Pesticides spraying is by no means confined to overhead spraying of agricultural crops. Homes, schools, theaters, public buildings and camps are - often sprayed – sometimes daily. In fact, the smorgasbord of household pesticides sitting on the grocery shelf next to the mops and pet foods gives us a false sense of security about their safety.

Nine out of ten American families use pesticides in their home, yards and gardens, yet few people realize they are applying highly toxic chemicals to their environment. So if we’re going to beef about supermarket oranges blitzed with malathion, we shouldn't use pesticides in our own backyards and kitchen cupboards, either.

Exotic, six syllable chemicals aren’t the only pesticides that can cause trouble. Many household insecticides contain pyrethrum, a perfectly natural product made from the flower of a plant related to ragweed. If you’re allergic to ragweed, you’re apt to be allergic to pyrethrum, too. All of which prompts Dr. Randolph to warn, ”Never, never use a pesticides indoors.”

If it comes down either having the termites in your house exterminated or waiting for the timbers to crash down around you, ask the exterminator to apply the chemicals directly to the nest rather than zapping the entire house. If the firm won’t do that, find one that will. And have any extermination done right before you go on vacation so fumes have a chance to die down while you’re away.

You may even be able to escape overhead spraying outdoors. A woman in Texas who is extremely sensitive to chemicals tell us: ”The little town I live in fogs for mosquitoes. I was hit with the fumes six times before I finally convinced them that they had to call me before they started fogging.

I told them that if they hit me again, they might as well not send ambulance, they should send the hearse instead. Now they have a sign on the fogger that says ’Do not remove this machine from the garage without calling Mrs. Scherzer, 278-4817.’

”This year,” she continued, ”the town itself wasn’t spraying, but the country was. And the country man would come around and knock on my door at nine A.M. and say, ’We’re going to fog this area at six o’clock this evening.’ That would give me enough time to leave town. I’d spend a couple of days with my daughter or mother in law until the stuff go out of the air.”