MAY NEWS

N.Y. SCHOOL PESTICIDE REGULATION IN EFFECT JULY
ALBANY, N.Y. — Starting July 1, 2001, PCOs who service school accounts in New York will have a new regulation to follow as part of the "Neighbor Notification" law that went into effect March 1. The notification law requires commercial lawn care applicators to give 48 hours advance notice to anyone who lives within 150 feet of a spray site.

The part of the notification law that is of interest to PCOs is chapter 285, section 409-H. It requires public and parochial school officials and day care center managers to provide notification 48 hours prior to any pesticide application to parents and staff of the facilities.

Unlike the rest of the notification law, which allows individual counties to decide whether or not to adopt the law, Section 409-H is a statewide regulation and will be implemented by the New York State Health Commissioner on July 1, 2001. It poses strict regulations on the pest control products that require notification in schools and day care facilities, the proper protocol for notification, as well as a list of situations and products that are exempt from the law.

While the law requires that school officials give the notification, Gene Harrington, manager of government affairs, National Pest Management Association (NPMA), advised New York PCOs to become knowledgeable about the law. "I expect that schools and day care facilities will urge PCOs to use exempted products, such as boric acid, baits and anti-microbials, so they won’t need to go through the notification process."

Another way for schools and day care facilities to avoid the cumbersome notification process is to schedule their pest control services during school breaks, when children are away from the facilities more than 72 hours, Harrington said.

Questions have arisen in the industry about whether PCOs will be swamped with callbacks because the facility didn’t want to go through the proper notification protocol that would allow them to use the most effective and fastest methods.

"It’s hard to tell just yet," Harrington said. "Obviously, it’s causing PCOs to rely on some tools more than others, but whether or not that will impact pest control remains to be seen."

Harrington said that schools and day care facilities want to create an incentive for PCOs to use the least-toxic and least-invasive methods of pest control. "This is a trend going on around the country right now and is something NPMA has been supportive of in the past," he said.

INDUSTRY MOURNS LOSS OF PAUL ADAMS
ALEXANDRIA, La. — Paul K. Adams, founder of Adams Pest Control and a past president of the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), passed away on April 3. He was 78.

Adams, who was a 1991 PCT/Syngenta Leadership Award winner, opened his first office in Alexandria, La., in 1946 and later added five other branches, making Adams Pest Control the largest pest control company in central Louisiana. On March 24, 2001, the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center honored Adams with a reception to kick off the Paul K. Adams Endowed Chair in Urban Entomology at the Burden Research Station in Baton Rouge, La.

Adams was a pest control pioneer who took leadership roles in numerous industry and community organizations including heading NPMA’s Political Action Committee for many years.

"Probably nobody did as much to elevate the visibility and importance of government relations for the industry than Paul Adams," said Bob Rosenberg, director of government affairs, NPMA. "He was devoted to government relations from the day he was president until today. He was a tireless worker on behalf of the NPMA and the entire pest control industry."

Adams was also involved in regulatory issues in Louisiana. He wrote Louisiana’s original rules and regulations for termite treatments as well as the first termite contract in the state.

A number of Adams Pest Control employees worked for the company for 20+ years, a testament to the way Adams treated his employees, according to Lois Stevens-Caffey, who was hired by Adams in 1961 and was the company’s secretary-treasurer until Adams retired in 1993.

"He was interested in the welfare of the employees, he liked to run a family-oriented type business," Caffey-Stevens said. "He required that the people he employ have high integrity."

Since selling his business to Butch Morrison in 1993, Adams remained a vital part of Adams Pest Control, serving as an adviser and lending his entomological knowledge to employees, Morrison said. Adams also spent a considerable amount of time volunteering for various charity organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club of Central Louisiana, United Way and the Chamber of Commerce.

Adams is survived by wife Betty, son John Paul, daughter Jayne Collins and two grandchildren.

Donations in memory of Adams can be made to the Paul K. Adams Endowed Chair in Urban Entomology at Louisiana State University at: P.O. Box 25203, Baton Rouge, LA 70894-5203.

EPA SUBMITS MODIFIED CONSENT DECREE REGARDING NRDC LAWSUIT
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On March 19, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) submitted an amended consent decree to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California to resolve the lawsuit filed by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) regarding implementation of 1996’s Food Quality Protection Act. NRDC filed the lawsuit in August 1999, stating that EPA wasn’t meeting its deadlines regarding FQPA. NRDC asked the courts to force EPA too speed up its evaluation process (see "Legislative Update," http://www.pctonline.com/articles/Article.asp?MagID=1&ID=1381&IssueID=139)

After consulting the U.S. Department of Agriculture and representatives from farming and pesticide industries, EPA made a number of modifications to the consent decree, including: Specific language was inserted regarding the development of relative potency factors (RPF) for use in a cumulative risk assessment for organophosphates; EPA will make its RPF analyses available to the public by July 31, 2001; EPA will make the underlying toxicity studies available to the public to the extent possible under FIFRA; and EPA will agree to work with companies that wish to generate additional toxicity studies in order to clarify how the studies could best be performed.

EPA will provide a public comment period after issuance of a draft cumulative risk assessment for the organophosphates.

