By Alan Caruba
As 1999 began, the headlines looked familiar. In the previous two years, parts of the nation had been gripped by major snow and ice storms. "Storm Pummels Full Depth of Middle U.S.", said The New York Times on January 3rd. "Storm Triggers Travel Chaos", said USA Today on January 4th.
Stuck in my memory was a headline from The New York Times, January 14, 1996. "Blame Global Warming for the Blizzard," wrote science reporter William K. Stevens. From the data banks of Nexis, I would discover that Stevens had written ninety stories about global warming since January l99l until that January 1996 headline. In 1997, I began to keep a tally of Steven's output on global warming. He would write twenty-six more stories and, in 1998, he would write twenty-two more, augmented by John H. Cushman, Jr's comparable stories.
As this final year of the century began, I was culling through a vast personal library and came across two books, "The Weather Conspiracy: The Coming of the New Ice Age" by a group of authors calling themselves the "Special Impact Team" and "Earth's Aura" by Louise B. Young.
"Many climatologists believe that since the Sixties the world has been slipping toward a new ice age," said the authors of "The Weather Conspiracy."
Young wrote, "in the last two decades of the nineteenth century (the 1800's), the trend was reversed and the world passed through a long warming period that continued until about 1940." She noted, too, that "In the early 1940's another reversal occurred, and the climate--at least in the Northern Hemisphere--turned gradually colder."
Both books were published in 1977.
The theme of both books, written over twenty years ago, was that man was altering the earth's weather. Young wrote, "man now makes clouds form and rains fall; he deflects the path of hurricanes and the flow of volcanic lava..." Does anyone really believe, based just on the past two decades, that man does either? Man did not deflect hurricanes Andrew and Mitch. Man did not control the eruption of Mount Pinatubo or other volcanoes. If man could make rain to fall, the 1998 drought could have been averted. The simple, obvious truth is that man does not control the weather. Never has. Never will.
However, the climatological facts cited in both books were accurate. Until the 1940's, there had been a warming trend in response to a Little Ice Age that had occurred in the 17th century. It coincided with a period when the sun had a greatly reduced magnetic activity. This is widely known to climatologists as the Maunder Minimum.
The records of sunspot activity go all the way back to 1609 when Galileo began observing such phenomenon and, parenthetically, got in trouble with the Church for suggesting the earth circles the sun, not the other way around. He spent the last years of his life under house arrest. Telling the truth when the ruling powers disagree can carry a penalty. Ignoring the truth is equally dangerous.
It is the sun's magnetic activity, an eleven-year cycle, that dominates the weather on earth as it warms and cools. To put it another way, the earth's weather has virtually nothing to do with the greenhouse production attributed to human activities.
Fully 95% of the carbon dioxide, now identified by Greens, i.e., U.S. and worldwide environmentalists, as a form of pollution, is produced by natural sources such as evaporating seawater, decaying organic matter, and from plant and animal respiration. Each year, 157 billion metric tons is released in the atmosphere. Of this amount, barely 457.2 million tons comes from cars and trucks. According to American Enterprise Institute researcher, James Johnson, "Eliminating all U.S. gasoline powered vehicles would reduce worldwide carbon dioxide emissions by 0.18%." Less than one half of one half of one percent.
Despite this minuscule contribution, Albert Gore, Jr., in his book "Earth in the Balance", advocates "eliminating the internal combustion engine" by the year 2018! This is the same gentleman who has been a driving force behind the United Nations treaty on Climate Control, formulated in Kyoto, Japan.
And, despite the fact the U.S, Senate passed a unanimous resolution saying it would never ratify this treaty, the acting U.S. representative to the UN signed it in November 1998.
Neither the President, nor Vice President, participated in this event. In August, however, the Associated Press reported that the President had called the mid-year heat wave the latest symptom of global warming and had ordered energy-saving measures in all federal buildings.
"Global warming is real; the risks it poses are real," said Clinton. "The sooner Congress understands that, the sooner we can protect our nation--and our planet--from increased flood, fire, drought, and deadly heat waves." He asked for $6.3 billion in research and tax incentives over the next five years to "encourage the private sector to cooperate..."
The obvious question, given the President's fears of global weather catastrophes, is why didn't he personally sign the UN treaty? Or designate the Vice President, its strongest advocate, to do so? Contrary to the Constitution which states that two-thirds of the Senate must approve a treaty, the Environmental Protection Agency is reportedly already taking steps to implement it.
In October 1997, President Clinton addressed the National Geographic Society saying, "The United States proposes at Kyoto that we commit to the binding and realistic target of returning to emissions of 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. And we should not stop there."
Why? Why reduce carbon dioxide emissions from human activities when (1) they represent less than 1% of all emissions and, (2), by any measurement applied, would have a crippling impact on the nation's economy? The UN treaty, moreover, would exempt both China and India, along with more than a hundred other nations.
Why are both the President and Vice President of the United States advocating a program that would, according to many organizations, think tanks, and experts on the subject, do immeasurable harm to the nation?
The Ultimate Scare Campaign
Today's Greens would prefer that you forget how much time and effort they put into convincing everyone that an Ice Age was on the way back in the 1970's. Why? Because it failed to frighten enough people. By the 1980's, Greens totally reversed course and began to warn of a massive heating of the earth.
In 1998, James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, testified at a Gore-sponsored Senate hearing that "The greenhouse effect has been detected and it is changing our climate now." Wrong. Very wrong. By 1998, Hansen, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, said, "The forces that drive long-term climate change are not known with an accuracy sufficient to define future climate change." The interactions of atmospheric components remain, said Hansen, "major areas of uncertainty."
The only people who are completely certain are the President and Vice President, supported by a wide range of Green organizations, all of whom are allied with the UN as "Non-Governmental Organizations."
Ironically, in 1990, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that the average global temperature would rise 3.3 degrees Celsius over the next century. Two years later, the IPPC revised that figure downward to 2.8 degrees. By 1995, they revised it downward again to 2.0 degrees, and, after factoring out natural climate factors, the IPPC said human-caused warming would amount to 1 degree in the next century.
A warming of 1 degree Celsius could occur naturally without any human input. Acknowledging this, the IPPC says that, "some of the global warming since 1850 could be a recovery from the Little Ice Age rather than a direct result of human activities."
Widely reported in November 1998 was a statement by one of the major Green organizations, the Worldwatch Institute, along with Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, who said, "More and more, there's a human fingerprint in natural disasters in that we're making them more frequent and more intense..." No, we're not. Weather related and other natural disasters occur every year. History is replete with such disasters and weather, perhaps, more than any other factor, has played a vital role in the development of the human race.
Simply put, the earth has warmed about one degree Fahrenheit in the past century and, as noted in the 1977 books, that warming ended fifty years ago in the 1940's. All the meteorological and radiosonde balloon data since then has found no evidence of any warming. It has, however, found a very slight cooling. This, despite the fact that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising. It is now about 360 parts per million vs. 290 at the beginning of the 20th century. As Arthur B. Robinson of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine notes, "This rise probably results from human burning of coal, oil, and natural gas, although this is not certain."
Writing in their book, "Age of Propaganda", authors Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson, said, "Experimental data overwhelmingly suggest that all other things equal, the more frightened a person is by a communications, the more likely he or she is to take positive preventive action."
And, famously, throughout 1998, a very warm year, indeed, Albert Gore, Jr. used every natural weather event from forest fires to droughts to proclaim that the earth was warming and that the global warming theory demanded the U.S. take the actions mandated by the UN treaty on climate control.
Again. Why? Why is Albert Gore, Jr. trying to frighten Americans and others around the world, saying things any freshman year meteorological student knows is false?
And why has The New York Times, since the early 1990's, been the leading advocate of the global warming theory, publishing hundreds of articles?
On Veteran's Day, November 11, 1998, the lead editorial in The Times said of the Kyoto agreement on global warming that "Nobody has successfully challenged the urgency of their mission." Not just wrong, but deliberately and knowingly wrong. Is the famed "newspaper of record", arguably the most influential daily newspaper in the world, engaging in a propaganda campaign which would do great harm to the United States and other industrialized nations?
The Times is fully aware that a Petition Project, sponsored by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, has been signed by more than 19,000 scientists from around the world disputing the theory. On April 22, 1998, an article by Times reporter Stevens attacked the Petition Project seeking to discredit it and, two weeks later, on May 2, 1998, The Times published an opinion editorial by a little known University of Maryland physics professor, Robert L. Park, who described the petition signers as "a vocal minority." One of the advocates of the Petition Project is Dr. Frederick Seitz, the president emeritus of Rockefeller University and a former president of the National Academy of Sciences, in whose Proceedings, the global warming theory was discredited by James Hansen. As far as The Times is concerned, this was a deliberate act of propaganda, not journalism.
