By:LARRY MAIER
Recently passed state legislation called the Neighbor Notification Law requires that all public and private school districts comply with stricter regulations regarding advanced notification of pesticide use on school grounds.
The law was enacted in light of increasing awareness of the potential dangers posed by exposure to pesticides and chemicals used to combat weeds, insects and rodents.
But, according to Gunther Fishgold, a nationally recognized pest management consultant and former consultant to the New York Coalition Against Pesticides, the Baldwin School District has been ahead of the pack for years in how it manages usage of pesticides.
Fishgold credits Michael Sheehan, the district's director of facilities and operations, for helping Baldwin become a statewide leader in pesticide management.
Mike Sheehan has always been very proactive about making changes and very ambitious about making them work,said Fishgold. Whenever anyone comes to me asking about [pesticide management] for their schools, I always send them to Mike.
The new law says that, beginning next year, school districts will have to provide a written statement to all parents, guardians and staff that says pesticide products may be used periodically within the district.
Districts will also be required to maintain a list of all those who wish to receive written notice from the school 48 hours in advance of an actual pesticide application.
Setting the standard
Fishgold met Sheehan in 1994, the year the Baldwin School District's Health and Safety Committee began to look into the potential dangers of using pesticides in classrooms and on school grounds.
An Integrated Pesticide Management Committee was formed and spent a year and a half meeting with such organizations as the coalition against pesticides, the Environmental Protection Agency, BOCES and the state's Board of Health, fine- tuning the plan that would make Baldwin a leader among school districts in pesticide management.
The IPM committee created a pesticide usage policy that was adopted by the board of education and wrote a handbook on the use of pesticides within the district.
Basically our policy said we are not allowed to use pesticides for aesthetic purposes. We felt it was the right thing to do. That was the bottom line,said Sheehan. We haven't applied a pesticide on our grounds in 10 years.
Sheehan said that the district uses limited amounts of pesticides and chemicals to control plant disease and pests, such as ants and rodents, only after exhausting all other options.
The system has worked. Sheehan estimates that compared to 1994, the district today uses about 90 percent less pesticide.
Geri Barish, president of One in 9, the Long Island Breast Cancer Action Coalition, said that her organization has always been impressed with Baldwin's pesticide policies.
They are the best,said Barish. We know chemicals and pesticides are suspects in terms of causing cancer. Baldwin has really been very aggressive, they have always taken an initiative and shown other school districts that you can take precautions and use far less pesticides.
Over the past six years, the district's IPM handbook has been requested by hundreds of school districts around the country, said John McGrath, chairman of the high school science department.
McGrath said that Baldwin has even incorporated pesticide management into its curriculum. When the district first implemented its pest management policies, students played a major role in getting the plan rolling.
We got the science kids involved,said McGrath. Students worked with Cornell University and Baldwin's custodial staff to study the range of plant life on school grounds and fields and determine alternative treatments to using pesticides.
Pesticide management is still taught in the high school's biology curriculum as students learn about how pesticides eventually work their way into the food chain and can be harmful to all forms of life.
Baldwin's commitment to pesticide management does not come without a price, however.
The fields are not perfect. There are going to be some weeds,said McGrath. But the costs of using pesticides don't equal the benefits of not using them.
McGrath added that inside school buildings we have no more pests from not using pesticides than we would if we did.
