SEPA (School Environmental Protection Act)
School Pesticide Reform Coalition
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Children, Pesticides and Schools
School
Environment Protection Act 2005 (SEPA)
Re-introduced
in 2005 Federal School Pesticide/Pest Management Legislation
To Protect Children From Hazardous Pesticides Used In and Around Schools
Your U.S. Senators and Representative Need To Hear From You.
Communities across the country are acting in increasing numbers to protect children from pesticides used at their schools, yet there are no national protections or standards for children. To correct this situation and ensure national leadership in protecting children from a daily dose of hazardous chemicals in their classrooms, playgrounds and ballfields, support is needed on the re-introduced federal legislation, entitled the School Environment Protection Act 2005 (SEPA).
SEPA is critical to providing a safer and healthier environment for our children to learn. It is the result of an historic agreement between organizations representing the environment, children and labor, and groups representing the chemical and pest management industry and agriculture.
SEPA provides basic levels of protection for children and school staff from the use of pesticides in public school buildings and on school grounds. This important piece of legislation requires public schools to implement safer approaches to pest management that rely on a range of non-chemical and chemical alternatives and requires notice be provided to parents and school staff when pesticides are used. The tools and experience to control school pests without using hazardous pesticides are available nationwide and have proven to be effective and economical. SEPA will help to put the alternatives in place. If pesticides are used, then clearly people have a right-to-know. The notification provisions are crucial to parent involvement.
This national effort has grown out of incredible success at the local and state level in adopting policies that protect children from pesticides and begin to establish pest management strategies that do not rely on pesticides. However, the majority of school children in the U.S. remain unprotected. The time is right for national protection.
SEPA's Legislative
History
SEPA was first introduced in November 1999 in both the U.S. Senate and
House. In the House, it was then reintroduced in 2001.The bill language
was based on Maryland and other state school pest management. It also
mirrored the structure of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990,
which established a national committee to oversee the program as well
as established a list of pesticides allowed for use within the program.
In the spring of 2001, Beyond Pesticides worked with several Senators' offices interested in the legislation and with several groups representing the chemical and pest management industry (NPMA, CropLife (American Crop Protection Association), Chemical Producers and Distributors Association, Consumer Specialty Products Association, International Sanitary Supply Association, and Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment) to negotiate the language of SEPA to something all parties would support. The chemical and pest management industry wrote a letter to the Senate in support of the negotiated language. Also a part of the negotiations were the Farm Bureau, agriculture educators, lawn care industry, and mosquito control lobbyists, all of whom dropped their opposition to the bill as their key concerns were added to the bill.
A negotiated version of the bill was then attached as an amendment to the education bill, No Child Left Behind Act, and unanimously passed the Senate. In November 2001, because the education bill in the house and the education bill in senate where different - a joint conference committee was formed to work on the differences. A Senate vote on the SEPA amendment to the Education bill lost by just one vote. The negotiated version of SEPA then passed as an amendment to Senate manager's package of the Farm Bill in February 2002. Because of strong opposition by the House Agriculture Committee and the pesticide industry's silence on their previous support of SEPA, SEPA was later withdrawn from Farm Bill.
The original SEPA language was re-introduced in the U.S. House by Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) on January 7, 2003 (H.R. 121) and by Representative George Miller (D-CA) on February 26, 2003 as part of the Leave No Child Behind Act of 2003 (HR 936). It was also re-introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators Dodd (D-CT) and Kennedy (D-MA) on February 26, 2003 as part of the Leave No Child Behind Act of 2003 (S. 448) and passed both times. The original SEPA language was re-introduced again in 2005 in he U.S. House by Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) on January 4, 2005 (H.R. 110) and then by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) on September 7, 2005 (S.1619).
Why Federal Legislation
Is Needed
Thirty-three states have taken some level of action to step in and provide
protective action to address pesticide use in, around, or near their schools,
according to a Beyond Pesticides report, The
Schooling of State Pesticide Laws -2002 Update. However, these laws
represent a patchwork of laws that are uneven and inadequate across the
country, while some state laws have standards that are more protective
than SEPA. SEPA would provide a minimum national standard. Shouldn't all
children and staff have a basic level of protection from hazardous pesticide
exposure?
