Yesterday, a spraying took place of the holiday resort next to my house for insects. It took 3 hours to complete and the whole area now stinks and has done for the past 30 hours. My family members all have headaches and we needed to leave our home.

Further to this my wife, an avid fittness fanatic, has now been laid up in bed with syptoms of chemical poisoning. She has now deterioated as the day has gone on, with obvious signs of something very serious which requires proffesional medical advice. Be assured I will be taking this further with the resort owner!

We have planned for months to run the Chaweng Midnight Run for charity tonight but, she has now become so ill she will not be able to attend!

Please please please somebody take on a move to stop this crazy action by local pest control companies who need serious education as to what they are doing.

And, before someone pipes up and comments that, I am in their country as a guest and should accept their ways...forget it. This is an act against common human rights and should be stopped immediately! This is dangerous to Thais, English, German, Russian, French etc.....................

Thailand is a place to come on holiday or to live but somebody will soon die due to this shameful and dangerous act of ignorance..... Education is my point, nothing else.......

Stop this now. Please!

When somebody fails to wake in the morning after a treatment to a hotel room for bed bugs, such as in Chaing Mai (please google for further info), I will be the first to come back on this forum and say "I told you so"

You are correct.

I agree that many pest control companies on Samui seem to use excessive chemicals..I am no expert but I hate the smell and it gives headaches ....

There should be some controls or local government inspections and strict training with local safety regulations

This along with rubbish burning ....

But TIT ... I suggest complaining very strongly to the resort and ask them to forward your complaint to the Mayor for a response .

Hi MHR - sorry to hear about your wife. I hope that she recovers soon.

It is important that the hospital that diagnosed the chemical poisoning gives her the correct treatment for the chemicals that she has been exposed to.

I cetainly suggest that you take all of the hospital bills to the resort when you complain.

You are correct - the problem is education. It is very important to spray here in the tropics - there are many things that can do us harm. Dengue Fever being one of the big ones at the moment - yet another epidemic with all hospital beds full and patients being sent home early.

There is no legislation that I am aware of in Thailand for this area. Mind you - most pest control companies usually make the mixtures too weak (in order to save money). I have used a few pest control companies in the past, and I have never had the problem that you have described, but I am sure that it is easily done with the wrong training. The other problem that we can get here is that many Thais cannot read - so the instructions get lost in translation!

For sure - complain to the resort in question, and take along any documentation from the hospital. I wish your wife a full and speedy recovery.

maybe you should see a lawyer and take a civil law case against the hotel, that's about the only route available and it will also mean somebody is taking a move against it. I would imagine thousands are dying already with wide spread use of paraquat and organophosphates. you really need to find out what they were using and what was the chemical used as the insectaside.

Whilst you are making a strong point on a non Thai forum i think you need to aim your views at the local population, and yes there will be more western deaths and illness as a result, but people still keep coming knowing about such things as the Chang Mai deaths.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organophosphate_poisoning

Hi MHR - sorry to hear about your wife. I hope that she recovers soon.

It is important that the hospital that diagnosed the chemical poisoning gives her the correct treatment for the chemicals that she has been exposed to.

I cetainly suggest that you take all of the hospital bills to the resort when you complain.

You are correct - the problem is education. It is very important to spray here in the tropics - there are many things that can do us harm. Dengue Fever being one of the big ones at the moment - yet another epidemic with all hospital beds full and patients being sent home early.

There is no legislation that I am aware of in Thailand for this area. Mind you - most pest control companies usually make the mixtures too weak (in order to save money). I have used a few pest control companies in the past, and I have never had the problem that you have described, but I am sure that it is easily done with the wrong training. The other problem that we can get here is that many Thais cannot read - so the instructions get lost in translation!

For sure - complain to the resort in question, and take along any documentation from the hospital. I wish your wife a full and speedy recovery.

I have investigated this a bit further now and discovered that the chemical is something called Chlorpyrifos, which, having now googled, explains why we are feeling so ill.

Thank you all for your well appreciated comments.

Everyone take care!

Somebody already died 2 years ago in Chiangmai because they used Chlorpyrifos in a hotel...

http://photo-journ.com/dow-chemicals-chlorpyrifos-pesticide-found-in-chiang-mai-tourist-death-hotel/#axzz2PI1Rm3GX

This pesticide long time ago banned in developed countries. Very dangerous for babies or pregnant woman as well, could cause serious birth effects or deformations for the baby. Serious stuff indeed.