A petition in support of the global warming theory, circulated by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 1997, had secured a paltry 1,559 signatures. That's more than 19,000 against and 1,599 for. Who do you believe?
The desperation of some leading media outlets to convince Americans that global warming is real has totally corrupted the reporting of some print and broadcast journalists.
Science reporters know that they should depend on refereed scientific literature, studies that have been examined by peers prior to publication, on which to based their stories. However, the Washington Posts's Joby Warrick, in early 1999, wrote about a speech, not even a paper, delivered in San Francisco by a federal climatologist, Jonathan Overpeck.
At a December 1998 meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Overpeck said that the Medieval Warm Period was local, not global. It was during this period that the Vikings crossed the Atlantic to colonize Greenland and North America. It was followed by the Little Ice Age that, in turn, was reversed by a century of warming which ended in the 1940's. Greens were delighted because now they could claim that, instead of saying that the 1990's were the warmest in 600 years, they could say there were the warmest in 1,200 years.
However, if Overpeck is right, a very big IF, than regional climate varies tremendously, whether or not the globe warms!
Patrick J. Michaels, a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute, published a refereed paper in the journal, Climate Research, noting that temperature variability between seasons and between years has significantly declined in the second half of this century. Thus, Overpeck's reported comments are, in fact, bad news for Greens who are trying to convince everyone that a few warm years are a signal of a vast global warming. They're not.
The Weather Propaganda Wars
In 1999, one thing is guaranteed, the nation's print and broadcast news media will continue to report global warming as a fact supported by "most" scientists when it is not. Global warming is a theory based on flawed and incomplete computer models discredited by the same government scientist who triggered the scare campaign.
Led by newspapers such as The New York Times and Washington Post, among others, and supported by the Cable News Network (CNN), owned by Ted Turner, the single largest, individual contributor of funding to the United Nations, along with some television networks such as NBC, the public will be told over and over again that global warming is just around the corner and responsible for every blizzard, hurricane, flood, and other natural disaster that will inevitably occur.
Mobilized by the Clinton-Gore administration, U.S. governmental agencies, supported by the propaganda apparatus of the UN, will continue to maintain the party line.
As 1998 came to an end, a year that was filled with weather related disasters, Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmosphere Research in Boulder, Colorado, said, "We don't have definitive answers, but there is reason to believe this is part of the signals of global warming we may be seeing." May be seeing? No definitive answers? Weasel talk!
To his credit, in response to Trenberth, Jerry Mahlman, director of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab at Princeton, said, "There's no bad guy out there. Basically, we're getting jerked around by the same stuff that's been jerking us around for a long time."
A very long time. The earth is an estimated 5.4 billion years old and it has gone through long glacial periods and others, like the Jurassic Age, when the earth was so warm it supported massive, cold-blooded dinosaurs.
There is no global warming, but there is a global political agenda, comparable to the failed Soviet Union experiment with Communism, being orchestrated by the United Nations, supported by its many Green NGO's, to impose international treaties of every description that would turn the institution into a global government, superceding the sovereignty of every nation in the world.
Don't believe it? Read "Our Global Neighborhood: The Report of the United Nations Commission on Global Governance." It is a chilling plan to have totally unelected, unknown UN bureaucrats determine how everyone will live. It dispenses with free speech and freedom of the press because anyone who disagrees with the UN will be in violation of its laws.
Shades of Galileo when he told the Church they were wrong. Only now, it is the United Nations and the two highest officer holders of the United States of America.
The Real Global Struggle Ahead
This is the next great struggle for the century about to begin in the year 2000. It is being fought with all the tools of modern propaganda and it is funded by many foundations and even corporations who believe that global governance will free them from the restrictions imposed by individual nations seeking to insure the welfare of their citizens.
The weather is both regional and global. The Greens are an international, i.e., global coalition. The battle that must be waged will determine the spread of democratic institutions that will protect individual human rights, not a United Nations with its own courts, its own military, its own powers of taxation. Nothing advocated by the United Nations can be taken at face value.
Based on the global warming theory, nothing advocated by the nation's current leaders, nor elements of its supine mass media, can be taken on face value. You've been warned.
This commentary is sponsored by William M. Dooley of Reno, Nevada.
©1999 Alan Caruba.
All Rights Reserved.
This article originally appeared here! Comments will not be accepted that are rude, crude, stupid or smarmy. Nor will I allow ad hominem attacks.
Return to Main Page
###
Friday, December 24, 2010
Genetically Modified Foods: Ending Famine Forever
By Alan Caruba
One of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, along with Disease and War, is Famine. For the relatively short history of man on earth, famine has killed millions and continues to do so today. We who routinely wander the aisles of the modern supermarket, deciding which of the twenty brands and styles of bread we want to eat, having a insanely huge choice of breakfast cereals, strolling past refrigerated cases of every kind of frozen food imaginable, and browsing through the selection of fresh meats and fishes, can hardly imagine what famine is.
All this took a while to evolve. Around 8,000 BC, agriculture-based societies began to develop in Europe and Asia. People began to save the best seed from their harvest to plant the following season. Some seeds did better than others in various kinds of soils and under various kinds of weather conditions. People noticed that. By selecting certain seeds over others, they were genetically engineering a better crop. They didn't know it that of course, nor could they have imagined a world in which these two words, genetically engineering or genetically modifying, would be used to stop the greatest advance in agriculture in 10,000 years.
By 1800 BC, yeast was being used to make wine, beer and leavened bread. This was the first use of microorganisms to create new types of food. Quite possibly, some people were frightened by this new invention, until, of course, they began to taste the wine, beer and bread.
Let us now leap forward in time. It was not until 1795 that Nicolas-Francois Appert invented a way to preserve fresh foods by heating and sealing it in metal or glass containers. The reason he came up with this was that Napoleon needed a way to feed his troops so they could ravage Europe and attack Russia. He offered a big reward to anyone who could devise a way to provide fresh, safe food. Thus began the canned food industry!
In 1856, Louis Pasteur invented a process of heating liquids to destroy harmful or unwanted organisms, germs that killed people. It was a huge leap forward in food safety. That was less than 150 years ago. In 1865, an Austrian botanist, Gregor Mendel conducted experiments on pea plants in a monastery garden, concluding that something unseen was passing traits from one generation of peas to another. His findings would be ignored for several decades. He had begun the science of genetics between morning and evening prayers.
Now, let's get to the most recent century. In 1914, Clarence Birdseye invented quick-frozen foods, making many seasonal vegetables, meats and fish available at any time of the year. Some people probably were frightened of the idea of defrosting these foods and actually eating them. People tend to be afraid of new ideas.
In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick, two researchers, defined the structure of DNA, leading to a better understanding of how cells in all living things store, duplicate, and pass on genetic material from generation to generation. Within the lifetime of a single person, we had moved from Mendel to cracking the DNA code. By 1990, the US Department of Agriculture had approved the first food product modified by biotechnology, Chymogen, an enzyme used in place of rennet in cheesemaking.
On January 22, 2000, more than six hundred scientists from around the world signed a "Declaration in Support of Agricultural Biotechnology" because just about every environmental organization you can name was busy trying to put an end to the use of this new technology which can feed the planet's population of six billion people. Not only that, it can feed them without having to cut down a single tree to create new farmland. It gets better; it can do it while reducing the need for pesticides to combat thousands of pests that attack food crops.
Now, I ask you, if the Greens are so hell-bent to save the earth, why are they so completely lined up against saving a few million lives that could benefit from something called food! The answer is that the Greens always have and always will oppose anything that benefits human beings. They will save the whales, the wolves and the grizzly bears. They will burn down ski resorts to save the bobcat, they will attack the right of ranchers to graze their cattle or sheep on federal land. They will get the key chemical for refrigeration and air conditioning banned. They will seek to ban every pesticide and herbicide needed to protect against disease and the growing of crops, but the one thing they will NOT do is anything that will improve and protect the lives of human beings!
Farmers have been genetically modifying crop plants for centuries, using hybridization and selection techniques, but when modern science can enhance food crops to grow more on less land, with less use of chemicals, and to be more nutritious, the Greens were in the streets of Seattle trying to stop it.
