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Ironside
Crop dusting hits lungs
Merl Gough prepares one of his crop-dusting planes for a
run across a Texas cotton field. Gough owns Merl Gough
Spraying Co. near Mumford.
AFTERNOON
4:00 0 €B SPECIAL TREAT "The
House At 12 Rose Street"
Racial tension erupts between
teen-agers when a black family
moves into a formerly all-white
neighborhood. (R)
EVENING
6:30 HBO STEPPING OUT: THE
DEBOLTS GROW UP The con
tinuing achievements of a
unique family with 20 children,
most of them adopted and
nearly all of them handicapped,
are profiled.
7:00 0 © CITY VS. COUNTRY
SHOWDOWN Actors repre
senting the rural way of life
compete against stars from the
city in a series of creative street
games; Jack Klugman hosts.
O (D A CHARLIE BROWN
CHRISTMAS Animated. Charlie
Brown gets disgusted with his
friends’ commercial attitudes
toward the holiday and goes
searching for the true meaning
of Christmas. (R)
7:30 0 QD RAGGEDY ANN AND
ANDY Animated. Raggedy Ann
and Andy try to stop the evil
Alexander Graham Wolf from
taking over Santa’s toyshop.
(R)
© SEVENTEEN GOING ON
NOWHERE This special
explores the relationship of a
father and son who have lost
touch and the drastic measures
the father takes to get through
to his son.
9:00 O TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD:
THE STORY OF CHRISTMAS
The spirit of Christmas comes
to life in this musical special
featuring the 180 voice choir of
the First Baptist Church of Dal
las.
Tydsdlay
AFTERNOON
3:00© ★★V* “Ten North Freder
ick” (1958) Gary Cooper, Diane
Varsi. A man’s political career
is ruined by his dominating
wife, so he hides behind alcohol
and extramarital affairs.
4:30 HBO "Lost And Found” (1979)
George Segal, Glenda Jackson.
A widower and a divorcee
begin a rocky romance after lit
erally running into each other
by accident at a French ski
resort. (PG-1 hr., 45 min.)
EVENING
7:000 ★★★'/? “Scrooge” (1970)
Albert Finney, Alec Guinness.
Based on the classic novel by
Charles Dickens. A miserly old
codger mends his tight-fisted
ways when three spirits visit
him on Christmas Eve.
7:30 HBO “Fiddler On The Roof”
(1971) Topol, Norma Crane. A
peasant milkman in turn-of-
the-century czarist Russia tries
to marry off his eligible daugh
ters while trying to hold onto
his Jewish heritage in the face
of oppression. (G-2 hrs., 59
min.)
8:00 0 (D “A Christmas Without
Snow” (Premiere) Michael
Learned, John Houseman. A
group of choir members of var
ying backgrounds and vocal
abilities struggle under the
leadership of a perfectionist
director to present Handel’s
"Messiah.”
03 ★★Vi “I’ll Never Forget
What’s ’Is Name” (1968) Orson
Welles, Oliver Reed. A success
ful businessman gives up
everything to return to his care
free youth.
10:30 HBO "A Force Of One” (1979)
Chuck Norris, Jennifer O’Neill.
A master of the martial arts
embarks on a revenge-motivat
ed search for the killers of his
adopted son. (PG-1 hr., 31
min.)
10:50 0 CD ★★Vi “Five On The
Black Hand Side” (1973) Clar
ice Taylor, Leonard Jackson. A
black barber tries to deal with
the generation gap in his family.
(R)
11:00 O ★ ★ ★ "The White Cliffs Of
Dover” (1944) Irene Dunne,
Peter Lawford. An American
woman living in England awaits
news of her son, who is fighting
in World War H.
11:40© ★★ “Price Of Freedom”
(1975) Timothy Bottoms,
Anthony Andrews. Members of
the Czech underground during
World War II plot to assassinate
Hitler's right-hand man.
