Anne
Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) includes 75,000 students, 50,000
staff and 77 elementary schools, 19 middle schools, 12 high schools and
8 special schools. The
system is the 5th largest in Maryland
and 41st largest in the US.
The school system has been
an IPM pioneer, initiating their program in 1989 to address an incident
with a chemically sensitive student.
Daniel La
Hart, Environmental Program Manager for AACPS oversees the IPM Programs.
Dan is a Certified Industrial Hygienist and a certified pesticide
applicator in three categories. Dan
ensures the IPM program is implemented system wide and issues
notifications to all parents and staff anytime pesticide applications
must take place inside a school building, or on school grounds. Denise
Frye is the IPM Manager who along with two IPM technicians oversees the
day to day IPM program in the schools. Denise
has over fifteen years experience conducting and teaching IPM and is the
individual most responsible for the success of the program.
In 1990,
AACPS conducted a pilot test, comparing cost and effectiveness with an
IPM program vs. a conventional program.
The pilot succeeded in reducing pest control costs from $46,000
to $14,000 in one year. Pesticide
application notification costs currently average $10,000 to $12,000 per
year. This carefully
documented program has been cited in numerous publications, most
recently in Pesticides and You
(Vol 22, No. 1, 2002 by Beyond Pesticides).
AACPS,
working under an EPA grant, developed the first indoor air quality
program in 1989. Anne
Arundel
County
is also a silver-level award winner in the Chesapeake Bay Partner
Community Award Program, which requires IPM practices.
Dan and Denise hosted a bus tour for those involved in crafting Maryland's strong school IPM laws and regulations, and influenced the outcome
of the legislation. Two Anne
Arundel
County
residents continue to be vocal proponents of IPM and represented Maryland's private citizens on the Governor’s Task Force on Pesticides.
The record
keeping system at AACPS allows Dan and Denise to measure IPM success on
an ongoing basis. The system
tracks pest-related service calls by pest, and to tally the number of
times non-chemical options are used to resolve the problem.
Of 392 pest-related work orders in 2003, 255 (or 65%) were
resolved with sanitation, exclusion, trapping or other non-chemical
response. Many of the
remaining work orders were resolved with measures designed to minimize
any potential pesticide exposure, such as rodenticides or insecticides
placed in tamper-resistant bait stations.
An example
of the least-toxic strategy in action is Denise’s response to a
request for a pesticide treatment for German cockroaches at one of
AACPS’s schools that uses handicapped workers to staff the kitchen and
cleaning crew. Rather than
schedule an application, Denise's staff inspected for sanitation and
found much needed room for improvement. Prior to a crack and crevice
treatment, an outside contractor was hired to conduct an extensive
kitchen cleaning including areas that in-house staff found hard to
reach. Together, sanitation
and a focused pesticide application successfully resolved the problem.
AACPS is
also unique in the attention given to its IPM program for school
grounds. Both pesticide and
fertilizer use have been reduced since the start of the program.
Pesticide use is limited to 28 Bermuda grass and stadium fields
at the high school level, and only when a pest problem is detected and
accurately diagnosed. Weeds,
for example, are treated only when the problem covers 5-10% of the
field. Spot treatments are
directed at the problem areas rather than broadcasting pesticide across
an entire field. Except for
emergency treatments such as bees and poison ivy, no pesticides are
applied to school grounds at the elementary or middle school levels.
AACPS
continues to push the IPM envelope.
Recently, the school experimented with a new bait station for
termites, which greatly reduces the amount of pesticide needed to
control this expensive pest. At
160 stations per site, the system is very labor intensive but still less
expensive than hiring outside contractors to treat.
To view
Anne Arundel County Public School's press release, please click here.
