Sirius writes

Oz:
More likely is Benlate, (benomyl) a fungicide (MBC).

She said it was a fungicide. The name was written after a phone conversation
so may be spelt wrong.

I would bet on it being benlate. There aren't any other fungicides with
similar names in the book of words likely (or even unlikely) to be used
on sprouts.

Very widely used, approved, very low toxicity, non-mutagenic.
If the above symptoms were caused by this product it's widespread use on
pretty well all crops would have produced an unmissable epidemic by
about 1980.

Sadly I'm lacking details of this so can't really say anymore except she
lived near the field and was outdoors and subjected to drift.

Shouldn't be any drift if the sprayman was doing his job properly. In
any case the amount of drift even a short distance from the boom is
remarkably small, although it *looks* a lot because it is the finest of
droplets. Remember farmers can and do spray one crop, with a highly
susceptible crop next door, and the damage is rarely more than zero to
12" (and that often because the crops overlap).

May have had
symptoms herself. I suppose its possible that something that doesn't
normally cause problems could harm a foetus at a particular stage of
development.

I would suggest it is unlikely to say the least. Remember that quite a
lot of kids are born disabled, it's a natural occurrence. The MBC group
are in widespread use and, now I think about it, were for many years
also used as an antiwormer in cattle/sheep blocks. Doesn't kill the
worms, but stops them laying eggs. Were there deleterious effects then,
given the huge dose by comparison to one doubtful exposure to
spraydrift, we would have seen huge epidemics in stock and some pretty
hefty claims, followed by the rapid withdrawal of the product for all
uses.

Remember that sprays are pretty safe, to protect the operator if nothing
else. Malathion has been effectively banned in agriculture for decades
because it's too toxic compared to modern alternatives, but it's still
used at high dose to kill nits in kid's hair.

--
Oz
This post is worth absolutely nothing and is probably fallacious.
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