy, and the couple is “caught in the middle.” |