Throughout Europe, the effort is on to ban the import of GM foods. Here in the United States, legislation requiring that GM products be labeled has been introduced in Congress. Some major corporations have already caved into the Greenpeace demands that they not purchase GM crops in the manufacture of their food products. In Lansing, Michigan, a visiting associate professor had her office set on fire by radical environmentalists on New Year's Eve because she is engaged in research to increase food production and making food more nutritious.
Do you see a pattern here? The only people that want to insure that Famine remains one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the Greens.
© 1999 Alan Caruba.
All Rights Reserved.
This article originally appeared here! Comments will not be accepted that are rude, crude, stupid or smarmy. Nor will I allow ad hominem attacks.
Return to Main Page
###
One of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, along with Disease and War, is Famine. For the relatively short history of man on earth, famine has killed millions and continues to do so today. We who routinely wander the aisles of the modern supermarket, deciding which of the twenty brands and styles of bread we want to eat, having a insanely huge choice of breakfast cereals, strolling past refrigerated cases of every kind of frozen food imaginable, and browsing through the selection of fresh meats and fishes, can hardly imagine what famine is.
All this took a while to evolve. Around 8,000 BC, agriculture-based societies began to develop in Europe and Asia. People began to save the best seed from their harvest to plant the following season. Some seeds did better than others in various kinds of soils and under various kinds of weather conditions. People noticed that. By selecting certain seeds over others, they were genetically engineering a better crop. They didn't know it that of course, nor could they have imagined a world in which these two words, genetically engineering or genetically modifying, would be used to stop the greatest advance in agriculture in 10,000 years.
By 1800 BC, yeast was being used to make wine, beer and leavened bread. This was the first use of microorganisms to create new types of food. Quite possibly, some people were frightened by this new invention, until, of course, they began to taste the wine, beer and bread.
Let us now leap forward in time. It was not until 1795 that Nicolas-Francois Appert invented a way to preserve fresh foods by heating and sealing it in metal or glass containers. The reason he came up with this was that Napoleon needed a way to feed his troops so they could ravage Europe and attack Russia. He offered a big reward to anyone who could devise a way to provide fresh, safe food. Thus began the canned food industry!
In 1856, Louis Pasteur invented a process of heating liquids to destroy harmful or unwanted organisms, germs that killed people. It was a huge leap forward in food safety. That was less than 150 years ago. In 1865, an Austrian botanist, Gregor Mendel conducted experiments on pea plants in a monastery garden, concluding that something unseen was passing traits from one generation of peas to another. His findings would be ignored for several decades. He had begun the science of genetics between morning and evening prayers.
Now, let's get to the most recent century. In 1914, Clarence Birdseye invented quick-frozen foods, making many seasonal vegetables, meats and fish available at any time of the year. Some people probably were frightened of the idea of defrosting these foods and actually eating them. People tend to be afraid of new ideas.
In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick, two researchers, defined the structure of DNA, leading to a better understanding of how cells in all living things store, duplicate, and pass on genetic material from generation to generation. Within the lifetime of a single person, we had moved from Mendel to cracking the DNA code. By 1990, the US Department of Agriculture had approved the first food product modified by biotechnology, Chymogen, an enzyme used in place of rennet in cheesemaking.
On January 22, 2000, more than six hundred scientists from around the world signed a "Declaration in Support of Agricultural Biotechnology" because just about every environmental organization you can name was busy trying to put an end to the use of this new technology which can feed the planet's population of six billion people. Not only that, it can feed them without having to cut down a single tree to create new farmland. It gets better; it can do it while reducing the need for pesticides to combat thousands of pests that attack food crops.
Now, I ask you, if the Greens are so hell-bent to save the earth, why are they so completely lined up against saving a few million lives that could benefit from something called food! The answer is that the Greens always have and always will oppose anything that benefits human beings. They will save the whales, the wolves and the grizzly bears. They will burn down ski resorts to save the bobcat, they will attack the right of ranchers to graze their cattle or sheep on federal land. They will get the key chemical for refrigeration and air conditioning banned. They will seek to ban every pesticide and herbicide needed to protect against disease and the growing of crops, but the one thing they will NOT do is anything that will improve and protect the lives of human beings!
Farmers have been genetically modifying crop plants for centuries, using hybridization and selection techniques, but when modern science can enhance food crops to grow more on less land, with less use of chemicals, and to be more nutritious, the Greens were in the streets of Seattle trying to stop it.
Throughout Europe, the effort is on to ban the import of GM foods. Here in the United States, legislation requiring that GM products be labeled has been introduced in Congress. Some major corporations have already caved into the Greenpeace demands that they not purchase GM crops in the manufacture of their food products. In Lansing, Michigan, a visiting associate professor had her office set on fire by radical environmentalists on New Year's Eve because she is engaged in research to increase food production and making food more nutritious.
Do you see a pattern here? The only people that want to insure that Famine remains one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the Greens.
© 1999 Alan Caruba.
All Rights Reserved.
This article originally appeared here! Comments will not be accepted that are rude, crude, stupid or smarmy. Nor will I allow ad hominem attacks.
Return to Main Page
###
Caruba's Corner
By Rich Kozlovich
Recently I had an opportunity to read some of Alan Caruba's past articles; ones that I had never seen. I try to read all of Alan's articles every week, but apparently I haven't been entirely successful. I thought it a shame that his articles aren't reproduced somewhere else for people to peruse by subject, since Alan's interests are far ranging and insightful. I asked Alan if I could reproduce some of his articles in Paradigms and Demographics, and he has graciously agreed.
I will re-run "green" articles each week and then repost a link in a special page called, Caruba's Corner, by subject. His work has a sense of timelessness about it, so anyone perusing these articles in the future will find them equally insightful as they were when originally written. For Alan's latest thoughts go to his blog, Warning Signs. For his past works go to The National Anxiety Center. I would also recommend reading his last book, Right Answers.
###
Recently I had an opportunity to read some of Alan Caruba's past articles; ones that I had never seen. I try to read all of Alan's articles every week, but apparently I haven't been entirely successful. I thought it a shame that his articles aren't reproduced somewhere else for people to peruse by subject, since Alan's interests are far ranging and insightful. I asked Alan if I could reproduce some of his articles in Paradigms and Demographics, and he has graciously agreed.
I will re-run "green" articles each week and then repost a link in a special page called, Caruba's Corner, by subject. His work has a sense of timelessness about it, so anyone perusing these articles in the future will find them equally insightful as they were when originally written. For Alan's latest thoughts go to his blog, Warning Signs. For his past works go to The National Anxiety Center. I would also recommend reading his last book, Right Answers.
###
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
The American Council on Science and Health; Personal Note!
By Rich Kozlovich
Along with Paradigms and Demographics I also maintain a weekly newsletter called Green Notes. Many of my friends in the industry find it hard to understand when I found the time to search out all of these articles that I linked, and on so many topics. At first it was difficult because I didn’t know where to look, but as time goes by it becomes far easier because you begin to find which sites are worth following. Those sites with information you can trust! The American Council on Science and Health is one of those organizations that I consistently rely on for information dealing with all of the media hyped junk science that is constantly being touted to an unsuspecting public.
In the case of ACSH it is even easier because as a member I daily get what is called the ACSH Dispatch, which appears as a brief outline on the day’s issues. Often times I have sent out information from this venue, but that has been a meaningless fraction of the amount of information available. Here are some of the topics ACSH outlined this week;
Make a year-end gift to ACSH today. With just a few weeks left for contributions to count towards this year’s tax returns, there is no better time than right now to take a stand for sound science and against the overzealous regulators. It’s more important now than ever. Please Donate Now.
Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, President,
American Council on Science and Health
###
Along with Paradigms and Demographics I also maintain a weekly newsletter called Green Notes. Many of my friends in the industry find it hard to understand when I found the time to search out all of these articles that I linked, and on so many topics. At first it was difficult because I didn’t know where to look, but as time goes by it becomes far easier because you begin to find which sites are worth following. Those sites with information you can trust! The American Council on Science and Health is one of those organizations that I consistently rely on for information dealing with all of the media hyped junk science that is constantly being touted to an unsuspecting public.
