Illness, money and a lawsuit complicate the moth scent-spraying controversy.

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Within an hour of going outside on the afternoon of Sept. 13, PG resident Mike Lynberg began to feel congested. His wife and two kids also got sick. He suspects that the symptoms were related to the pheromones sprayed over his neighborhood the night before.

Lynberg started Concerned Citizens Against Aerial Spraying and began collecting illness complaints from other residents. As of Sept. 24 he’s received 81 reports of sore throats, bronchial congestion, stuffy noses, headaches, fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain and skin rashes. He sent a summary to local mayors and Assemblyman John Laird.

The state Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) instructs people who feel sick to first see a physician. Doctors who suspect a link between the symptoms and pesticide exposure should fill out a state form and submit it to the county agriculture commissioners’ office, which investigates complaints and then shares them with the DPR.

The county has received 11 complaints so far and plans to investigate them all, says Assistant Agriculture Commissioner Robert Roach. But the going is slow. According to the state’s Pesticide Illness Surveillance Program fact sheet, “DPR has longstanding concerns about delays in receiving illness reports.”

The County Health Department’s Dr. Hugh Stallworth, who says he has no formal role in the reporting process, has also been hearing from residents who think they’re sick from the spray. “It’s certainly a possibility that it’s more related to people’s concern, anger and anxiety than an actual physiologic problem,” he says.

While there’s little he can do at a local level, Stallworth is passing illness reports on to the state Department of Public Health. “They are getting public pressure to do something,” he says.