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School Pesticide Use:
Resources for Promoting Healthier Schools
Pesticide Use in Schools
Despite the hazards to children and the environment, pesticides have become
a preferred approach to controlling pest problems in many schools and school
districts. Toxic chemicals are being used on school athletic fields, shrub
beds, parking lots, tracks, play areas, and in cafeterias, classrooms,
gymnasiums and restrooms. Too often, pesticides are applied by unlicensed
personnel, or applied on a calendar basis whether pests are present or
not.
Resources for Changing School Policy
Concerned parents, teachers, groundskeepers and others who want to reduce pesticide use on
school grounds will find useful information below on hazards of pesticides to children,
pest control alternatives, model policies, and
information on how to take action for change at their schools.
Note: Some of the linked documents below are in
Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).
You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader
to view these files. You can download this free software by clicking here:
Get Acrobat Reader
- Restoring Healthy School Landscapes
- "Hot" New Tools and Time-Tested Natural Methods for Managing School Landscapes PDF 348K
- Unthinkable Risk: How Children Are Exposed and Harmed When Pesticides Are Used at School.
Includes list of 98 actual school pesticide exposure or misuse incidents. It is also available in hardcopy (50 pages $7.00 ppd)
- Unintended Casualties: Five Stories of Children Whose Lives Were Profoundly Affected by Exposure to Pesticides
at School
also appended to "Unthinkable Risk" (above)
- Learning about Pesticides at School: Project Ideas
for High School or Middle School
Classrooms or Student Environmental Clubs. (Updated July 2000. 30pp. $5.50. Available by mail)
- Steps
Parents and Teachers Can Take to Reduce School Pesticide Use. Start
here for an overview that includes most of the links below, and many more!
- School Pesticide Use Reduction:
Where There's a Will There's a Way. (1994) PDF
81K
- School
Pesticide Use Hazards Reports. Links to on-line or hardcopy
reports about actual pesticide use practices in selected school districts,
including those in Oregon, Washington, California, and elsewhere around
the country.
News
- Doctors Recommend Pesticide Use as Last Resort in Schools, 2005. PDF
- Stopping a School Pesticide Spray Project in Boise, 2001. PDF
- House Kills Federal School Pesticide Amendment, 2001 and
New Pesticide Policy for Alaska Schools, 2001. PDF
Other Resources
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