In the case of ACSH it is even easier because as a member I daily get what is called the ACSH Dispatch, which appears as a brief outline on the day’s issues. Often times I have sent out information from this venue, but that has been a meaningless fraction of the amount of information available. Here are some of the topics ACSH outlined this week;
• Surprising Findings On Diabetes and Milk-Fat ConsumptionIf there is a health scare today, the American Council on Science and Health will most likely have the answer by tomorrow; and for members it will appear in your e-mail. No effort on your part, except to read the answer. All that the ACSH is interested in are the facts and they are prepared to follow them wherever they lead. Who can ask for more? And they need our support. RK
• When The ‘Pill’ Sometimes Fails
• Dangers of Tanning Salons
• The Echinacea Hype
• Unhappy Faces About Happy Meals
• More Drinking Water Nonsense
• NY Times Promotes Cancer Fears
• LA Times Talks Sense on “Holistic” Quackery
• Study Un-clots Plavix Variability
• Faulting The FDA, LA Times Purveys Junk Science
• A Word To The Elderly On Antidepressants
• Non-hazardous Saccharin
• Egregious E-Cigs?
• CDC Figure Fudging
• Good News on Heart Disease and Stroke
• Alzheimer’s War Begins
• Mostly Good News on Malaria
• FDA To Rescind Approval of Avastin for Breast Cancer
• Massachusetts Joins BPA Witch Hunt
Make a year-end gift to ACSH today. With just a few weeks left for contributions to count towards this year’s tax returns, there is no better time than right now to take a stand for sound science and against the overzealous regulators. It’s more important now than ever. Please Donate Now.
Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, President,
American Council on Science and Health
###
Over the Horizon
By James Marusek
It is December 2010 and time once again to reassess the sun’s transition into Solar Cycle 24. What lies ahead just over the horizon?
What are Solar Cycles?
The sun goes through a periodic change around every eleven years where the polarity of the sun’s magnetic field changes poles. Essentially the sun’s magnetic north pole becomes the south pole and vice versa. This is a normal process. As these poles realign and the magnetic field is the weakest, there is an absence of sunspots and this period is referred to as a solar minimum. A solar cycle or SC for short is measured from one solar minimum to the next. But even though the cycle repeats, the intensity of the solar cycle varies significantly. Scientists have been monitoring sunspots since the 1700’s. There observations have shown when the sun gets deafly quiet such as during the Maunder and Spörer Minimums; the world experiences great cold periods. These periods were so cold they were referred to as the Little Ice Ages.
What is different about Solar Cycle 24 and why is it relevant?
Since the sun has finally entered solar cycle 24 (SC24) with the resurgence of sunspots, most people have turned away from tracking the strength of the rebound. Had they looked, they would have found that the surge into this next solar cycle so far has been rather weak.
The Average Magnetic Planetary Index (Ap index) is a proxy measurement for the intensity of solar magnetic activity as it alters the geomagnetic field on Earth. It has been referred to as the common yardstick for solar magnetic activity. Ap index measurements began in January 1932. The quieter the sun is magnetically, the smaller the Ap index.
This solar minimum is rather unusual. If we define a period of quiet sun as those months that produced an Ap index of 6 or less and compare the total number of quiet months within each solar minimum, then the results would be: .....Follow this link for the rest of the article. RK
Comments will not be accepted that are rude, crude, stupid or smarmy. Nor will I allow ad hominem attacks.
Return to Main Page
###
It is December 2010 and time once again to reassess the sun’s transition into Solar Cycle 24. What lies ahead just over the horizon?
What are Solar Cycles?
The sun goes through a periodic change around every eleven years where the polarity of the sun’s magnetic field changes poles. Essentially the sun’s magnetic north pole becomes the south pole and vice versa. This is a normal process. As these poles realign and the magnetic field is the weakest, there is an absence of sunspots and this period is referred to as a solar minimum. A solar cycle or SC for short is measured from one solar minimum to the next. But even though the cycle repeats, the intensity of the solar cycle varies significantly. Scientists have been monitoring sunspots since the 1700’s. There observations have shown when the sun gets deafly quiet such as during the Maunder and Spörer Minimums; the world experiences great cold periods. These periods were so cold they were referred to as the Little Ice Ages.
What is different about Solar Cycle 24 and why is it relevant?
Since the sun has finally entered solar cycle 24 (SC24) with the resurgence of sunspots, most people have turned away from tracking the strength of the rebound. Had they looked, they would have found that the surge into this next solar cycle so far has been rather weak.
The Average Magnetic Planetary Index (Ap index) is a proxy measurement for the intensity of solar magnetic activity as it alters the geomagnetic field on Earth. It has been referred to as the common yardstick for solar magnetic activity. Ap index measurements began in January 1932. The quieter the sun is magnetically, the smaller the Ap index.
This solar minimum is rather unusual. If we define a period of quiet sun as those months that produced an Ap index of 6 or less and compare the total number of quiet months within each solar minimum, then the results would be: .....Follow this link for the rest of the article. RK
Comments will not be accepted that are rude, crude, stupid or smarmy. Nor will I allow ad hominem attacks.
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Friday, December 10, 2010
Pretty Good! For a Bug Man!
By Rich Kozlovich
Many years ago I became friends with guy who was a manager of a chicken sandwich restaurant. This store was part of a very large franchise with quality people as their owners and managers. I never met one who wasn’t pleasant and well mannered. I mention this to give impetus to what I am about to say.
A number of us were sitting in his dining room one morning having coffee, and solving the world’s problems, when I made some cogent observation that impressed him. He said to me; “Wow, that’s pretty good for a bug man”!
In turn I said, “Yeah; if I was any smarter I’d be a restaurateur”.
Was he deliberately being insulting? No, we were friends, but he just let slip his view of what I did for a living. Not necessarily me, but my profession. We're just bug men. How smart could we possibly be? It is unfortunate that some people have such a low view of exterminators and I often wonder where this comes from.
One of the things I've learned over the years - there's a lot of really sharp people in the pest control industry. Not only are exterminators sharp, but exterminators are among the most adaptable group of people I've ever worked with. The pest control industry of today is substantially different than the industry I came into 37 years ago. The ability to adapt simply goes with the territory. Products change, techniques change, regulations change, chemical companies and products disappear, and this is happening on a regular basis. We have to adapt to those changes, and we do!
In Ohio a number of years ago they wanted to give teachers tests to see if they really were qualified to be teachers. I told one teacher at one of my accounts that I didn’t understand why they were so upset; after all, this test was geared to fifth graders. I went on to say that we (exterminators) had to study, take tests and then take continuing education classes in order to be allowed to continue to do our work. She snorted and said; “That’s ridiculous! You could take anyone and tell them to mix this with that and then have them spray it around”. In other words….any stupid person could do what you do! I thought this was particularly ironic, since I mentioned this conversation to Vice Principle in passing....and it turns out the Vice Principal thought she was an idiot.
Currently Paradigms and Demographics is getting over 30, 000 hits a month and P&D peaked some years back at over 47,000, and from all over the world. I know that's nothing compared to the big blogs. I don't do sports and I don't do Hollywood unless it has something to do with social commentary or geopolitics, and I try to focus on those things that will draw serious readers and thinkers to my site. No one is working in the background to promote my site, and I'm not aligned with any larger organization that makes P&D more accessible, so I'm pleased with the response.
P&D has only one staff member - me! However, over the years I've had the privilege of making friends with a number of prominent scientists and writers who have allowed me to publish their work, and in some cases, they've published my work on their sites.
Not bad….for a bug man! If I was any smarter I would be a _______ Oh well, you can fill in the blank.
Many years ago I became friends with guy who was a manager of a chicken sandwich restaurant. This store was part of a very large franchise with quality people as their owners and managers. I never met one who wasn’t pleasant and well mannered. I mention this to give impetus to what I am about to say.
A number of us were sitting in his dining room one morning having coffee, and solving the world’s problems, when I made some cogent observation that impressed him. He said to me; “Wow, that’s pretty good for a bug man”!
In turn I said, “Yeah; if I was any smarter I’d be a restaurateur”.
Was he deliberately being insulting? No, we were friends, but he just let slip his view of what I did for a living. Not necessarily me, but my profession. We're just bug men. How smart could we possibly be? It is unfortunate that some people have such a low view of exterminators and I often wonder where this comes from.
One of the things I've learned over the years - there's a lot of really sharp people in the pest control industry. Not only are exterminators sharp, but exterminators are among the most adaptable group of people I've ever worked with. The pest control industry of today is substantially different than the industry I came into 37 years ago. The ability to adapt simply goes with the territory. Products change, techniques change, regulations change, chemical companies and products disappear, and this is happening on a regular basis. We have to adapt to those changes, and we do!
