Seventy-nine teens, some 13, were sprayed with a chemical fungicide from a crop-dusting plane near Pesotum, Illinois on Thursday. They were taken to a hospital in Urbana and, save for a few with minor skin irritations, none seem harmed.
The teenagers were detasseling corn for the company Monsanto when they were accidentally sprayed with a chemical from a crop dusting plane. The job of corn detasseling is done by teens as it is not considered hazardous; it entails yanking off the pollinating tassels from corn so they produce seeds to be planted in future.
At about 8:40 a.m. a crop dusting plane flew over a field next to the field the teens were at work in; when the plane sprayed that adjacent field the fungicide was taken by the wind and it rained down upon the teens. They were first looked at on-site by firefighters, A.P. reports, who washed them with disinfectant before taking them to hospital as a precautionary measure.