Letter to Chair and Members of the Health Committee – December 10
December 10, 2008
VIA EMAIL AND FAX
Hon. Joel Rivera, Chair
City Council Health Committee
250 Broadway, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10007
Re: Intro 873
Dear Chair Rivera and members of the Health Committee,
New York vs Bed Bugs is a bed bug policy advocacy group founded in response to the resurgence of bed bug infestations in our city.
We are very encouraged by Intro 873, the bill recently referred to the Health Committee that would require the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to create a bed bug control training program and a bed bug hotline.
There is no effective and widely deployable (inexpensive) one-shot bed bug control method. Indeed, bed bug infestations are acknowledged extremely challenging even by experienced pest management professionals. Control procedures are difficult, time-consuming and prone to failure. Bed bug infestations are particularly challenging in multi-unit housing where bed bugs can easily spread between floors and apartments. Many infestations are not detected early enough to ensure complete containment and eradication and often infestations are unwittingly made worse by residents and property owners who undertake ineffective control efforts on their own. These circumstances, and a lack of bed bug information and education, have served to escalate the spread of bed bug infestations in New York City.
The need for bed bug awareness and public education is clear and immediate. And yet our city has not yet undertaken the development of a comprehensive bed bug control plan.
Our group has closely monitored the development of bed bug policies and strategies in other North American cities. Notably, Toronto and Cincinnati have established bed bug task forces led by their public health departments. In these cities there is an emerging consensus that: (a) city-wide, inter-agency, multi-stakeholder plans are necessary to control bed bug infestations; (b) bed bug control, surveillance and education are appropriate to the role of public health departments; and (c) there are special challenges in ensuring that the poor, vulnerable, elderly and ill—those most disadvantaged in coping with a bed bug infestation—have adequate access to qualified bed bug control information and services.
We feel that Intro 873 is an important first step in the development of a New York City bed bug control plan.
We respectfully urge you to schedule a hearing on Intro 873 at the earliest possible date.
Sincerely,
Renee Corea
New York vs Bed Bugs
cc: Council Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo
Council Member Maria Baez
Council Member Inez E. Dickens
Council Member Helen D. Foster
Council Member John C. Liu
Council Member Michael E. McMahon
Council Member Rosie Mendez
Council Member Helen Sears
Council Member Kendall Stewart
Council Member Albert Vann
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