Commissioner Lori F. Kaplan will visited the Monroe
County United Ministries childcare on November 14 to thank workers there for
helping encourage Hoosier childcare facilities to keep harmful pests at bay
and get rid – in the safest way possible for children – of those
that manage to take up residence.
Parents
may not think about pest management when they choose a child care facility for
their children, but it is very important both for humans and the environment
to focus on ways to keep harmful pests as well as harmful pesticides away
from children, Kaplan said. By
taking this plan off the drawing board and putting it into place in the real
world, United Ministries have really helped us prove that this plan will work
for everyone.
United
Ministries was one of four child care facilities and two public schools to host
the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) pilot program. The public school participants included the Benton Community
School Corporation and the Vigo County School Corporation. The child care pilot
program participants included the Bloomington Developmental Learning Center,
Elka Child Educational Center (Gary), and Auntie Mame's Child Development
Center (Indianapolis).
We
were eager to take part in this pilot because we knew each of the partners
involved IDEM, Purdue and IU had the children in mind, said Meri Reinhold,
Executive Director of MCUM. They really helped us think it through and put
together a process that made sense and worked for us.
The
pilot program, funded by a $100,000 IDEM grant, originally focused on
developing an IPM policy for elementary schools. Nearly all of Indiana's
elementary schools volunteered to adopt the policy, which was written by the
Indiana Pesticide Review Board and approved by the state School Board
Association last year. That same policy, adapted for child care facilities,
will now be offered throughout the state. Because Indiana does not require an
IPM for schools or child care facilities, the plan is offered on a voluntary
basis.
This
plan provides a clear and simple way to improve children's health throughout
Indiana, said Al Fournier, Purdue's IPM in School Coordinator.
Dr.
Marc Lame, an Entomologist and Communication Specialist at Indiana University's
School of Public Affairs and Environmental Sciences, said: This grant was a
great investment in Indiana's children, and I hope everyone who is entrusted
with our children's care will put it into practice.
Kaplan
credited cooperation among the Purdue University Department of Entomology,
Indiana University and the State Chemist's Office as key to developing and
demonstrating the effectiveness of the IPM plan. In addition to IDEM's
promotion of the plan, Purdue will encourage Hoosiers to adopt the plan through
its Consumer and Family Sciences Department and its statewide County Extension
Service.
IPM
is designed to achieve long-term, environmentally sound pest suppression in a
number of ways including reducing accessible food, water and living space, and
sealing up entry routes into buildings.
Pesticides are used only when a confirmed pest problem is present and
preventative treatment will not work. Before treatment is applied, staff and
parents are notified, and the least-hazardous but effective pesticide is used.
For
more information about starting an IPM program in your facility, call the IPM
Technical Resource Center hotline, toll-free, at 877-668-8476, or reach us on
the web at http://www.in.gov/idem/kids/integratedpest.html.