Children's Risk to Pesticides in Schools

Green Schools Offer Healthier Classrooms -- and Might Boost Test Scores

Beyond Pesticides - Children and Schools

State and Local School Pesticide Policies

School Pesticide Reform Coalition

Healthy Schools Network

LEAN's Healthy Schools, Healthy Students Project

Pesticides lurk in daycare centers

The Doors of Perception: Why Americans Will Believe Almost Anything

New law: Schools can't force meds on kids

Deadly Immunity - Mercury in Childhood Vaccines May Have Caused Autism

Get a mercury hair sample kit

How To Legally Avoid Unwanted Immunizations Of All Kinds

National Vaccine Information Center

America's Top 10 Green Schools

Environmental Health Policy - Dragonfleye Charter School

Smoke Free/Scent Free - Dalhousie University

Environmental Toxicants and Developmental Disabilities

Environment & Human Health, Inc.

Pesticides in Schools: Reducing the Risks

Our Kids Are Being Poisoned And We Can Stop It

Chemical Poisons Cause Increasing Levels of Illness - Tobacco Blamed

Pesticides and Cancer

EPA

Resources for Schools - Indoor Air Quality

Healthy School Environments

IAQ Design Tools for Schools

IPM in Schools

Managing Asthma in the School Environment

Air Fresheners

Publications

Louisiana Department of Education

St. Tammany Parish Public Schools

St. Tammany District PTA

Louisiana Governor Recognizes Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Louisiana ranks 50th - least healthy state
Louisiana is at the bottom of the list among the states in quality of life issues such as health and education. This reflects poorly on the state and its leadership.

2002 report
2004 report
2006 report

A Must Read... Head lice Information, Harvard School of Public Health

Welcome to HeadLice.org

Of lice and libel
Ann Arbor enviro group sued by drugmaker - You might say it's a real head-scratcher: Why would the United States ban the use of a highly toxic pesticide on crops and animals yet allow the same substance to be rubbed into the scalps of children?

Head Lice Treatment - Licefreee!Non-Toxic Head Lice Treatment

Safe Schools
"Few parents are aware that sending their children to school can be like playing a dangerous game of Russian roulette; that school can be a hazardous place for kids and teachers alike." Learn about the sick school syndrome and what can be done to protect our children and teachers.

JAMA Study: Acute Illnesses Associated With Pesticide Exposure at Schools

Conclusions Pesticide exposure at schools produces acute illnesses among school employees and students. To prevent pesticide-related illnesses at schools, implementation of integrated pest management programs in schools, practices to reduce pesticide drift, and adoption of pesticide spray buffer zones around schools are recommended.

Press Release: Beyond Pesticides
Group Calls for National Legislation to Protect Children

Articles from across the globe - sadly none from St. Tammany Parish

School study sparks pesticide row

Pesticides may be sickening school kids

School Kids and Teachers Bugged By Pesticide Exposure

Rep. Holt seeks pesticides limits
The congressman wants federal limits on the use of pesticides at, and near, schools.

What You Can Do

Help your school eliminate pesticide risks. Some schools now give children, and not chemicals, the benefit of the doubt. What about yours?

Louisiana School Pesticide Law
Communities are taking action to protect children from pesticide use in schools, by establishing least-toxic pest management strageties through adoption and implementation of state and local policies. Louisiana has only 2 listed communities (Mandeville and St. Thomas Parish) that took action to protect children. (Note: both actions took place after pesticide exposure incident)

Take Action

The Young and the Pestless
Billie Karel, advocate for pesticide alternatives, answers readers' questions including some tips about getting pesticides out of schools.

Contact Parish President Kevin Davis
Tell him to protect all children and teachers from pesticide use in St. Tammany parish schools, not only Mandeville, by establishing least-toxic pest management program throughout the school system and to place its pesticide program online. Ask your neighbors to contact Davis, too. Our children and teachers deserve the safest environment to learn and teach in.

Your local government will tell you there's nothing to worry about, that it has not received any pesticide health complaints, or that it already implements a safe pesticide program. Don't believe a word of it. Your only protection for children and teachers is to change its pesticide program by law.

Learning Starts With A Healthy Environment
Sign the School Pesticide Reform Protocol

Free Activity Book For Kids
Contact us for your 'free" copy of EPA's Join Our Pest Patrol: A Backyard Activity Book for Kids on Integrated Pest Management. Every teacher and child should have a copy. For more information, click here.

Get Involved
You can speak out on these important issues by writing a Letter to the Editor.

This year the St. Tammany Parish School Board wants to raise school taxes instead of working within its means or improving school health environment. It's website says "Smoking is not permitted in any School Board facility." It also needs to say "Pesticides is not permitted in any School facility."

Louisiana's Governor Kathleen Blanco (previously a school teacher) "is so highly allergic to all fragrances that staffers avoid perfume or cologne and the Governor's Mansion has standing orders at Baton Rouge florists not to send over highly aromatic floral arrangements." Read more

Toxic chemicals are NOT the way to say, "I love you."

The Danger of Household Insecticides Confirmed in Recent Study: What You Can Do Instead
A study by French researchers has found that using insecticides -- either in the home or garden -- increases the risk of childhood leukemia.

Warning for Teachers

Each year we see scores of teachers who have the same story. It goes something like this: Because there was an increasing need for their special educational services, a new classroom has to be created for them. Sometimes the "new" room was actually a larger room that was partitioned off into smaller rooms. This partitioning often left the newly created room without windows and/or without the full use of a ventilation system. Sometimes the room was a converted janitor's closet where cleaning supplies, pesticides, mops and buckets were stored. Because it was originally designed as a storage closet, it also had no windows and was not part of the ventilation system.

As part of the renovation, the newly partitioned room or closet was emptied, painted and carpeted. Children who took classes in this room usually did so for a maximum of one period a day, but the teacher often spent her entire day, five days a week, in this renovated, under-ventilated small room.

Over a period of time, she developed a large array of symptoms, depending upon the individuals, but the commonest by far was always "brain fog". She gradually became spacey, dizzy, dopey, felt as though she couldn't concentrate well and was exhausted or depressed for no apparent reason. She usually had a host of other complaints that seemed unrelated, such as irritable bowel, headaches, recurrent sinus infections, body aches and arthritis, nausea and irritable bowel, unexplained mood swings, painful or irregular menstrual periods, and much more. Read on.

Toxic Teacher Syndrome: Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Our Toxic World: A Wakeup Call
by Dr. Doris Rapp

This 520-page book is about chemicals and how they are hurting our children, all wildlife, our planet and us. Find out how to protect yourself and, your loved ones, We have polluted our air, water, soil, food, homes, schools and, workplaces. WE MUST STOP IT!

Fill Out Dr. Rapp's
Pesticide Chemical Exposure History Form

Did you know...

Rethinking Roundup

Antidepressants May Trigger Violent Behavior

Children face danger in the schoolyard grass from pesticides

Unthinkable Risk: How Children Are Exposed and Harmed When Pesticides Are Used at School

Study finds widespread pesticide use in the homes, schools and parks of low-income urban children