State agencies and partners to sign agreement on pesticide use in
schools
RALEIGH - State officials, business
leaders and community partners will come together Thursday, March 4 at
Raleigh’s Centennial Campus Middle School to sign an accord
recommending a smarter approach to pest control for North Carolina’s
schools. The event will be held at 3:30 p.m. in the school’s
sixth-grade house.
State Agriculture Commissioner Britt Cobb will be among those signing a
“Memorandum of Understanding” that organizers hope will lead to the
adoption of Integrated Pest Management in North Carolina public schools.
IPM is a proactive and common-sense approach to managing pests without
relying on routine or automatic application of pesticides. Through
improved sanitation, structural repairs and facility inspections, IPM
can reduce or eliminate the need for pesticide applications in sensitive
areas such as schools.
Nash County-Rocky Mount and Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County, Wake,
Buncombe and Catawba county schools already use IPM to control pests and
reduce students’ exposure to pesticide residues.
Dr. Mike Linker, Integrated Pest Management director in the Crop Science
Department at NC State, organized the Memorandum of Understanding.
Linker says that IPM is like good medicine.
“You don’t take antibiotics to keep yourself from getting sick, just
like you don’t use pesticides to try to keep pests away,” he says.
“You use all kinds of tools, and we want to see schools adopting these
smarter methods of pest control.”
State Rep. Marian McLawhorn of Pitt County will welcome representatives
to the MOU event. Participating organizations include the N.C.
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, N.C. Department of
Public Instruction, N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, N.C.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources, NC State University’s
Cooperative Extension Service, Agricultural Resources Center, N.C.
Parent Teachers Association, N.C. Pest Control Association, N.C. School
Plants Maintenance Association and the N.C. School Boards Association.
The event also will include a demonstration of older pesticide
application equipment and how they differ from new techniques used in
IPM.
Media Contacts: Fawn Pattison, Agricultural Resources Center,
919.833.5333
Dr. Mike Linker, North Carolina State University, 919.515.5644
Carl Falco, Structural Pest Control Division, NCDA & CS,
919.733.6100