In Ohio a number of years ago they wanted to give teachers tests to see if they really were qualified to be teachers. I told one teacher at one of my accounts that I didn’t understand why they were so upset; after all, this test was geared to fifth graders. I went on to say that we (exterminators) had to study, take tests and then take continuing education classes in order to be allowed to continue to do our work. She snorted and said; “That’s ridiculous! You could take anyone and tell them to mix this with that and then have them spray it around”. In other words….any stupid person could do what you do! I thought this was particularly ironic, since I mentioned this conversation to Vice Principle in passing....and it turns out the Vice Principal thought she was an idiot.
Currently Paradigms and Demographics is getting over 30, 000 hits a month and P&D peaked some years back at over 47,000, and from all over the world. I know that's nothing compared to the big blogs. I don't do sports and I don't do Hollywood unless it has something to do with social commentary or geopolitics, and I try to focus on those things that will draw serious readers and thinkers to my site. No one is working in the background to promote my site, and I'm not aligned with any larger organization that makes P&D more accessible, so I'm pleased with the response.
P&D has only one staff member - me! However, over the years I've had the privilege of making friends with a number of prominent scientists and writers who have allowed me to publish their work, and in some cases, they've published my work on their sites.
Not bad….for a bug man! If I was any smarter I would be a _______ Oh well, you can fill in the blank.
The American Dream Didn’t Include Bed Bugs. Part III: The Solution
By Rich Kozlovich
In recent months the bed bug issue has reached headline proportions on the national scene. National television news networks have featured the story, magazines have highlighted the problem nationally and newspapers have focused on local infestations that seem to be out of control and growing. We, the pest control industry, have known this day was coming for some time, and in point of fact I know one old timer who ominously stated over ten years ago that bed bugs would be among the first vermin to reappear as a national plague.
As this national plague of bed bugs continues to grow I find that I am more and more surprised at the reactions of so many. Especially those in the bureaucracies, government and most importantly in pest control. I intend to explore all of the views from each group. I think you will find this examination interesting and frustrating.
My views however are somewhat straightforward. We need effective chemistry that is inexpensive, available to the public and easy to use if we are to rid the nation of this plague. That was the answer in 1946 and that will have to be the answer in 2010 or 2011 or 2102 or there will be no answer.
In April 2009 the EPA held a bed bug summit inviting people from all over the nation to try to work out some kind of solution to this problem. I couldn't help but chuckle and shake my head at the thought of those who are directly responsible for this plague of bedbugs now wanting to find a solution through this big public relations fest. What better way to deflect attention away from the real perpetrators of this mess, themselves. P.T. Barnum would have been truly impressed with this. At the end of it all they came up with these solutions which I outlined in an article, “Bedbug Summit: Activity As a Substitute For Accomplishment”.
There were 34 suggestions that would expand the bureaucracy at every level of government, expand training and licensure requirements and potentially mandate Integrated Pest Management. There were 15 for expanded public information and who should be doing it, 10 for grant money for the professional grant chasers, 5 that would shift the blame, and 9 that actual had some worth, however….. No one blamed EPA.”
At no time did they focus on the issue of effective chemistry that is inexpensive, available to the public. Of all the suggestions at this meeting there were only two that discussed the need for old chemistry that was no longer available.
Recently there was another bed bug “forum” called the Congressional Bedbug Forum, hosted by Reps. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, and Don Young, R-Alaska.at the capitol. What did they learn? “They are virtually unstoppable,” Dr. Michael Potter, a bedbug expert from the University of Kentucky, told an auditorium full of people concerned about the resurgent tiny bloodsucker.” Didn’t everyone there already know this?
I know Mike personally and he is one of the nation’s lead researchers, if not the leading researcher in bed bug control, and has been magnificent in his efforts to tell EPA, elected officials and bureaucrats, other researchers and anyone else that will listen that the real answer is effective chemistry. Mike was also very supportive of Ohio’s request for a section 18 exemption to use propoxur, which EPA turned down. Although the answer clearly was no, they claimed at a conference in Columbus, Ohio that it didn’t necessarily mean no. Even the regulators in the room blasted them for that.
I don’t know where Congressman Butterfield stands on this issue now, but he introduced a bill on May 5th, 2009 called "Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2009". Our National Pest Management Association supported his bill claiming “that this “multi-faceted legislation provides critical resources to state and local officials to combat bed bug outbreaks in lodging facilities, residential housing and other settings.” They went on to say that “His legislation will grant state and local governments, in concert with the professional pest management industry, the necessary resources to more effectively and aggressively manage bed bug infestations.”
No doubt his intentions are good, but his conclusions are wrong and his solutions are inadequate. This bill would only foolishly waste fifty million dollars a year, create unnecessary regulations and layers of bureaucracy and do nothing to kill bed bugs, so I wrote an article called, The Butterfield Bill: Activity as a Substitute for Accomplishment, Part II.
The fact that government people believe in more bills and regulations, and more bureaucracy doesn’t surprise me…it disappoints me but doesn’t surprise me….that is who that are and what they do. What I find surprising…and disturbing… is the response from so many in the pest control industry. Bed bug work is probably the most profitable thing the pest control industry has ever experienced in my 30 years in the industry, and there are those who believe that things should continue just as they are.
Of those in pest control doing bed bug work we are divided into two camps; those who want things to stay the same because of the income it generates and those who believe they should fight for effective, inexpensive chemistry that is available to the public and simple to use because it is the right thing to do for society, even if that means returning old technology that works.
Do we think we are going backward in progress if we resort to old technology if that old technology works versus new technology that is failing the nation? When the new technology doesn’t work, or doesn’t work well, should we cling to it with a religious passion because it’s modern and new while refusing to use what works simply because it’s old?
Today we have a plethora of techniques and tools that can get rid of bed bugs. We have dry heat, steam heat, hand removal, traps, dusting techniques and procedures, vacuum cleaners designed for pest control and some chemistry that is only partially effective; and this is what makes the whole procedure partially effective.
It is true that dry heat will kill everything in a building, but the expense is out of the reach of most Americans and there is no way of preventing a re-infestation with this program. We are in much the same situation as we were in thirty years ago with cockroaches. Not having the right chemistry was failing the nation, so we went back to the future and used boric acid. Bed bugs are spreading rapidly over the nation because current bed bug procedures aren't working for the nation, and for the same reason; we don’t have the right chemistry available.
Our job is more than a job. It is a mission. We are part of the public health service (whether they like to admit it or not) that stands between society and disaster. We are part of that thin gray line that stands on the wall and says, “no one will harm you on my watch”. If we are to succeed in our mission to protect society we must be effective in our treatments! If that means going back to old technology, then that is what we must do. It isn’t our job to be progressive, whatever that may mean, it our job to be effective!
There was a great old movie called “People Will Talk” with Cary Grant portraying a character called Dr. Noah Praetorius. He followed a relatively simple personal philosophy regarding medical treatments for the sick and suffering; “I’m in favor of using whatever makes sick people well”. One of his colleagues had him brought up before a faculty board to answer charges about his qualifications as a doctor. Dr. Praetorius answered one question my simply saying "I made sick people well”.
We need to properly define this issue. It isn’t about science, it isn’t about money; it’s about results, and it is a moral issue. By ridding properties of pest infestations we make sick buildings healthy, and I don’t care what we have to use to do it. I am prepared to use anything that makes sick buildings well! I am more than willing to go back to the future if that’s what’s necessary.
The answer to bed bugs in 1946 was effective, inexpensive chemistry that was available to everyone. If that isn’t the answer in 2010, 2011, 2012, etc. then there will be no answer.
See The American Dream Didn’t Include Bed Bugs. Part I: The Problem
See The American Dream Didn’t Include Bed Bugs. Part II: The Consequences
###
In recent months the bed bug issue has reached headline proportions on the national scene. National television news networks have featured the story, magazines have highlighted the problem nationally and newspapers have focused on local infestations that seem to be out of control and growing. We, the pest control industry, have known this day was coming for some time, and in point of fact I know one old timer who ominously stated over ten years ago that bed bugs would be among the first vermin to reappear as a national plague.
As this national plague of bed bugs continues to grow I find that I am more and more surprised at the reactions of so many. Especially those in the bureaucracies, government and most importantly in pest control. I intend to explore all of the views from each group. I think you will find this examination interesting and frustrating.
My views however are somewhat straightforward. We need effective chemistry that is inexpensive, available to the public and easy to use if we are to rid the nation of this plague. That was the answer in 1946 and that will have to be the answer in 2010 or 2011 or 2102 or there will be no answer.
