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Philadelphia Partnership Discusses Pest and Pesticide Issues -September 2005
September, 2005
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Pests and pesticide use in schools and other urban dwellings can result in unhealthy indoor environments, especially among those with asthma. A group of community, agency, non-profit and university members met recently in Philadelphia, PA to discuss these health issues and how integrated pest management (IPM) can help.
IPM is a kid-safe, economical, and scientific approach to managing pests. IPM integrates knowledge of pest identity and biology with pest monitoring so that action, if needed, can be taken at just the right time. In addition, IPM uses a combination of management tactics that are more likely to be safe and effective.
The group, called the Philadelphia School and Community IPM Partnership (PSCIP), was formed by the Pennsylvania IPM Program (PA IPM) as a community outreach initiative in Philadelphia. PSCIP aims to promote IPM as a means to reducing the risks associated with pests and pesticides. PSCIP is engaged in an integrated mission of creating a relationship between School IPM (K-12 education) and Community IPM (public education). These two sectors are connected through PSCIP committee membership and the active engagement of PSCIP partners, who will include parents, students, administrators, teachers, agencies, churches, and community group/organization representatives.
Hosted by the Peoples Emergency Center of Philadelphia, a partner in the initiative, the purpose of the meeting was to update members about PSCIP activities during the past year. PA IPM and Nicole Webster, assistant professor of service learning at Penn State, initiated an IPM program at Shaw Middle School in Philadelphia two years ago. According to Webster, students have been learning about the benefits of using IPM in their school to manage roaches, flies, and mice indoors. "They also formed an IPM Team to manage these indoor pests and also insects, animals and weed pests that can infest the school's outdoor garden," Webster says.
In addition, participants were updated on the IPM demonstration row house project. According to Lyn Garling, education specialist with PA IPM, the program won an EPA grant to fund an innovative and educational community outreach project, with the focus being a low-income, row house community in Philadelphia. "The project aims to educate the community about how to deal with common household pests using IPM," Garling explains. A house has been selected to launch the project, with the initial clean-up completed and IPM tactics being implemented to eliminate pests. According to Garling, at the start of the project cockroaches could be seen in broad daylight, but over the last few months the situation has dramatically improved, with only two roaches spotted on the group's last visit.
Also discussed at the meeting was a project initiated by PA IPM after being awarded an EPA Region III grant. PA IPM will be implementing EPA's Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools program in select Philadelphia schools and day care centers. PA IPM plans on strengthening the IPM sections of the kit by providing targeted education programs on IPM.
Participants of the PSCIP meeting engaged in small group discussions focusing on the technical, education, and health/community aspects of IPM in the Philadelphia area. Each group brainstormed and discussed several questions, including: What needs to happen in order to reach at-risk residents about IPM? Which institutions, agencies and non-governmental organizations are needed and how can they help? And, are there any collaborative resources available? "Answering these questions helped us to discover avenues of collaboration and what should be our next stepsour next step should be," says Garling.
For more information on PSCIP, including meeting minutes, partners in the initiative, and current and future activities, visit Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/community/pscip.html.
The PA IPM Program is dedicated to partnering with others to overcome obstacles and to promote IPM education and use in both schools and urban communities. For more information on Community IPM, visit the program's Web site at http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/community.html. Or, you may contact Michelle Niedermeier at the Philadelphia IPM office, phone (215) 435-9685, or e-mail mxn14@psu.edu.
The PA IPM Program is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and nonagricultural situations. For more information, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu. To view our archived news releases, see Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/newsrelease.html.