Pest control businesses becoming chem-free (Maine)

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=138155&ac=PHnws

ARUNDEL —When Ted St. Amand's father ran the family's pest extermination business, he typically showed up at jobs with a spray can full of pesticide. "When you came in with a can, you meant business," St. Amand said.

The pest control business has changed dramatically in the last decade, and St. Amand's company has shed the "man-with-a- can" image.

Atlantic Pest Solutions now is more likely to patch up holes in a home to keep mice and bats out, or install a special fan to keep flies out of a restaurant. Pesticide use is limited, and may even involve something like garlic juice or rosemary oil to repel mosquitoes.

Regulators and environmental advocates say the extermination industry as a whole still has a way to go to reduce its use of hazardous chemicals. St. Amand's company, however, is an example of how far some have come.

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and exterminators in the home here in Los Angeles.......last fall I encountered a family whose cat was REALLY itchy for mysterious reasons, and then the wife was being bitten, too. Turned out it was tropical rat mites migrating from the attic space down into the bathroom in search of a new food and housing source when the rat died in the attic, lol.

We cleared up the problem REAL fast with some flea spray in the home and Advantage on the cat. I told the wife to see her Dr. about the itching.



The owners brought some of these guys in to me on a slide to ID. The wife's OB-GYN said they were bedbugs, lol. But they were tiny little specks.

These are bedbugs:

Though it is under the radar - for economic reasons, it is becoming apparent that humans have limited abilities to process these poisons. Upon exposure, DNA becomes damaged, enzyme systems are no longer able to convert them into inocuous substances and the blood-brain barrier becomes permanently compromised.
The people who have crossed this threshold are found under many different names: Chemeically sensitive, sick building syndrome, Agent orange vets, Gulf War Illnesses (I ands now II), 9/11 Illnesses, organophosphate poisoned, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, neighbors of toxic waste sites and polluting industries, firefighters, orchard workers, children with allergies and learnign disabilities and more.

As someone who is in a position to recommend these products, please please investigate the consequences of exposure to these products. The powerful industries behind these products - oil, chemical, manufacturers, have waged a successful campaign to smear the sick, stop relevant research and deny medical care to people injured by chemical exposures. So the poisoning continues unabated.

You could start with the National Institute's of Environmental Health Sciences publication Environmental Health Perspectives.

http://www.vetkem.com/products_cats_HT_siphotrol.htm

....unless you are planning to misuse it....

The active ingredients don't need to be "processed" in any way by humans in order to be made less toxic.

Sheesh. But I suppose I just slept through all my chemistry, biochemistry, organic chemistry, parasitology, physiology, and pathology classes and don't know anything at all.......

here: http://www.drugs.com/vet/vet-kem-siphotrol-plus-ii-premise-spray.html

This product is not nontoxic to humans. I will do some MSDS searches to learn more. Please understand that the approval process and marketing of toxic chemical products is weighted toward the manufacturers.

EPA does not test the products, they accept or reject the manufacturers testing.
Inert Ingredients are often more toxic than the listed ingredients but are not divulged due to "trade secrets."
Chemical exposure testing is based on a hypothetical 25 year old healthy male. Exposure limits are not established for women, children, fetuses, the elderly, the sensitive and ill.
Exposure limits are based upon the fantasy that the person will be exposed to that chemical once with no other chemicals present.
Children are not smaller adults - they have undeveloped systems.

Most chemicals in commerce have NOT been tested for neurological, immune, digestive, hormone and DNA damage.
Many of the chemicals in commerce were grandfathered in even though their testing was known to be fraudulent.

I'm not getting on your case - just asking that you learn more since you are in the position to recommend such exposures. The regulation of chemicals is weak, testing is intentionally weak to protect manufacturers from liability. The damaging health effects of these products will not be found in the manufacturers' literature but if you search the environmental health literature you will find valuable info that will protect you and your clients. The best research is coming from Europe since corporations have such great influence in the US.

Chems are bad, no matter what!