In April 2009 the EPA held a bed bug summit inviting people from all over the nation to try to work out some kind of solution to this problem. I couldn't help but chuckle and shake my head at the thought of those who are directly responsible for this plague of bedbugs now wanting to find a solution through this big public relations fest. What better way to deflect attention away from the real perpetrators of this mess, themselves. P.T. Barnum would have been truly impressed with this. At the end of it all they came up with these solutions which I outlined in an article, “Bedbug Summit: Activity As a Substitute For Accomplishment”.
There were 34 suggestions that would expand the bureaucracy at every level of government, expand training and licensure requirements and potentially mandate Integrated Pest Management. There were 15 for expanded public information and who should be doing it, 10 for grant money for the professional grant chasers, 5 that would shift the blame, and 9 that actual had some worth, however….. No one blamed EPA.”
At no time did they focus on the issue of effective chemistry that is inexpensive, available to the public. Of all the suggestions at this meeting there were only two that discussed the need for old chemistry that was no longer available.
Recently there was another bed bug “forum” called the Congressional Bedbug Forum, hosted by Reps. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, and Don Young, R-Alaska.at the capitol. What did they learn? “They are virtually unstoppable,” Dr. Michael Potter, a bedbug expert from the University of Kentucky, told an auditorium full of people concerned about the resurgent tiny bloodsucker.” Didn’t everyone there already know this?
I know Mike personally and he is one of the nation’s lead researchers, if not the leading researcher in bed bug control, and has been magnificent in his efforts to tell EPA, elected officials and bureaucrats, other researchers and anyone else that will listen that the real answer is effective chemistry. Mike was also very supportive of Ohio’s request for a section 18 exemption to use propoxur, which EPA turned down. Although the answer clearly was no, they claimed at a conference in Columbus, Ohio that it didn’t necessarily mean no. Even the regulators in the room blasted them for that.
I don’t know where Congressman Butterfield stands on this issue now, but he introduced a bill on May 5th, 2009 called "Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2009". Our National Pest Management Association supported his bill claiming “that this “multi-faceted legislation provides critical resources to state and local officials to combat bed bug outbreaks in lodging facilities, residential housing and other settings.” They went on to say that “His legislation will grant state and local governments, in concert with the professional pest management industry, the necessary resources to more effectively and aggressively manage bed bug infestations.”
No doubt his intentions are good, but his conclusions are wrong and his solutions are inadequate. This bill would only foolishly waste fifty million dollars a year, create unnecessary regulations and layers of bureaucracy and do nothing to kill bed bugs, so I wrote an article called, The Butterfield Bill: Activity as a Substitute for Accomplishment, Part II.
The fact that government people believe in more bills and regulations, and more bureaucracy doesn’t surprise me…it disappoints me but doesn’t surprise me….that is who that are and what they do. What I find surprising…and disturbing… is the response from so many in the pest control industry. Bed bug work is probably the most profitable thing the pest control industry has ever experienced in my 30 years in the industry, and there are those who believe that things should continue just as they are.
Of those in pest control doing bed bug work we are divided into two camps; those who want things to stay the same because of the income it generates and those who believe they should fight for effective, inexpensive chemistry that is available to the public and simple to use because it is the right thing to do for society, even if that means returning old technology that works.
Do we think we are going backward in progress if we resort to old technology if that old technology works versus new technology that is failing the nation? When the new technology doesn’t work, or doesn’t work well, should we cling to it with a religious passion because it’s modern and new while refusing to use what works simply because it’s old?
Today we have a plethora of techniques and tools that can get rid of bed bugs. We have dry heat, steam heat, hand removal, traps, dusting techniques and procedures, vacuum cleaners designed for pest control and some chemistry that is only partially effective; and this is what makes the whole procedure partially effective.
It is true that dry heat will kill everything in a building, but the expense is out of the reach of most Americans and there is no way of preventing a re-infestation with this program. We are in much the same situation as we were in thirty years ago with cockroaches. Not having the right chemistry was failing the nation, so we went back to the future and used boric acid. Bed bugs are spreading rapidly over the nation because current bed bug procedures aren't working for the nation, and for the same reason; we don’t have the right chemistry available.
Our job is more than a job. It is a mission. We are part of the public health service (whether they like to admit it or not) that stands between society and disaster. We are part of that thin gray line that stands on the wall and says, “no one will harm you on my watch”. If we are to succeed in our mission to protect society we must be effective in our treatments! If that means going back to old technology, then that is what we must do. It isn’t our job to be progressive, whatever that may mean, it our job to be effective!
There was a great old movie called “People Will Talk” with Cary Grant portraying a character called Dr. Noah Praetorius. He followed a relatively simple personal philosophy regarding medical treatments for the sick and suffering; “I’m in favor of using whatever makes sick people well”. One of his colleagues had him brought up before a faculty board to answer charges about his qualifications as a doctor. Dr. Praetorius answered one question my simply saying "I made sick people well”.
We need to properly define this issue. It isn’t about science, it isn’t about money; it’s about results, and it is a moral issue. By ridding properties of pest infestations we make sick buildings healthy, and I don’t care what we have to use to do it. I am prepared to use anything that makes sick buildings well! I am more than willing to go back to the future if that’s what’s necessary.
The answer to bed bugs in 1946 was effective, inexpensive chemistry that was available to everyone. If that isn’t the answer in 2010, 2011, 2012, etc. then there will be no answer.
See The American Dream Didn’t Include Bed Bugs. Part I: The Problem
See The American Dream Didn’t Include Bed Bugs. Part II: The Consequences
###
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Can Warming Alarmists Stand the Test of Time?
By James A. Marusek
Over the centuries, mankind has experienced tremendous rainfalls and massive floods, monster hurricanes and typhoons, destructive tornadoes, parched-earth droughts, strong gales, flash floods, great snowfalls and killer blizzards, lightning storms sent down from the heavens, blind dense fogs, freezing rain, sleet, great hail, and bone-chilling cold and even an occasional mud storm or two and in-between, periods of warm sunshine and tranquility. And WE ARE STILL HERE. We are perhaps a little battered and bruised from the wear. But there is nothing new in the weather to fear because we have been there before. We have learned to cope. We have developed knowledge, skills and tools to reduce the effects of weather extremes.
Today, every time a heat wave or a great flood occurs (such as those in Russia and Pakistan this year), voices arise claiming this is more proof of man-made global warming. I wonder to myself if these voices are intentionally ignorant of historical weather extremes or just dishonest.
Early meteorologist and historians have documented weather for many centuries. Recently, I have compiled several of these accounts into “A Chronological Listing of Early Weather Events” and published this document on the Impact website. This chronology covers the years 0 to 1900 A.D. (When downloading the file, please be a little patient. This is a master resource and the 6.5 MB file may take a few minutes to access.)
Why is a chronological listing of weather events of value? If one wishes to peer into the future, then a firm grasp of the past events is a key to that gateway. This is intrinsically true for the scientific underpinnings of weather and climate.
Mr. Marusek is a retired U.S. Department of the Navy Nuclear Physicist and Engineer, and has been a regular contributor to this blog, for which we wish to thank him. You may also wish to visit Mr. Marusek's page, "Legacy of the Environmental Movement". RK
###
Over the centuries, mankind has experienced tremendous rainfalls and massive floods, monster hurricanes and typhoons, destructive tornadoes, parched-earth droughts, strong gales, flash floods, great snowfalls and killer blizzards, lightning storms sent down from the heavens, blind dense fogs, freezing rain, sleet, great hail, and bone-chilling cold and even an occasional mud storm or two and in-between, periods of warm sunshine and tranquility. And WE ARE STILL HERE. We are perhaps a little battered and bruised from the wear. But there is nothing new in the weather to fear because we have been there before. We have learned to cope. We have developed knowledge, skills and tools to reduce the effects of weather extremes.
Today, every time a heat wave or a great flood occurs (such as those in Russia and Pakistan this year), voices arise claiming this is more proof of man-made global warming. I wonder to myself if these voices are intentionally ignorant of historical weather extremes or just dishonest.
Early meteorologist and historians have documented weather for many centuries. Recently, I have compiled several of these accounts into “A Chronological Listing of Early Weather Events” and published this document on the Impact website. This chronology covers the years 0 to 1900 A.D. (When downloading the file, please be a little patient. This is a master resource and the 6.5 MB file may take a few minutes to access.)
Why is a chronological listing of weather events of value? If one wishes to peer into the future, then a firm grasp of the past events is a key to that gateway. This is intrinsically true for the scientific underpinnings of weather and climate.
