Healthy Schools/Healthy Children and Staff
School Pesticide Reform in Texas
Texas Law:
Texas has one of the most comprehensive school Integrated Pest Management (IPM) laws in the country. All school districts must adopt IPM policies and designate an IPM coordinator who has taken special IPM training courses.
Search for your school district’s IPM Coordinator.
All pest control practices are to be performed by a State of Texas certified applicator and treatments on school grounds and in buildings be made only when students are not expected to be present for normal academic instruction or organized extracurricular activities for at least 12 hours after the application. The law also requires schools, educational institutions and day care centers to inform parents or guardians of students in writing that pesticides are periodically applied indoors and on perimeters and that parents can sign up to be on a registry to be notified of the times and types of applications.
To read the actual laws and regulations go to the Texas Structural Pest Control Board Regulations.
Regulations and Enforcement:
The Texas Structural Pest Control Board (SPCB) has the responsibility to develop and enforce the standards for IPM programs for the school districts, and to develop a list of approved pesticide products that may be used in schools. The SPCB was abolished during the Sunset Review by the Texas Legislature and the meetings and discussions are still taking place. Please contact your policy makers and stress the importance of school IPM and ask for an even wider range of protection. Require posting pesticide notification signs before and after outdoor pesticide applications. This is necessary because students who play sports or people continually on the lawns represent a high risk when applications occur on school property.
Get Active!
TAP urges all concerned parents and citizens to contact their schools and determine what is being done to protect the children. Ask whether least toxic methods of pest control are being implemented and used. Urge your schools to be represented at IPM workshops and go to the IPM Institute which serves as a clearing house for information on school IPM and IPM certification in agriculture and communities
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National Programs
School Pesticide Reform Coalition
The School Pesticide Reform Coalition advocates for every child's and school employee's right to an environmentally healthy school. Beyond Pesticides facilitates the 25 member Coalition in order to bring local and national activists together to enable strategic thinking and coordination of a multi-state effort to address school pesticide use. You can also visit www.toxicfreeschools.org for more information.
School Environment Protection Act (SEPA)
Your U.S. Senators and Representatives Need To Hear From You.
Communities across the country are acting in increasing numbers to protect children from pesticides used at their schools, yet there are no national protections or standards for children. To correct this situation and ensure national leadership in protecting children from a daily dose of hazardous chemicals in their classrooms, playgrounds and ballfields, support is needed on federal legislation, entitled the School Environment Protection Act (SEPA).
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Learning Starts With A Healthy Environment
Children are among the most vulnerable to adverse health effects of pesticides. A variety of age-related physiological factors explain the increased sensitivity that children face. Not only do younger and smaller people by nature receive a higher dose of toxics, they have a decreased ability to eliminate toxics and their target organs may be more sensitive to toxic effects. In addition, the probability of an effect such as cancer, which requires a period of time to develop after exposure, is enhanced if exposure occurs early in life.
Pesticides, toxic chemicals widely used to kill insects, weeds and fungus in schools, are a danger to children's health. Because they are poisons, low levels of pesticide exposure can have adverse effects to a child's neurological, respiratory, immune and endocrine system. Some commonly used insecticides, such as pyrethroids, stimulate nerves causing hyperexcitability. They are also associated with asthma. Some insecticides, herbicides and fungicides are linked to cancer. The commonly used weed killer 2,4-D has been linked to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in scientific studies.
Acute or immediate symptoms of pesticide poisoning are often mistaken for the flu - headache, nausea, dizziness, sweating, muscle aches or tremors. Other symptoms to look out for include rashes, disorientation and lack of concentration.
Former EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman unequivocally stated, "Childhood exposure to pesticides is an environmental health risk facing children today."
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Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Fortunately, schools can significantly decrease and ultimately eliminate their use hazardous pesticides while successfully and cost-effectively managing pest problems in school buildings and on school grounds. Such safer pest management strategies, such as an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program, use alternatives to the prevailing chemical-intensive practices. School IPM is not a new approach to pest management. It is a concept that has been implemented in various communities, schools and government facilities for decades.
IPM is a program of prevention, monitoring and control that offers the opportunity to eliminate or drastically reduce hazardous pesticide use in schools. IPM is intended to establish a program that utilizes cultural, mechanical, biological, and other non-toxic practices, and only introducing least hazardous chemicals as a last resort, if at all.
SPRC is currently developing a list to help IPM practitioners identify non-toxic and least-toxic solutions to pest problems. The list is organized by pest. To learn more, contact Beyond Pesticides.
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Safer Schools
Read the Safer Schools report from Beyond Pesticides: Safer Schools: Achieving A Healthy Learning Environment Through Integrated Pest Management, which features 27 school districts and schools and schools in 19 states that are successfully implementing IPM programs.
Least Toxic Pesticides
- boric acid and disodium octobrate tetrahydrate
- silica gels
- diatomaceous earth
- nonvolatile insect and rodent baits in tamper resistant containers or for crack and crevice treatment only
- microbe-based pesticides
- pesticides made with essential oils (not including synthetic pyrethroids) without toxic synergists
- materials for which the inert ingredients are nontoxic and disclosed
The term 'least toxic pesticides' does not include a pesticide that is determined by EPA to be a possible, probable, or known carcinogen, mutagen, teratogen, reproductive toxin, developmental neurotoxin, endocrine disrupter, or immune system toxin;
a pesticide in EPA's toxicity category I or II; and,any application of the pesticide using a broadcast spray, dust, tenting, fogging, or baseboard spray application.
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