Kid-Safe Pest Control for Child Care

Parents and child care providers work hard to provide a loving, stimulating environment that is safe for even the smallest children. One element of a healthy child care environment that is often overlooked is pest control. Pests may be harmful to children’s health, and pesticides used to control them may also be very harmful. Pest control in child care should be 100% kid-safe: it should effectively manage pests without exposing children or staff members to potentially harmful pesticides.

A new report out this week from Toxic Free North Carolina, Avoiding Big Risks for Small Kids, takes a look at what child care providers in our state are doing about pests like ants, weeds, cockroaches and such. Toxic Free NC talked to 89 child care providers all around the state last year and asked them all kinds of questions about pests and pesticides. The survey results paint a distressing picture of overuse of pesticides in child care, which potentially exposes children and staff to pesticides that can trigger asthma attacks, harm growing brains, and even increases their risk of developing some types of cancer.

* For 53% of child care providers who took the pest control survey, old fashioned high-risk pest control methods like baseboard spraying are used at their child care. Some do this spraying themselves, but more are contracting with a professional pest control company who does it. Broadcast spraying creates a high risk that children and staff will be exposed to those potentially harmful chemicals. Because little kids are growing quickly, and spend a lot of time crawling around on the floor and putting things in their mouths, they are more vulnerable than adults to health damage from pesticides and other toxic chemicals in their environments.

* The survey also found very limited adoption of least-toxic pest control, known as Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The US EPA recommends IPM for schools, child care centers and other areas where children spend time because it drastically reduces health risks from pesticides. IPM uses pro-active monitoring, sanitation, and maintenance to prevent pest problems before they start, and uses least-toxic pesticides sparingly if at all, and only with very targeted application methods. Fewer than 24% of child care providers reported using practices that qualify as IPM – but those who did also reported fewer serious pest problems, indicating that it may be working better.

Compared with public schools, which are rapidly adopting IPM in North Carolina, child care centers are lagging way behind. NC public schools are all required to switch to least-toxic IPM by 2011 thanks to a state law adopted in 2006.

So what can parents & child care providers do about this? Be an advocate for kid-safe pest management! I recommend asking lots of questions to get more information about pest control and safety at your child care. We’ve made a quick and dirty guide for parents and providers, that lists the top questions people should be asking to ensure they’re getting the safest pest control at their child care.

For parents, asking questions like these can tell you a lot:

Are baseboard spraying or fogging ever used here?
Are pesticides ever used while children are present?
Do you have a pest control contract, and if so, does it call for least-toxic IPM?
Do you have records of pest control activities that I can look at?

The littlest kids are the most vulnerable to health harm from pesticides, but pests are no treat either, and some, like cockroaches, can also harm children’s health. So, the safest approach is one that takes care of pests with minimum use of pesticides. If public schools can do it, so can child care centers. Avoiding Big Risks for Small Kids shows that child care providers aren’t informed enough about this issue to get the safest pest control they can. Parents can make a huge difference by simply asking the right questions!

Looking for more information?
Here’s that quick and dirty guide to Avoiding Big Risks for Small Kids for parents and providers.
Here are Toxic Free NC’s resources for child care providers, which include a guide to contracting for safer pest control.
Here’s more information about the NC School Children’s Health Act, which requires IPM for NC public schools.
And here’s the link one more time for the new report – Avoiding Big Risks for Small Kids.