Mr. Marusek is a retired U.S. Department of the Navy Nuclear Physicist and Engineer, and has been a regular contributor to this blog, for which we wish to thank him. You may also wish to visit Mr. Marusek's page, "Legacy of the Environmental Movement". RK
###
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The American Dream Didn’t Include Bed Bugs. Part II: The Consequences
By Rich Kozlovich
In recent months the bed bug issue has reached headline proportions on the national scene. National television news networks have featured the story, magazines have highlighted the problem nationally and newspapers have focused on local infestations that seem to be out of control and growing. We, the pest control industry, have known this day was coming for some time, and in point of fact I know one old timer who ominously stated over ten years ago that bed bugs would be among the first vermin to reappear as a national plague.
Since 1962 when Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring came out the world of pest control and pesticides have been turned upside down. As the years went by people seemed to believe that living a pest free life was a right; it was all part of the American Dream and pesticides had nothing to do with it. Instead of society believing that pesticides are life savers, society has come to believe that pesticides are doing all sort of terrible and unknown things. That in spite of the fact that people are living longer and healthier lives than any time in human history, an accomplishment which pesticides have played a major role.
The American Dream was defined as an national ethos by James Truslow Adams in 1931 as , "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the second sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence which states that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
(As a side bar: the Declaration really does say “inalienable” and not “unalienable” in spite of the fact that modernists attempt to change It by quoting incorrectly. To be truthful I don’t really know if it may be more correct or not, but the Declaration says ”inalienable”; a point that no one seemed to care about or saw the need to change for over 200 years!)
You will notice that it didn’t say a thing about bed bugs. However, being rid of vermin in our homes and lives is central to everything Adams stated about the American Dream.
I have had friends tell me that they have gone on bed bug job only to find children so badly bitten that if they didn’t know what had caused it they would have called Children’s Services on the parents. At the end of WWII when the boys came back bed bugs were ubiquitous, but that was because they were there when they left. After DDT was so extensively used the bed bug population dropped dramatically. After resistance developed in bed bugs to DDT we turned to organophosphate products such as malation. That was the knockout punch.
Now we are almost right back to where we were in 1945! And we are now facing a national plague! Offices at the Wall Street Journal had to be treated, along with a host of well known retailers in New York City. Bed bugs are expanding rapidly and exponentially across the nation. Every person in every state, in every city, in every town, in every village and in every home will eventually face the potential of infestation if they travel, have company in their homes, go to the theater, go to work, go shopping or visit others in their homes or have children that go to school, public or private.
Those are the facts! And they are undisputed!
See The American Dream Didn’t Include Bed Bugs. Part I: The Problem
###
In recent months the bed bug issue has reached headline proportions on the national scene. National television news networks have featured the story, magazines have highlighted the problem nationally and newspapers have focused on local infestations that seem to be out of control and growing. We, the pest control industry, have known this day was coming for some time, and in point of fact I know one old timer who ominously stated over ten years ago that bed bugs would be among the first vermin to reappear as a national plague.
Since 1962 when Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring came out the world of pest control and pesticides have been turned upside down. As the years went by people seemed to believe that living a pest free life was a right; it was all part of the American Dream and pesticides had nothing to do with it. Instead of society believing that pesticides are life savers, society has come to believe that pesticides are doing all sort of terrible and unknown things. That in spite of the fact that people are living longer and healthier lives than any time in human history, an accomplishment which pesticides have played a major role.
The American Dream was defined as an national ethos by James Truslow Adams in 1931 as , "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the second sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence which states that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
(As a side bar: the Declaration really does say “inalienable” and not “unalienable” in spite of the fact that modernists attempt to change It by quoting incorrectly. To be truthful I don’t really know if it may be more correct or not, but the Declaration says ”inalienable”; a point that no one seemed to care about or saw the need to change for over 200 years!)
You will notice that it didn’t say a thing about bed bugs. However, being rid of vermin in our homes and lives is central to everything Adams stated about the American Dream.
• Does anyone believe that life isn’t richer and fuller without bed bugs, rats, roaches and mosquitoes carrying yellow fever and malaria?There was a time (and in my lifetime) when mothers used to stand above a boiling pot of pasta or beans and wait for the bugs to surface so that they could skim them out with a strainer. We don’t do that anymore because we developed chemistry that eliminates most pests from our food. Does anyone wish to go back to those days because they feel it makes their lives “richer and fuller”? If so, I invite them to go to countries that live that way and leave the rest of us alone; and as soon as possible if you please.
• Isn’t it basic to our American nature to believe that everyone, regardless of social standing, should be able to live a life without vermin in their homes and have the pest control tools available in order to care for their families?
I have had friends tell me that they have gone on bed bug job only to find children so badly bitten that if they didn’t know what had caused it they would have called Children’s Services on the parents. At the end of WWII when the boys came back bed bugs were ubiquitous, but that was because they were there when they left. After DDT was so extensively used the bed bug population dropped dramatically. After resistance developed in bed bugs to DDT we turned to organophosphate products such as malation. That was the knockout punch.
Now we are almost right back to where we were in 1945! And we are now facing a national plague! Offices at the Wall Street Journal had to be treated, along with a host of well known retailers in New York City. Bed bugs are expanding rapidly and exponentially across the nation. Every person in every state, in every city, in every town, in every village and in every home will eventually face the potential of infestation if they travel, have company in their homes, go to the theater, go to work, go shopping or visit others in their homes or have children that go to school, public or private.
Those are the facts! And they are undisputed!
See The American Dream Didn’t Include Bed Bugs. Part I: The Problem
###
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The American Dream Didn’t Include Bed Bugs. Part I: The Problem
By Rich Kozlovich
In recent months the bed bug issue has reached headline proportions on the national scene. National television news networks have featured the story, magazines have highlighted the problem nationally and newspapers have focused on local infestations that seem to be out of control and growing. It is almost like one of those overnight movie star sensations who won an award only to find out that he has been in the entertainment business for fifteen years. We, the pest control industry, have known this day was coming for some time, and in point of fact I know one old timer who ominously stated over ten years ago that bed bugs would be back.
After 1994 the Congress made an attempt to fix the Delaney Act, which amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 (FFDCA). The Delaney Clause states that nothing can be used if "it is found to induce cancer when ingested by man or animal, or if it is found, after tests which are appropriate for the evaluation of the safety of food additives, to induce cancer in man or animal". But because it was so extremely complicated and convoluted (made mores so by a court case Les v. Reilly) it was implemented in such a way that it basically declared that if something was carcinogenic at any level it was carcinogenic at every level and nothing that tested carcinogenic could be used in any food additives in processed food.
Since Delaney required zero risk versus negligible risk the whole thing became so perverse that Delaney would forbid the EPA from registering new pesticides that were perceived safer if they tested carcinogenic. This was known as the Delaney Paradox. This clearly had created a regulatory nightmare based on a law that had no basis in real science. Because of this the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) issued a statement in 1987 outlining four principles that pesticide law should meet
1. All pesticides should be regulated on the basis of a consistent standard, so that there is no "double standard" for raw vs. processed foods or for old vs. new pesticides. The NAS found no public health reasons for treating residues on raw or processed foods differently.
2. A uniform "negligible risk" rather than a "zero risk" standard for carcinogens in food, consistently applied, would best enable EPA to improve the overall safety of the food supply, and would result in only modest reductions in the benefits of pesticide use to farmers.
3. EPA should set its regulatory priorities by focusing first on the most worrisome pesticides used on the most-consumed crops.
4. The Agency should adopt a comprehensive analytical framework for forecasting the broad-scale impact of its pesticide-specific regulatory actions on the overall safety of the food supply.
This clearly seems to be more than reasonable and justified. Unfortunately the fix ended up being as bad as the problem. Possibly worse because the EPA was being forced by lawsuits to enforce Delaney to its fullest extent, and if that had occurred we might have gotten rid of it entirely, instead we ended up replacing it with another compromise now based on risk assumptions.
The FQPA changed the rules regarding the 100 fold safety factor tied up in pesticides by a potential factor of ten, ratcheting up the safety factor from 100 to a potential of 1000. (This explanation is a “really” shortened and simplified version of this subject. Please go to Frank B. Cross’s extremely well done and lengthy examination of this subject in the article:
“The Consequences of Consensus: Dangerous Compromises of the Food Quality Protection Act
At this point I think it worthwhile to explore this issue of carcinogenic testing. The EPA bases it judgment on rodent testing. Make no mistake about this; a mouse isn’t a little man and using rodents that are genetically predisposed to growing tumors for testing and then exposing them massive doses of anything to make that determination isn’t the best science as required under the Information Quality Act.
