The Rea farm, located in Cape May County, New Jersey, is owned and operated by Leslie Rea and his wife Diane. The main crop raised on the farm is processed lima beans – over 500 acres per year. Leslie Rea has been farming all his life. Activities on the farm and the types of pesticides used had remained the same, for the most part, for twenty years.

Leslie had noticed BLURRED VISION and CONCENTRATION PROBLEMS. He experienced HEADACHES and DIZZINESS while on the farm. In 1993, Diane and Leslie sought help for Leslie’s health problems. Medical professionals concluded that Leslie had sustained heavy and chronic exposure to the organophosphate pesticide Diazinon. Pesticide management specialists with Rutgers Cooperative Extension helped Leslie evaluate his farming practices and identify strategies to limit pesticide exposures. In 1995, the Reas implemented some changes on their farm:
Check each item off as it is discussed in the video.

• They constructed a separate pesticide storage area.
• They built a separate wash facility with a shower and washer where Leslie could bathe and launder his work clothes at the end of each day.
• Leslie wore clean overalls each morning and used personal protective equipment (PPE) for pre-planting work, herbicide incorporation, as well as during planting for filling Gandy boxes.
• Leslie also used separate seed treatment equipment on the truck for filling planter boxes and wore a dust mask for handling fertilizer.
• A special trailer for pesticide transport was used in the field.
• Drift control devices were employed for both pre-plant spraying and seasonal insect control.
• Diane put together a collection of Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), fact sheets, and health information on all the pesticides used on the farm.

Leslie’s health greatly improved within one growing season of implementing these changes. He no longer experienced blurred vision, nausea, and problems concentrating. Leslie’s health improvement was so dramatic because the Reas implemented many good pesticide practices at once, doing everything by the book and with all the proper equipment. The changes were an investment in time and money for the Reas. It took a lot of effort and discipline for Leslie to follow this schedule throughout the year, but it paid off. Leslie looked and felt better than he had in years.