Debbie Horn said she and her husband were standing in their back yard in 2008 when an herbicide being applied to a neighboring farm field during windy conditions blew their way, 6News' Joanna Massee reported.

"We tried to stop them. We were waving them down ... and he drove right by, sprayed us fully, and then came back and said 'What's the problem?'" Horn said.

The couple was covered with atrazine, a popular weed killer at the center of a review by the Environmental Protection Agency after some scientists claim they have linked the chemical to birth defects.

After the incident, Horn said she contacted the Office of the Indiana State Chemist, and an investigation led to the applicator being fined $250.

Horn called the punishment a slap in the face.

"If you sent an envelope with white powder you'd go to jail, but if you spray somebody, you really don't have any consequences for that," she said.

State Pesticide Administrator David Scott said the $250 fine in the Horns' case is the maximum penalty allowed by the law, and that the agency rarely moves to revoke an applicator's license.

"It's rare that we find an applicator that doesn't want to cooperate to some degree," he said.

Scott said that when the EPA registers a pesticide, it's a risk-benefit decision, not a zero-risk decision. Horn said she's doesn't like what rural life has become.

"When I moved into the country, I loved living in the country, away from everything," she said. "But since then, it just feels like we're living in the middle of a chemical exposure."

Syngenta, the major manufacturer of atrazine, disputes research showing birth defects peak among the children of women who conceive in the summer months, when atrazine use is the most prevalent.

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