Editor's note: In response to a July 27 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that is critical of pesticide use in schools, the National Pest Management Association issued the following release:
FAIRFAX, Va. - The July 27th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) contains an article critical of pesticide use in schools. NPMA strenuously disagrees with the authors’ methodology and conclusions.
The authors review five years of incident data involving exposure to pesticides by students and school employees and conclude that “exposure to pesticides in the school environment is a health risk facing children and school employees.”
NPMA believes the study is methodologically flawed, fails to consider the health risks associated with exposure to pests and draw conclusions that are not supported by the data. In fact, we believe the data demonstrates that there are only a small handful of theoretical incidents and is evidence of the industry’s remarkably strong safety record.