Students at Honokaa Elementary and Honokaa High and Intermediate schools were sent home Thursday morning after a strong chemical odor sent 28 people to area medical centers.
Capt. Christian Wong of Honokaa Fire Station said the Hawaii Fire Department’s hazardous materials team determined a neighbor was spraying hedges bordering the high school’s wood shop around 7 a.m. with a mixture of diazinon, which was banned for residential use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2004, and Volck oil.
“The person who sprayed it near the school was unaware” he was doing anything improperly, Wong said, and added police are investigating.
The insecticidal combination had 40 students and 10 adults from Honokaa High and Intermediate School reporting symptoms of nausea, dizziness and respiratory problems. There were no reports of medical issues at Honokaa Elementary, which is located across the street from the high and intermediate school.
West Hawaii Complex Area Superintendent Art Souza, who was in Pittsburgh at the time, said Thursday evening that he remained concerned about patients who were transported to North Hawaii Community Hospital in Waimea, Hale Hoola Hamakua in Honokaa and Hilo Medical Center for treatment. The Department of Education had not yet received an update on their status, he said.
Marcella McClelland, Honokaa High and Intermediate School’s principal, said the smell was “a little sulfur-ish.”
“We actually could smell it in the school office and the library,” she said. “Immediately, when we were told the kids were smelling the strange odor and they were reporting that (their eyes, noses and throats) were burning and they were feeling nauseous, we called the Fire Department. … Within a very short time, HAZMAT was here.”
School officials notified the Hawaii Fire Department of the odor shortly after 9 a.m. They also notified parents and coordinated early student bus transportation. Students were sent home around 10:45 a.m., according to Department of Education officials.
The schools will resume their regular schedules tomorrow.
Stephens Media Hawaii reporter John Burnett contributed to this report.