EPA clarified that it intends to consider label changes and other changes to the terms and conditions of a pesticide’s registration when conducting a risk assessment for a pesticide.

When determining whether chemical compounds share a common mechanism of toxicity, EPA will follow its existing policies or explain, in writing, any deviations from such policies.

Gene Harrington, manager, government affairs, National Pest Management Association, said Whitman and the new EPA administration "did what they could to make the agreement most workable," he said, noting that the modifications to the consent decree clarify the pesticide assessment process further, making it easier for people to understand. "We certainly applaud them for that," he said.

To read the full consent decree, visit

WWW.EPA.GOV/OPPFEAD1/CB/CSB_PAGE/UPDATES/NRDCDECREE.PDF.

INDUSTRY: CDC REPORT MAY BE MISLEADING
ATLANTA, GA. — Many in the pest control industry are concerned about how the public will interpret a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that contains data on human exposure to 27 substances — including pesticides, lead, mercury, plastics and variety of chemicals. See the report at www.cdc.gov/nceh/dls/report/.

The report presented the amounts of 27 chemicals found in blood and urine samples taken from a 1999 national health survey, which will become a baseline for future studies by the CDC. However, the report lacked any assessment of potential health effects as a result of exposure to these chemicals.

"Releasing raw data on chemicals without any evaluations or conclusions is misleading to the public," said Allen James, president, Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE). "The general public has only a moderate understanding of chemistry and virtually no understanding of what impact chemical detection in the human body actually has on one’s health."

James said the detections of pesticides by CDC that were mentioned in the report could have come from a variety of sources. "Some of the ‘pesticides’ detected may not even be true pesticides at all. They could be chemicals that are derivatives of other substances, some of which are naturally occurring," he said.

Dr. Angelina Duggan, director of science policy, American Crop Protection Association — an organization that represents manufacturers, formulators and distributors of crop protection, pest control and biotechnology products — said she believes the CDC report is misleading to the public. She said it’s not unusual for trace amounts of man-made and natural substances — such as pesticides — to be present in blood and urine. "But trace detections of those substances do not indicate harm to the body," she said.

James said the release of the report also provides fodder for anti-pesticide groups to use to scare the public. "They will definitely take advantage of the fact that the average person won’t understand this type of report," he said.

The pest control industry has questioned how or if the report will affect the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman’s promise to regulate pesticides based on scientific data and sound science.

"I don’t anticipate this report to be used very much by EPA at all," James said. "There are good scientists at the Agency and these people know that minuscule detections based on the advanced technology the CDC has access to do not indicate harm to humans."

James said the EPA would most likely view the report in the same manner as the pest control industry. "They’ll see the report as an issue worth watching and will probably try to make evaluations from the data, which is what the CDC should have done before releasing the report."

Neither Duggan nor James said they believe that the CDC intended to mislead the public with the release of the report. "The CDC has even stated that the data provides a baseline for further study and that it does not want to raise public alarm about any of the data," Duggan said.

"They were required to conduct a certain activity and they did it. What they are guilty of is not having the proper resources to evaluate the information before releasing it," James said.

BIRD-B-GONE OPENS NEW FACILITY
MISSION VIEJO, CALIF. — A new 10,000-square-foot facility for Bird-B-Gone now houses all manufacturing, assembly and distribution of Bird-B-Gone products, including Bird Spike 2000, Bird Spike 2001 Stainless Steel, Bird Net 2000, Bird Wire 2000 and other products provided by the company.

With four new 200-ton computer integrated plastic injection molding machines, the capacity of the company has been expanded to meet the needs of its customers. For information about Bird-B-Gone products, call 800/392-6915 or visit the company’s Web site at www.birdbgone.com.

JIM SHOAF, FORMER OPCA PRESIDENT, DIES
MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio — James ("Jim") Van Shoaf, retired president of Rose Exterminating Co. of Cleveland, passed away on March 13, after a three-month battle with pneumonia. He died two days before his 87th birthday.

Shoaf was born in Lexington, N.C., and served in the Air Force during World War II before moving to Cincinnati to work for the Orkin Exterminating Company in 1956. When Shoaf was appointed district manager of Central Exterminating Co. in Cleveland, he and his wife, Mary Lou, moved to Parma, Ohio, where they lived for more than 45 years.

Shoaf founded his own business, Metro Systems Inc., in 1962. Six years later, he acquired Rose Exterminating Company, which he and his wife managed until their retirement in 1986.

Shoaf was a Purdue Pest Control Conference attendee for more than 30 years, served as president of the Ohio Pest Control Association (1962), president of the Cleveland Pest Control Association (1971-73) and chairman of the affiliated group council of the National Pest Management Association (1983-84).

In addition to his wife, Shoaf is survived by his son, James V. Shoaf Jr.; three daughters, Jane Turner, Maria Addison, and Roberta Shoafenge; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

"BEYOND PESTICIDES" WEB SITE LAUNCHED
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new Web site has been launched by Beyond Pesticides/National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides to help consumers identify alternatives to pesticide use. The new site is located at www.beyondpesticides.org/infoservices/pcos.

