New York vs Bed Bugs » EPA National Bed Bug Summit

“Crisis”

Renee Corea — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:56:01 +0000

EPA will give an update on the National Bed Bug Summit today at NPMA’s PestWorld in Las Vegas. Lois Rossi and Kevin Sweeney will:

discuss steps the government has taken since April to address the bed bug “crisis.”

Okay, don’t believe me on the scare quotes (PDF)?

Also, when will the public get an update?

Section 18 exemptions under consideration?

Renee Corea — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:13:16 +0000

Update – November 2009: Ohio has requested a Section 18 exemption for residential use of propoxur.

Directly as a result of the EPA National Bed Bug Summit, PCT, July 15:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering granting a Section 18 label exemption to older chemistries for bed bug control. Under Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) EPA is authorized to allow an unregistered use of a pesticide for a limited time if EPA determines that an emergency condition exists.

The problem:

[NPMA Senior Vice President Bob] Rosenberg said that the current challenge facing the industry is that even though both states and EPA agree on the need, there is no manufacturer at this point that has committed to produce such products. “It could be any number of reasons from economic issues to concerns about liability,” Rosenberg said.

A couple of months ago we looked at just such doubts from PCT columnist Richard Kramer.

However, let’s be optimistic for once, yes?

This is the Section 18 process. And this is the statute.

Public health exemption, looks like, but would it be a crisis exemption? See EPA’s crisis process flow chart. Ah, so many questions, so little information.

How can the public, I wonder, advocate for these solutions?

Is anyone in a position to tell us more?

We’re going to have to research and think about just what the realistic options among those ‘older chemistries’ are. The Australians still have OPs and carbamates, see the Code of Practice. By the way, there is one organophosphate that is “back”—dichlorvos, see this March 2008 PCT article (PDF)—and there are several products registered in New York State according to the Cornell NYS pesticide database but apparently none labeled for bed bugs.

EPA webinar presentations posted

Renee Corea — Sat, 09 May 2009 23:11:34 +0000

Yes, there are audio problems, but they’re up and you should take a look, especially as there are a couple of presentations that are not posted on the docket.

National Bed Bug Summit Agenda with Video Webinar Presentations | Pesticides: Science and Policy | US EPA
This is the main summit page at EPA for the other available documents (workgroup recommendations, etc.): National Bed Bug Summit | Pesticides: Science and Policy | US EPA
You can also download the presentations that are available as PDFs by accessing the public docket at this link: EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0190

Our comments for EPA

Renee Corea — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:35:07 +0000

We figured they’d heard everything, truly, and from the smartest people all at the same time.

So we basically said thanks. We figured they’d heard a bit less of that.

And about those control methods…

At present, the effects of bed bugs on underserved communities in New York City, as elsewhere, can only be described as harrowing. One of the most challenging problems is how to improve access to bed bug control services. As you were told, no doubt repeatedly, there is an urgent need to identify and disseminate good bed bug control protocols, best practices and education. Public health tracking of bed bug infestations would finally also rank high on our wish list.

We feel that EPA can provide expertise and coordinate knowledge networks to aid the efforts of what must be hundreds of people, agencies and institutions that are now tasked with developing bed bug control guidelines throughout the country.

All of this and more would be extremely helpful.

However, what we would beg the Office of Pesticide Programs and its partners in this effort to do, without delay, is that which would have the greatest impact and which you are uniquely positioned to do, and that is to institute a review process to identify and evaluate bed bug control pesticides, tools and methods. This is the ultimate key.

Improve and facilitate, as contemplated under FIFRA, Section 28(d).

We are immensely grateful for your efforts and the attention you are focusing on the problems of bed bugs in our society.

Sincerely,

Renee Corea
New York vs Bed Bugs

EPA makes available National Bed Bug Summit summary recommendations

Renee Corea — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:11:44 +0000

The Environmental Protection Agency Office of Pesticide Programs has posted the summary workgroup results and recommendations from the National Bed Bug Summit.

These are the available materials so far:

The webinar of the morning of the first day of the summit will be available for viewing on April 24 according to the site, but that’s next Friday. I think they meant Tuesday the 21st.

The Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee will meet on April 22 and review the summit recommendations. This is not yet on this meeting’s agenda, which you can see here.

This is the bed bug summit page at EPA if you want to keep track or check back to download the webinar recording that will be available next Tuesday—or Friday!

This is a lot of material. I will read this over the weekend. I hope you will too. Come on, it’ll be fun. Please feel free to tell us what you think of these recommendations, let’s talk about them. Here’s another link to the PDF so you don’t have to scroll up!

I thought it would be possible to submit public comments to the docket, but I see no comment icon enabled. I hope this is not a Mac problem?

Outcomes? Impatience.

Renee Corea — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:01:46 +0000

Wait with me: this is EPA’s docket for the National Bed Bug Summit.