In addition, SEPA
is necessary for the following reasons:
- Ensures every child across country is learning in a safe school environment;
- A 2005 study published in the Journal of American Medical Association finds that students and school employees are being poisoned by pesticide use at schools and from drift off of neighboring farmlands; the study authors noted the lack of protection for school children and employees under federal law, pointing out that state laws provide some protection but are varied, thus leaving large gaps;
- A 1999 U.S. GAO report found that EPA is not doing enough to protect children from pesticides;
- The Poison Control Center has documented 2,300 school pesticide exposures from 1993-96;
- Although the U.S. EPA and several states recommend safer school pest management practices and pesticide use notification, and there is a fair amount of good will among school administrators, custodians, pest management professions, only 26% of schools are following those recommendations and therefore, recommendations prove to be largely ineffective (according to Are Schools Making the Grade);
- Children are among the least protected population group when it comes to pesticide exposure; and,
- There are numerous
deficiencies in the existing regulatory review of pesticides, such as:
o Reregistration is an ongoing process with outstanding and missing data;
o FIFRA and FQPA risk standards by definition allow levels of risk or harm to be set;
o Inerts are not fully evaluated;
o Active ingredients are rarely tested in combination with other ingredients;
o Pesticide ingredients can breakdown to more toxic chemicals; and,
o We have little knowledge or control of many exposure scenarios, making determination of risk and hazards more complex.
There are numerous benefits to such legislation. SEPA would:
- Halt students and staff from unknowingly being exposed to the unnecessary use of hazardous pesticides;
- Force school administrators to know about their schools' pest management practices;
- Provide incentives for schools to move to safer, more effective pest management because pesticide use notification provisions are paired with school pest management plans;
- Allow parents, school nurses, and staff find out what is being applied and take any necessary precautions;
- Help the dissemination of existing manuals, guides, etc. on implementing safer practices;
- Decrease the cost schools would spend on pest management;
- Allow states and localities the authority to adopt standards regarding implementation of the law as they see fit;
- Lead to a healthier school environments; and,
- Ensure longevity of safer school pest management programs.
Children's Special
Vulnerability to Pesticides
The vulnerability of infants and children to the harmful effects of pesticides
has attracted national attention over the years. EPA and the National
Academy of Sciences, among others, have voiced concerns about the danger
that pesticides pose to children. Children face higher risks than adults
from pesticide exposure due to their small size, tendency to place their
hands close to their face, engaging in activities on or near the ground,
greater intake of air and food relative to body weight, developing organ
systems, and other unique characteristics.
Adverse health effects, such as nausea, dizziness, respiratory problems, headaches, rashes, and mental disorientation, may appear even when a pesticide is applied according to label directions. Pesticide exposure can adversely affect a child's neurological, respiratory, immune, and endocrine system and have been shown to cause or exacerbate asthma symptoms. Studies show that children living in households where pesticides are used suffer elevated rates of leukemia, brain cancer, and soft tissue sarcoma. Because most of the symptoms of pesticide exposure, from respiratory distress to difficulty in concentration, are common in school children and may also have other causes, pesticide-related illnesses often go unrecognized and unreported.
For
additional information, see a copy of the
bill summary, bill language, section-by-section
analysis, sample letter to Congress,
and/or
list of supporters.
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Show Your Support For The School Environment Protection Act (SEPA)
Contact your U.S. Senators and U.S Representative to request that he/she support SEPA. (See sample letter.) (See http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov/writerep/ for their contact information.)
Sign your organization up as a supporter of SEPA by emailing Beyond
Pesticides your Name and Organization contact information. (See a
list of current SEPA supporters.)
Pass this information to your mayor, city council, local PTA and civic associations to see if they will endorse SEPA. (Email Beyond Pesticides, and we'll also send follow-up information. Please be sure to include all the necessary contact information.)
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For more information contact Michele Roberts at 202-543-5450 or mroberts@beyondpesticides.org.