WHY DO IPM?
Lesson 2 of 4
Self-Guided Module
Introduction to IPM
Learning Objectives
2
1.
2.
Identify health, environmental, and economic
risks of pests associated with buildings and
grounds.
Identify health, environmental, and economic
risks of pesticides associated with buildings and
grounds.
Pest-Related Risks
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Health risks
 Environmental risks
 Economic risks
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13.
Pest-Related
Health Risks
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Exposure to some pest allergens can trigger
asthma. Asthma sufferers may be sensitive to dust
mites, cockroaches and/or rodent allergens.
Cockroaches, filth flies and rodents can
contaminate food which can cause food poisoning
and upset stomachs.
Rats bite more than 45,000
people annually in the US, most
are infants, children and the sick.
Pest-Related Health Risks
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Ticks are the primary cause of Lyme disease.
Mosquito vectors can cause flu-like symptoms
or more severe symptoms such as brain
inflammation. The most common example is
West Nile Virus.
Pest-Related Health Risks
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Stinging and venomous arthropods commonly
occur in most environments.
Between 0.5 - 4% of the US population are
prone to developing an allergy and therefore
a potentially deadly hypersensitivity reaction
to bee, wasp, hornet or ant stings.
Venomous arthropods include
scorpions and spiders.
13.
Pest-Related Economic Risks
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Pesticide Related Risks
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Health risks
 Environmental risks
 Economic risks
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Harmful Health Effects from Pesticides
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Pesticide exposure may cause harmful effects classified
as acute, chronic or delayed effects.
 Acute effects more often result because of a single
exposure. Effects develop within 24 hours.
 Chronic effects occur after many low-dose exposures
over time.
 Delayed effects may develop more than 24 hours
later, sometimes as a result of multiple exposures.
Acute Effects
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Headache
Fatigue
Nausea
Diarrhea
Convulsions
Inability to breathe
Unconsciousness.
Chronic Effects
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Birth defects
 Tumor development
 Genetic changes
 Blood disorders
 Nerve disorders
 Reproductive effects
 Developmental
disorders
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Delayed Effects
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Memory loss
 Tumors
 Cancer
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Children Are Particularly Vulnerable
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Children:
 Process toxicants differently.
 Pass through critical
developmental stages.
 Have a more rapid metabolic rate.
 More hand to mouth behavior, greater contact
with floors, walls, ground and other treated
surfaces.
Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children
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The National Academy of Sciences 1993
Landmark Report estimates that
50%
of lifetime pesticide
exposure occurs in the first
five years of life.
13.
Pesticide-Related
Health Risks
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 In
relation to body weight,
infants and children eat
and drink more than adults,
increasing potential
exposure to pesticides in
food and water.
13.
Pesticide-Related
Health Risks
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 Certain
behaviors, such as playing on floors or
lawns or putting objects in mouths, increase a
child's exposure to pesticides used in and
around buildings and in the landscape.
Pesticide-Related Environmental Risks
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Pesticides can negatively affect:
 Pollinators (insects that pollinate flowers and
crops).
 Beneficial arthropods (insects and spiders that
play an important part in reducing pest
species).
 Non-target plants and animals.
Pesticide-Related Environmental Risks
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Some pesticides persist in the environment for
years or leak into streams, rivers, lakes and
ground water.
 Over-use of pesticides may lead to pests
developing resistance to the products. When
this happens the pesticide eventually becomes
completely useless.
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13.
Pesticide-Related Economic Risks
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Can increase costs.
 Similarly, emergency repairs due to lack of
preventive maintenance commonly cost more.
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Pesticide Safety
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Many household products are pesticides. All of
these common products are considered pesticides:
Cockroach sprays and baits, mosquito repellent,
rodent poisons, flea and tick collars, kitchen and
bathroom disinfectants and
sanitizers, products that kill
mold and mildew, weed killers
and even some swimming pool
chemicals.
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Pesticide Safety - Reduced Risk Pesticides
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Are some pesticides safer than others?
 The EPA Conventional Reduced Risk Pesticide
Program accelerates the review and regulatory
decision-making process for conventional
pesticides that pose less risk to human health
and the environment than existing conventional
alternatives.
 The goal is to quickly register commercially
viable alternatives to riskier conventional
pesticides.
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Pesticide Safety – Non-conventional Pesticides
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Reduced risk pesticides have characteristics
such as very low toxicity to humans and nontarget organisms (including fish and birds), low
risk of groundwater contamination or runoff, low
potential for pesticide resistance and
compatibility with IPM.
 The “reduced-risk” designation applies only to
certain uses of a particular pesticide and may
not include all legal uses for that product.
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Pesticide Safety
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Minimum-risk pesticides are products that are
exempt from EPA registration under Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
and have no EPA registration number. These
pesticides may only contain ingredients from a
limited list generally recognized as safe.
 Biopesticides are pesticides derived from
natural materials such as animals, plants,
bacteria and certain minerals. Biopesticides must
be registered with EPA.
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15.
State Regulations Vary By States
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Some states require:
 Physical posting of school areas
treated with pesticides.
 Parent notification
regarding pesticide
applications and allowable
school pesticides.
 States may mandate IPM education to be
included in the student curriculum.
 A school district IPM policy.
15.
School District IPM Policy
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School IPM policies may include:
 Who can apply pesticides.
 When and where they can be applied.
 A list of allowable pesticide products.
 Treated area posting details.
 Pesticide application record keeping.
 IPM coordinator contact information.
 Establishing a registry of students and staff who
are chemically sensitive.
13.
Pest-Related Liability Risks
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School boards risk litigation if the best and most
current information is not used when making pest
management decisions.
 Schools have only one sensible choice,
to practice IPM.
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Check In!
27
In this lesson you learned:
How to identify health, environmental, and economic
risks of pests associated with buildings and grounds.
2.
How to identify health, environmental, and economic
risks of pesticides associated with buildings and
grounds.
Next you will learn who does IPM!
1.
Resources
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Cornell University. (2012). Pesticide Safety Education Program, Module 9. Retrieved from
http://psep.cce.cornell.edu/Tutorials/core-tutorial/module09/index.aspx
Hollingsworth, C.S., Coli, W. M., Murray, K. D., & Ferro, D. N. (Eds.). (2002). Integrated Pest Management
for Northeast Schools. Ithaca: Natural Resource, Agriculture, and Engineering Service Cooperative
Extension. Retrieved from http://www.umass.edu/umext/schoolipm/for_viewing_only_ipmns.pdf
Maine Department of Agriculture, University of Maine Cooperative Extension. (2002). Outdoor
Integrated Pest Management for Maine schools. Retrieved from
http://www.maine.gov/agriculture/pesticides/schoolipm/pdf/outdooripm.pdf
Michael C.R. Alavanja , Jane A. Hoppin and Freya Kamel. (2004). Health Effects of Chronic Pesticide
Exposure: Cancer and Neurotoxicity*3 Annual Review of Public Health. Vol. 25: 155-197. Retrieved from
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.25.101802.123020
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2012). The Conventional Reduced Risk Pesticide Program,
About Pesticides, Pesticide Product Labels, Reducing Pesticide Risk. Retrieved from
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/glossary/r-z.html
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2012). Protecting Children’s Health, The National
Pesticide Program. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/protecting-children.pdf
Walter A. Alarcon, Geoffrey M. Calvert and Jerome M. Blondell. (2005). Acute Illness Associated with
Pesticide Exposure at Schools. Journal of American Medical Association. Retrieved from
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=201292