April Brune was walking her two dogs in west Reno Tuesday morning when a truck with the City of Reno spraying herbicide drove past them, spraying her and her two dogs with the toxin.
"I called my husband because I was really scared," Brune says. "Then I brought the puppies home and gave them a bath. Then I took a shower and then called the city."
The herbicide is called Ranger Pro and Assistant Director of Reno Public Works Bryan Heller says it's similar to Round-up. He says herbicides off the shelf usually carry a potency of five percent, but the city dilutes their herbicide down to two and a half percent. Brune still suffered a burning sensation in her throat and a headache after the incident, Heller says she should be ok.
"It can cause some short term respiratory irritation," Heller says. "But the effects are short-term and anyone should be fine if they inhale it."
Brune says she wants the city to take out the weeds manually, but the city says weed eating doesn't kill the roots like herbicides do. Plus, it's less expensive to use herbicides, especially if city workers manually removed the roots.
Heller says Brune did the right thing contacting the city about this incident and suggests other people who face issues with city employees call 334-INFO.
