Earlier this month, I posted “Of Pests and Pesticides,” a video by me and my classmates on chemical-free pest control.
BU Today just posted their version of the story, which portrays the safer pest control movement, known as Integrated Pest Mangement or IPM, as an effort to prevent childhood asthma.
It’s a bit more complicated than that. Although research showing a link between childhood asthma and cockroaches does exist, it is still a theory. What researchers are finding is that harmful pesticide residues stick around in carpets and other fabrics for years after they are used. What could be causing the asthma, no one knows. Nor does anyone know whether better pest control can reduce asthma rates.
What Pest Consultant Don Rivard, (pictured above), does when he checks for roaches covers both possibilities. By using tactics such as sticky traps and gel baits to get pests, people use less pesticide sprays. At the same time, he kills more roaches.
Roaches and asthma are national issues, not just for low-income families in Boston Public Housing. Asthma has been linked to everything from smog to not going outdoors enough as a child. IPM keeps the possible connection in mind, but it is more about helping people live cleaner, healthier lives. It would have been nice to have seen the bigger picture rather than just the BU research connection. But that’s the difference between PR and journalism.
May 29th, 2008 at 1:12 am
It would be interesting to know more about the research linking childhood asthma and cockroaches, because it could be an example of the distinction between correlation and causation. Eg, are homes that have more cockroaches also homes that have more dust because they are not kept as clean? Perhaps the studies have controlled for such confounding factors but maybe not.
May 29th, 2008 at 7:52 am
That’s a good question. I think it would be more about what’s in the dust that would be causing asthma. I’m going to do an investigation of this kind of research in Boston and get back to you with a post sometime this week. Thanks for the suggestion.