I have a feeling that the four Koh Phi Phi deaths could be the result of chlorpyrifos bed spraying.

This stuff should be outlawed, but chances are slim in a land where asbestos imports cannot be stopped.

hold on i have a problem with this post. Or more of a question.

Did any of the residents in the resort get sick? If not then why not as the chemicals are on their door step. This cannot be good for the resort if they make their residents sick.

If only your familu in your house and possibly you are sick then maybe there are some chemicals in your house that you might want to have a look at.

just saying that you have to look at all angles before casting the blame as you might be right but better to be sure than assume as if it is not the resorts pest control then your problem may never go away.

Hi MHR - sorry to hear about your wife. I hope that she recovers soon.

It is important that the hospital that diagnosed the chemical poisoning gives her the correct treatment for the chemicals that she has been exposed to.

I cetainly suggest that you take all of the hospital bills to the resort when you complain.

You are correct - the problem is education. It is very important to spray here in the tropics - there are many things that can do us harm. Dengue Fever being one of the big ones at the moment - yet another epidemic with all hospital beds full and patients being sent home early.

There is no legislation that I am aware of in Thailand for this area. Mind you - most pest control companies usually make the mixtures too weak (in order to save money). I have used a few pest control companies in the past, and I have never had the problem that you have described, but I am sure that it is easily done with the wrong training. The other problem that we can get here is that many Thais cannot read - so the instructions get lost in translation!

For sure - complain to the resort in question, and take along any documentation from the hospital. I wish your wife a full and speedy recovery.

I have investigated this a bit further now and discovered that the chemical is something called Chlorpyrifos, which, having now googled, explains why we are feeling so ill.

Thank you all for your well appreciated comments.

Everyone take care!

i wrote my last post before reading this. i think that this spray is illegal in Thailand so i suggest legal help. Stupid really as there are many non leathal chemmiclas avaibable now. I suppose one way of killing pests is just to kill everything including the customers and the company owners.

It is not education these pest control people know what they are doing and using. They can afford fortunas and make a big income so they would know exactly what they are using.

I know that they still use abestos in the roofs of houses which is a problem if someone comes crashing through your ceiling which has happened to me before.

sorry how did you find out the name of the chemical they used. Did they tell you or the resort tell you. Or a doctor tell you. I still not 100 per cent connivence it was this pest control but i could be wrong.

I hope i am wrong because if i am not then you have a chemical closer to you and you do not know where it is

I've just been to a professional office off Chang Klang Rd. While I was discussing business, a spraying unit was working its way down the other side of the street. Then they started on my side of the street, and I asked what they were using. I was told that it was carbon dioxide (dry ice) which apparently kills mosquito larvae/eggs.

However, the swirling grey clouds of smoke were in no way anything like carbon dioxide, and I was more than happy to see the office doors closed.

Half an hour later, as I returned to my car, I noticed there were large cockroaches all over the place, kicking their last. On the footpath, on the road, all-over.

Now what on earth were they using? It could not have been CO2, and I wonder just how healthy was the substance they were using, if it upsets cockroaches so well.

My experience in other Asian countries is that the operators, their bosses, the workers breathing this in, don't have a clue what's being used, and it would be most interesting to obtain a Material Safety Data Sheet.

Could be DDT.

I hope not. I understand it is banned in most countries, or if not banned, certainly very harmful to the environment.

"DDT was subsequently banned for agricultural use worldwide under the Stockholm Convention, but its limited use in disease vector control continues to this day and remains controversial.^[6][7]

Along with the passage of the Endangered Species Act, the US ban on DDT is cited by scientists as a major factor in the comeback of the bald eagle, the national bird of the United States, and the peregrine falcon from near-extinction in the contiguous US.^[8][9]"

Wikipedia

DDT is quite widely used on Samui.

The guys putting the chemicals in the coconut trees use it to kill the red palm weevil.

The local nursery people tell us not to eat the coconuts from these trees, but most of the locals still do.

Yikes!! Whatever it is, hope you get to the bottom of it and stop it from happening again and you and your family recover from this!

" Human exposure

People living in areas where DDT is used for IRS have high levels of the chemical and its breakdown products in their bodies. Compared to contemporaries living where DDT is not used, South Africans living in sprayed homes have levels that are several orders of magnitude greater.^[41]Breast milk in regions where DDT is used against malaria greatly exceeds the allowable standards for breast-feeding infants.^{[111][112][113]} These levels are associated with neurological abnormalities in babies.^{[101][111][112]} "

wikipedia