Beyond Pesticides/National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides provides the public with "information on potential pesticide hazards and alternatives to their use," the group says. The group is a vocal opponent of the pest management industry.

"Our goal [with the new Web site] is to put people concerned about the their health and the health of children and the environment in touch with companies that provide pest management services that [use alternatives to pesticides] in their homes, workplaces, schools and communities," said Jay Feldman, executive director, Beyond Pesticides. "We are seeing increasingly informed consumers in the marketplace who are looking for these services."

Jerry Goodman, president, A SAFE Pest Eliminators, Miami, Fla., added his company to the site. "In my experience as a pest control provider, the least and non-toxic methods that I use work better and more thoroughly than any conventional method I’ve seen," he said.

"PREMISE PROMISE" TO PROVIDE PROTECTION
KANSAS CITY, MO. — Premise Insecticide now comes with a comprehensive termite protection guarantee called "Premise Promise."

The Premise Promise backs pest management professionals by covering up to 50 percent of additional product and labor costs "in the unlikely event that termites break through," according to a Bayer press release. Settlement claims to the PCO will cover up to 50 percent of the homeowner treatment price with a cap of $1,000 for residential accounts and $5,000 for commercial accounts. Plus, it pays up to 50 percent of a PCO’s insurance deductible for damage claims.

"Seven years of experience and nearly 800,000 successful treatments in the United States tells us that we can make this promise with confidence," said Jennifer Remsberg, Bayer market manager for pest management products. "The Premise Promise is designed to increase the pest management professional’s profitability and provide improved peace of mind."

To participate in the Premise Promise, PCOs need to enroll through their Bayer field sales representative or at the new Bayer Professional Care Web site. Following the purchase and application of Premise, the treated structure must be registered through the Web site within 45 days. The residence or business will then be protected by the Premise Promise for five years.

JT EATON OFFERS REBATE ON MOUSE TRAP
TWINSBURG, Ohio — JT Eaton & Company Inc. is offering a $5 rebate for every case of Repeater Multiple Catch Mouse Traps purchased between now and Aug. 31. The Repeater is a low-profile trap that fits easily under equipment and in tight spaces. Made of galvanized steel, the Repeater is available with either a solid or clear lid. To receive this rebate, purchase a Repeater trap and mail the invoice from your distributor to: JT Eaton & Co. Inc., 1393 E. Highland Rd., Twinsburg, OH 44087, Attn: Gary Schlosberg.

Invoices must be dated no later than Aug. 31, 2001 and requests for rebates must be postmarked no later than Sept. 15, 2001. Please allow four to six weeks for rebate processing. For more information visit www.jteaton.com.

GREG BAUMANN LEAVING NPMA
DUNN LORING, VA. — Greg Baumann, the man PCOs have called to answer technical questions for more than 10 years, left the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) May 2.

Baumann, who has been the association’s manager of government affairs, technical manager, and director of technical and field services, is heading to Raleigh, N.C., to become a principal owner in a new pest control company called Pro-Tech. The new firm will partner with an existing home inspection company and focus on relocation and real estate transactions. "Down there, home inspection companies can’t do termite inspections unless they are a pest control company," Baumann said. "People will be able to call us for one-stop shopping."

Baumann, who gave his notice to NPMA Executive Vice President Rob Lederer in mid-April, said he hopes to help the association with a smooth transition in finding a replacement. "There are no ill feelings. I’m going to become a NPMA member as soon as possible and going to be at the convention in New Orleans.

"When this opportunity came across, I just had to jump at it," he said.

VW&R CHANGES NAME TO VOPAK
KIRKLAND, Wash. — On April 2, the Van Waters & Rogers (VW&R) and Ellis & Everard (E&E) brands consolidated under one name: Vopak. The merged brands are now called Vopak USA Inc., in the United States and Vopak Canada Ltd., in Canada.

Both brands were already owned by Vopak — the company acquired VW&R in 1996 and E&E on January 17, 2001. However, the company chose to operate under a single brand to reflect the global position of its parent company, Royal Vopak — a Rotterdam-based company that offers logistics and distribution services to the chemical and oil industries and end-users of chemicals throughout the world.

"With the increasing globalization of our business and the rapid growth of e-commerce, we have much to gain by operating under a single global brand," Darwin H. Simpson, president, Vopak, said. "With its network of terminals, vessels and distribution centers around the world, the Vopak brand simply has a much broader geographic reach."

Many employees will remain in the same positions they had prior to the merger, including John Bolanos, who continues to serve as vice president of professional products and services — which includes the pest control division.

COMINGS & GOINGS
Terry Davis recently joined Bell Laboratories as the technical sales representative for the Western United States.

James H. Shaffer Jr., has been appointed vice president of sales for the newly created company, Pestwest USA, L.L.C.

Interview Technologies, Inc., Madison, Wis., and Boston, Mass., has promoted Marsann McCants to the position of customer service manager.

Chris Maher was recently named vice president of operations for Truly Nolen.

WEB WATCH
Aventis Environmental Science vector site — www.mosquitocontrolonline.com

Birdsblock — www.birdsblock.com

Canadian pest control site — www.pestcontrolcanada.com