A Grazon Health Nightmare: Aminopyralid Poisoning

Gary left a comment on this post about Grazon sharing the horrific tale of how he was poisoned:

“David,
Thirteen months ago I was poisoned by Dow Grazon Next when a fitting on my sprayer cracked and sprayed the herbicide all over my back. I had ordered a very mild spray for thistle with a 14 day half life called Du Pont Forefront to use on my hay field. When I went to pick it up the dealer gave me Grazon Next. I objected but he said this is just the same stuff just made by Dow rather than Du Pont. So I believed him and took the product. I woke up the next morning after spraying with my eyes swollen shut and my legs so swollen I couldn’t wear shoes. 2 days later my system tried to push the chemical into my colon for elimination and then it killed all my digestive bacteria. Nothing would digest. I couldn’t sleep because when I would lay down I would throw up. I had no bowel control. The whites of me eyes turned orange. My back looked like I had been shot with a shot gun with every square inch forming an oozing bloody sore. My blood picked the toxin up out of my skin and poisoned every organ in my body. My blood felt radioactively hot and I could feel every heart beat like a pounding drum. I have had 21 blood transfusions in the last 25 weeks and still cannot get it out of my system. It bonds to your blood and organ protein and you cannot filter it out of your system. It’s toxic half life is 1.5 years. My doctor said I will probably need weekly blood transfusions for 4 years before the toxicity breaks down. I called Dow and the EPA. No one knows how to treat it. After 12 weeks and coming very close to death I found a Hemotoligist that had experience treating herbicide poisoning. He said there are only 3 treatments. The first 2 must be administered within 2 days before the 2,4,D bonds to the blood protein, but for me, after 12 weeks, that was no longer an option. The only treatment left is dilution. You remove the toxic blood and replace it with clean blood. This treatment has kept me alive but the treatment is slow. One pint at a time. After 1 year of treatment the toxin is still now killing peripheral nerve tissue by pooling in my hands and feet. My feet are almost completely numb. It has deteriorated my optic nerves and eliminated my ability to taste sweet. This is the Herbicide from Hell. Don’t use it, don’t get near it. If you even get a small amount on your hands you will feel like you are coming down with a bad flue. Warn others. The great crime is that now that Dow has purchased Du Pont, they have changed the name on the Grazon label and are now calling it Forefront. Forefront was the mild thistle specific spray from Du Pont that I thought I was getting. Now that Dow changed the name to increase sales because Forefront was very popular, others are getting the really toxic stuff thinking it is the old mild thistle spray. Farmers are spraying it on their hay for thistle thinking they have a product that is only toxic for 14 days when in fact it stays highly toxic for 1 and 1/2 years. The Grazon lable says you cannot sell the hay the same year you spray it. There was no such warning on the Du Pont Forefront lable. In fact, it said you could graze it 2 weeks after spraying. If you buy hay ask if it was sprayed that year and what with. Changing the name on the label was a very foolish and dangerous move by Dow. Warn others before this becomes a disaster. If you graze cows on a pasture or hay sprayed with it, realize that it doesn’t break down and if you eat the meat you will be poisoning yourself. Beware!!!”

This stuff is satanic and needs to be banned. Please send up prayers for Gary Choate. What a nightmare.

*Illustration at top via Andy Mangold. CC license.