11:50© ★★'/z “Five On The Black
Hand Side” (1973) Clarice Tay
lor, Leonard Jackson. A black
barber tries to deal with the
generation gap in his family. (R)
By LAURA CORTEZ
Battalion Reporter
Twenty-three years ago, Roy
Tribbey was in a Guatemalan hos
pital feeling sicker than he had ev
er felt in his life.
One minute he was burning up
with fever, the next he was freezing
cold. The diagnosis: pesticide
poisoning.
“I was sicker than a dog. I
thought I was gonna die, and was
afraid I wouldn’t,” the 55-year old
former crop-duster said.
Relaxing in his small office at
Coulter Field, which he manages
for the city of Bryan, Tribbey recal
led the 15 years he spent applying
poisonous pesticides.
Despite his two-day nightmare in
Guatemala, and numerous bouts
with dizziness and drowsines dur
ing his crop-dusting days, he ex
pressed no concern about long
term effects on his own health.
“I’m sure I’ve got a lot of DDT
residual in my body, ’cause I sure
put out a lot of it. But it’s never
bothered me. I even read some
theory that it could prevent cancer,”
Tribbey said.
But even though he was “more
afraid of flying than the chemicals,”
it was the chemicals that led to the
end of his crop-dusting career in
1965.
He said that during his last year
as an applicator, the systemics (in
secticides that attack the pests’ ner
vous system) were affecting him
noticeably.
“Toward the middle of the sea
son, I’d start feeling groggy and
sleepy — it was sort of like being
half-intoxicated all the time.
Two weeks after giving up crop
dusting, he said he felt normal
again, and has felt fine ever since.
But though he does not deny
harmful short-term effects of some
chemicals, Tribbey said the
hazards "are not near as bad as the
ERA (Environmental Protection
Agency) says.”
Crop-duster John Whitten of
Whitten Flying Service in Snook
agrees that many of the pesticide
alarms are unwarranted.
“It’s easy to take a chemical off
the market, but it’s hard to get it
back on,” he said.
In 1972, the ERA banned DDT,
and approximately 15 other che
micals have been banned or sus
pended since. One of the latest che
micals to come under the scrutiny is
the herbicide 2,4,5-T, used to kill
trees, weeds and brush primarily in
forests and on rangelands. It was
suspended about two years ago be
cause the ERA said animal studies
have linked it to genetic mutations,
miscarriages, birth defects and
cancer.
But Whitten is not so sure it’s as
dangerous as the ERA claims.
“I know applicators who are 65
years old and that’s all they do
(brush spray with 2,4,5-T) and
they're just as healthy and active as
anyone I know.
Walking past his two crop
dusting planes to an area covered
with barrels and cans of pesticide,
Whitten pointed out his closed sys
tem for mixing and loading che
micals.
The system allows him to work
with the chemicals while having
very little exposure to them.
Whitten said that while there
have been many improvements in
the crop-dusting business during
the past few years, a method of re
ducing drift to highways and homes
needs to be developed.
Merl Gough of Merl Gough
Spraying Co., which sits in the mid
dle of a cotton field near Mumford,
also believes that this is a big prob
lem now.
The answer to this problem lies in
educating the public to what’s going
on, Gough said.
“Only about five percent of what
we use is toxic, and it’s spread over
such a large area, there’s no prob
lem,” Gough said.
He continued, “Some of these
defoliants (used for stripping
leaves) smell like a skunk, but
there’s nothing there of danger. The
smell won’t hurt you.”
Neither Gough, Whitten or Trib
bey deny pesticide poisoning can
be a problem (the ERA estimated
40,000 cases of it in 1978,) or that
there are abusers in the profession.
But, if safety measures are taken
and the work is properly done, they
feel there is little danger involved in
applying pesticides.
Gough said, “Any of this stuff, if
you drink it, is gonna hurt you... but
it’s not dangerous if you use com
mon sense.”