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Community Pest Managment Partnership Wins EPA Funding - January 2007

January 12, 2007

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – Empowering local residents to reduce the risks of pests and pesticide exposure in urban communities is the goal of a new project that kicked off in a ceremony with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently at The Preschool Project in Philadelphia, Pa.

The Philadelphia School and Community IPM Partnership (PSCIP) was awarded funding by the Community Action for a Renewed Environment program sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and will be administered through the Penn State Cooperative Extension office in Philadelphia.

According to project coordinator Michelle Niedermeier of the Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management Program (PA IPM), urban residents face health risks from a variety of environmental pollutants and toxins both indoors and out. “Particularly in low-income urban communities, exposure to pests and pesticides can threaten people’s health, especially children, pregnant women and the elderly,” Niedermeier explains. “Pests can spread disease and trigger asthma, yet pesticide use indoors can also be harmful. There is a great unmet need for community education on least-toxic integrated pest management (IPM) approaches.”

IPM is a safe, effective, and scientific approach to managing pests. IPM uses knowledge of pests’ habits and needs to help residents implement pest prevention tactics as a first line of defense. Because pesticides are poisonous, they are chosen only as a temporary tool. Only pesticide products that pose the least-toxic, least risk of exposure to residents are chosen. Information about proper use, storage and disposal of pesticide products is also critical to avoid personal and environmental contamination.

According to EPA’s regional administrator Donald S. Welsh, “Assisting communities in improving their local environment and the health of their citizens is important to EPA,” said Welsh. “This is best accomplished when grant recipients work with local organizations to identify areas of focus and create an agenda for action.”

In Philadelphia, as in other cities, pests move around and  “belong to everyone”, like it or not. Consequently, fighting pests in urban environments requires collaborative community action. The project funds PSCIP to raise the awareness and understanding of local residents, businesses and service providers about pest infestations, pesticide risks, and common-sense IPM solutions.

“Beginning in West Philadelphia, our partners within PSCIP and PA IPM project staff will work with community leaders to determine residents’ needs and tailor training programs and materials to fit that need, “ says Niedermeier. New educational materials and community interactions will empower residents to take control of their pest problems and make positive changes in the home, thus reducing the health risks associated with both pests and pesticides.

Anne Rahn, executive director of The Preschool Project, says they are excited to be partnering with PSCIP to educate families and professionals. “Our first major program together will be The Preschool Project’s 7th annual Latino Child Care conference in April, the only bilingual child care conference in Pennsylvania,” she says.

The group will also develop multi-lingual publications, starting with Spanish. “We’ll take advantage of the many social service agencies in Philadelphia to help us distribute the materials to our target audiences. The materials will also be made available on our Web site at http://www.paipm.org/,” Niedermeier explains.

Niedermeier estimates that at least 500 residents and six health care organizations and their staff will be educated on pests, pesticide use and IPM. “We’ll be ‘training the trainer’ with various organizations so that potentially a much larger population can be reached through their own clientele,” she says.

Another goal of the project is to explore the connection between IPM implementation and the creation of local small-business enterprises and job skills training. “The need for jobs and business development is urgent in many low-income neighborhoods,” Niedermeier explains. “Meanwhile, pest management professionals and other small businesses are key to continuing IPM implementation in low-income neighborhoods. Reward systems for pest management professionals using IPM practices can be implemented to encourage them to fine-tune their skills and receive additional training.”

The ceremony also highlighted the accomplishments of another recently completed project sponsored by the EPA that targeted row house communities in Philadelphia. According to Rhonda Griffin, IPM home health educator with PA IPM, the row house project focused on 19 homes in four Philadelphia row house neighborhoods. Griffin met with neighbors and encouraged them to share information about the types of pest activity they were having in their homes. She found that when neighbors shared information, it removed the stigma normally associated with pest problems and encouraged them to adopt IPM practices.

For more information on PSCIP and community IPM, visit Web site http://www.pscip.org/. Or, you may contact Niedermeier at the Philadelphia Cooperative Extension IPM and PSCIP office, phone (215) 471-2200, ext. 109, or e-mail mxn14@psu.edu.

The Pennsylvania IPM program is collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and urban settings. For more information, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or Web site http://www.paipm.org/. To view our archived news releases, see Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/10.htm.