Just thinking that, in principle, it’s going to be not much different than 1933. I dare say.

Bet?

Update: This was needlessly opaque. Jessica made fun of me. It was late and I just wanted you to see and bookmark the docket! No matter, they’ve posted everything now. I’ll update in a new post.

The heart of the EPA National Bed Bug Summit: the group discussion

Renee Corea — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:52:51 +0000

Once again, in part 3 of his live blogging, Pete Grasso delivers—what a tremendous job he has done. This is excellent reportage. So many of the articles yesterday and this morning are disappointing; they collectively sound puzzled, sarcastic, and depressingly full of misrepresentations.

Today Pete summarizes the bed bug summit’s group recommendations (the meeting split into 10 groups yesterday afternoon).

These simple bullet points are required reading. This is how we’re going to solve our problems. This discussion is vital, even the disagreements, which are probably both unavoidable and healthy and have occurred in at least one other large meeting of stakeholders.

Here’s just one group’s recommendations:

Group Nine Recommendation Highlights

Form a committee or panel to explore adopting best practices and guidelines for pest management industry drawing from previously developed materials

Educate medical community to prevent misdiagnosis

Design national outreach and education program (Web site) for first responders

Establish voluntary standards at a national level for accreditation for bed bug specialists to help people find qualified PMPs

Dedicate more money for bed bug research

Hold a second, follow-up bed bug summit

You have to read the rest.

Heartfelt thanks to Pete for putting us as close to the room as we could possibly get. His live blog posts yesterday definitely kept us from feeling sorry for ourselves for not being there! Be sure to read Part 1 and Part 2.

Pete Grasso live-blogging the EPA bed bug summit

Renee Corea — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:39:41 +0000

Pete Grasso of Pest Management Professional is live-blogging the event: LIVE from the Bed Bug Summit.

Like the World Cup.

~~If you still want to check out the webinar, these are the instructions (PDF)~~.

UPDATE: Don’t miss Part 2, the afternoon session.

Heated debate. I hope it was good.

NYC Department of Health at National Bed Bug Summit (plus agenda and webinar details)

Renee Corea — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 05:05:25 +0000

Welcome to New York vs Bed Bugs. Did you land here looking for a review of NYC landlord/tenant law? Please see this post: Bed bugs and the law in New York City.

Sharon Heath of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will speak at EPA’s National Bed Bug Summit on April 14. It’s a portion of the session titled “How Public Health Agencies View Bed Bug Infestations,” with Mike Herring from CDC, Dr. Camille Jones from the Cincinnati Health Department and Sarah Norman from Baltimore City Health Department.

This is what we have always wanted, for our city and the city’s Health Department to show leadership on the bed bug issues. We have met Ms. Heath (we really like her a lot) and it’s very encouraging that she will participate.

EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs has made the meeting agenda (PDF) available. Topics include bed bug basics, impact on public and private housing, control methods and challenges and the government response to bed bugs.

This is the page at OPP to access all summit information.

The morning speaker session on Tuesday, April 14, will be broadcast via webinar, instructions here (PDF). No Macs, however.

The work groups in the afternoon session on Tuesday will focus on the following objectives:

Tasks:

Identify most significant factors contributing to the problem
Identify and discuss options and solutions & workgroup recommendation

Major Topics to Consider:

Research
Role of Government
Consumer Education and Communication
PCO Education and Training
Role of Property Owners & Property Managers

The next day’s morning session will report the discussions.

I wonder what this will look like?

We have the highest hopes, but this is surely going to be difficult work.

Consider this summary of the bed bug workshop at last year’s International Conference on Urban Pests (ICUP) in Budapest which recently appeared in Pest, a new UK industry magazine. The article by Clive Boase, Bedbugs fascinate in Budapest (PDF), provides an interesting glimpse into the types of disagreements that may emerge in a discussion about what direction to take to control bed bugs in our society. You should take a look; you will likely find something to strongly agree or disagree with.

In a section on “customer oriented solutions,” Boase writes about the views expressed in discussion on the question of responsibilities:

Clarification of the individual responsibilities of the municipality, landlord, tenant and homeowner to deal with infestation, was also seen as important. If responsibility for identifying, reporting and controlling bedbugs was clarified, then a legal requirement for properties to be certified as free-of-infestation could help address the problem. This was felt to be particularly true for rented properties which can act as reservoirs of infestation.

And on training needs:

In terms of the quality of bedbug control work and the training necessary to carry out effective bedbug control, both manufacturers and academics thought that there had been a decline in the quality of practical bedbug control compared to earlier decades and that standards needed to improve.

Note: We listed the bed bug papers presented at ICUP Budapest here. There’s another bed bug article in this first issue of Pest, by the way, on David Cain and his bed bug survey presentation last year. So, we have one more publication to watch for bed bug stuff, great. There’s a preview of the next issue.