For educational purposes only.
School Pesticides Debated
Lawmakers Consider Warnings, Waiting Periods for Use
By H. Josef Hebert
The Associated Press
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 13 -- A pest control
company sprays a classroom for cockroaches, and two weeks later a student
becomes ill from the chemical residue on her desk.
Eighth-graders in gym class jog around a track,
while a truck sprays herbicide onto the field a few yards away.
As federal regulators and lawmakers begin to pay
closer scrutiny to the health impact of pesticides on children, new questions
are being raised about the use of toxic chemicals in schools -- often without
the knowledge of parents.
Groups Want Notice of Use
Two senators and several environmental and health advocacy groups today called
for federal requirements on how schools use pesticides and require that parents
be given three-day notice before any pesticide is used in or around a school.
"This is simply a parent’s right to know,"
said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., co-sponsor along with Sen. Robert Torricelli,
D-N.J., of legislation that would impose the new requirements.
While the bill is unlikely to go anywhere in this
Congress, it focused new national attention on concerns by health advocates
and environmentalists about pesticide use in schools.
No Clear Regulations
Although 30 states to some extent regulate pesticides use by schools, the
requirements vary widely and leave children to be "bombarded with chemicals
that cause adverse health effects," says Jay Feldman, executive director
of the National Coalition for the Misuse of Pesticides.
Pesticide industry representatives characterized
the proposed curtailment of pesticides in schools as unwise and, itself --
as one official put it -- a "threat to children" because it would leave them
exposed to variety of dangers from cockroaches and fire ants to mosquitos
and ticks that transmit disease.
"Pesticides are safe and have a proven track record
for protecting the public from dangerous pests," said Allen James, executive
director of a group called RISE, a coalition of pesticide manufacturers and
distributors.
72-Hour-Notice Too Restrictive?
Ralph Engel, president of the Chemical Specialties Manufacturers Association,
said parents should be notified about school pesticide use, but he opposed
any suggestions that pesticides use should be reduced in schools. James said
the proposed 72-hour notification would interfere in "the timely use of
pesticides."
Feldman said he knows of no national statistics
on how many students have become ill from pesticides in schools because,
he said, the issue is only now beginning to be scrutinized. The coalition
estimates there are some 50 insecticides, herbicides and fungicides commonly
used in and around schools and some can cause reproductive problems, neurological
problems, kidney and liver damage and cancer.
But Feldman said the group has collected anecdotal
evidence such as the case in an unnamed Colorado school where girl became
ill from chemical residue on her desk, and the case in another unnamed Arizona
school where the pesticides were being sprayed near a class of eighth-grade
joggers.
Linking Sickness with Chemicals
At the news conference today, Katharina, now 10 years old, said she frequently
became sick when she was in third grade. Her parents, who didn’t want
their last names used, said it was a year and a half before her doctor linked
the illnesses to pesticide exposure at her Glenwood, Md., elementary school.
The school since then has stopped using pesticides, she said.
"Doctors don’t test for pesticides. We didn’t
know enough to put two-and-two together," said Katharina’s mother, adding
if she had been notified by school officials about the pesticides, she likely
would have pinpointed the illness much sooner.
Maryland last year began requiring 24-hour parental
notification of pesticide use in elementary schools. A number of other states
including Connecticut, also have adopted notification requirements, Feldman
said.
Most often, the symptoms found in students are
dizziness, nausea, headaches, disorientation or an inability to concentrate,
and often are not immediately linked to pesticide exposure, according to
health experts.
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright ©1999 ABC News Internet Ventures.
Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/pesticides_schools991013.html
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