In 2005 the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) petitioned the EPA to:
“Stop declaring chemicals carcinogens based on rodent tests alone”.
ACSH noted that the law permits EPA:
“to adopt policies that err on the side of caution when faced with genuinely equivocal evidence regarding a substance's carcinogenicity, but the IQA does not permit EPA to distort the scientific evidence in furtherance of such policies.”
The petition argues that EPA:
”distorts scientific evidence through its Guidelines' use of "default options," its purported right -- based not on scientific evidence but its regulatory mission to protect human health -- to assume that tumors in lab rodents indicate that much smaller doses can cause cancer in humans. Erring on the "safe side" in regulatory decisions does not, argues the petition, permit EPA to falsely claim that such regulated substances truly are "likely to be carcinogenic to humans." To do so, argues ACSH, is a distortion of both science and law. “
Finally after months of delays the EPA formally responded saying:
“that their Risk Assessment Guidelines are not statements of scientific fact -- and thus not covered by the IQA -- but merely statements of EPA policy.”
My question was then and is now. If EPA policies aren’t based on scientific fact, what are they based on?
In 1950 the legal limit for DDT was seven parts per million. Why? Because they couldn’t test below that; so anything below seven parts per million was zero. As the years went by we've learned how to detect substances at parts per billion, then parts per trillion, then parts per quadrillion and parts per…well…even higher numbers that I can’t recite.
At some point we will be able to detect everything in anything. But should that matter? No! At some point the molecular load will be so small that cells simply will not respond to whatever substance is detected. Under Delaney that wouldn’t matter. It was later discovered, mostly through the efforts of Dr. Bruce Ames, that the number of naturally occurring carcinogens was shockingly high. Take for an example the traditional Thanksgiving dinner menu which is filled with carcinogens.
So the goal to fix Delaney was a worthy one, but devastating as it was being replaced by the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) in August of 1996 by Congress and the Clinton EPA under Carol Browner was worse.
This amended FFDCA and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and rodenticide Act which the structural pest control industry also falls under. This ended up being one of the most significant environmental and public health bills passed since the Nixon administration, and most of the Congress didn’t really understand what this was going to mean.
As a result of FQPA we lost (in the U.S.) whole categories of pesticides that had been used for years safely and effectively here and around the world.
Along with all else, the EPA requires pesticides to be re-registered after fifteen years. That means more unnecessary and expensive testing. It costs around $300,000,000 to bring a new pesticide to market. Manufacturers want to make sure that re-registration is worth it to them before they spend millions of dollars more on re-testing. Further testing for what you might ask? Who knows, because after a product has been on the open market for fifteen years you absolutely know what, if any, hazards it represents to humanity or to nature. Most importantly after fifteen years these products have probably gone out of patent. That means there is less value to the primary registrant, and if that is the case, there was no value incentive for the manufacturer to spend millions of dollars more to retest. They then simply pull their registration “voluntarily”.
This is just another way the EPA has found to eliminate pesticides without banning them, which can be a messy process; a process in which they would probably lose. When you ban something you have to show reasons for the ban. You have to have facts, figures and - most importantly - real science. If there is none the product stays. They have avoided all of that through their system of rules which can make it a de facto ban without any messy legal stuff.
Organophosphates, such as Dursban absolutely kill bed bugs; on contact and as well as a residual. But in 1996 the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) was passed and that changed all the rules. This national policy under the EPA to create uniform regulations with the stated goal to reduce the use of pesticides based on assumed risks cannot occur without compromising the health of the nation. This national bed bug plague is one of those issues, and the tip of the iceberg. Make no mistake about this; if bed bugs were transmitters of disease such as malaria, yellow fever, encephalitis or West Nile virus we wouldn’t be having this national conversation.
I did have a thought that crossed my mind. I wonder if the decline in bed bugs and the decline in leprosy in western countries ran concurrently. Perhaps that could be an interesting area of study.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Letter from the President
By Andrew Christman, President of the Ohio Pest Management Association
This first appeared in the fall 2010 issue of the Ohio Pest Management Association's quarterly newsletter, The Standard.
It is hard to fathom that almost a year has passed since I took oath to serve you as President of OPMA in December 2009. This has been a challenging and exciting year, to say the least. I have learned a tremendous amount about our association and how local, state and national legislation affects all of us. I have also realized the importance of personal involvement and the true impact that we, as individuals and as an association, can have when we put in the time and effort.
Believe me, your voice is heard when you choose to use it! It is encouraging to know that our representatives, officials, customers and/or friends alike view us as professional industry experts when it comes to protecting their home, health, family, pets and properties. Another great industry supporter is our state regulatory official, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA).
I have always known this, but it was more apparent then ever when I attended the annual meeting for the Association for Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials (ASPCRO) in August. ASPCRO is the National Association for the 52 states’ regulatory officials. I have never been more engaged during day-long meetings, and I was so pleasantly surprised to befriend industry officials from all over the country. I took over 20 pages of notes and would like to share a few of the topics that will be of interest to you:
• Gus R. Douglass – Commissioner West Virginia Department of Agriculture opened the meeting, as it was hosted in Charleston, W.Va. Gus indicated that stink bugs are going to be a huge problem for crops in the near future. I inquired about stink bugs with Dr. Susan Jones at OSU-E, and we, too, believe that stink bugs have the potential to become a structural invader and nuisance pest that our industry will soon be challenged to control. My advice to you is to remember STINK BUGS, and do your research and develop methods to treat them.Lastly, I would like to talk to you about a pest that is consuming national and local media attention: Bed Bugs, Bed Bugs, Blood Suckers, Bed Bugs and Bed Bugs!!! Many of you have been called upon by a reporter or newscaster and asked to be involved in a televised story or answer questions for print. OPMA asks you to please be very careful while conducting these interviews.
• Bill Diamond – USEPA Acting Deputy Office Director - Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) mentioned that the USEPA has many positions available and there has been a lot of change and “turnover” within the organization.
• Administrator Jackson’s seven priorities at the EPA are: 1) Climate change; 2) Air quality; 3) Safety of chemicals; 4) Cleaning up our communities; 5) Protecting America’s waters; 6) Expanding conversation on environmentalism and working for environmental justice; 7) Building stronger state and tribal partnerships.
• New York City asked the USEPA to eliminate the use of total release foggers for bed bug control. The USEPA denied this request, and found the incidents to be “minimal.”
• Current challenges at the USEPA are: budget constraints, efficiencies, risk based priorities, personnel retention and succession planning and performance accountability.
• IPM in Schools – Dr. Marc Lame with Indiana University spoke about his efforts to enforce IPM in Schools. Dr. Lame believes that the Health Departments should be the regulatory officials for IPM, because they are already mandated to inspect schools two times per year. Dr. Lame’s program quickly evolved into a debate over the use of pesticides and how certain pesticides are non-scientifically being classified as endocrine disruptors. THIS WAS THE DEFINING MOMENT WHEN I REALIZED ASPCRO AND THE ODA ARE TRULY FRIENDS OF THE INDUSTRY EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE OUR REGULATORY OFFICIALS.
• Liza Fleeson, (Virginia Department of Agriculture) representative and chairwomen of the ASPCRO Bed Bug Committee, indicated that there is currently a great deal of work going on behind the scenes looking at existing products where the label could be potentially changed to include bed bugs.
• Robert Alverous (New Mexico Department of Agriculture) has been studying all registered pesticides and has scrutinized all existing labels. I believe Mr. Alverous will soon posses the knowledge regarding what products of efficacy are going to be best utilized in the future.
• Susan Jennings – Public Health liaison with USEPA indicated that she is actively working within our industry to find new products and/or locate existing compounds that will work against bed bugs. Susan also reiterated that the USEPA would expedite registration of any new product.
• Gene Harrington (NPMA) – Released the results of NPMA’s extensive bed bug survey. (To review these results, please see the article on page XX of this issue, and check out www.npmapestworld.org). Gene indicated that over 950 people/companies responded to the survey. There is a lot of good information with in the survey, and I recommend that you read it. One interesting result was the answer to the question regarding what products are most commonly used by PMP’s to control bed bugs. The order was: Phantom, Gentrol, Suspend, Bedlam and Tempo.
• A recent New York law, A10356B/S8130, which took effect around September 1st, comes amid a rash of complaints about bed bugs in New York City and other major cities across the nation. The measure applies only to the city. Dubbed the Bed bug Disclosure Act, the measure requires owners and leasers to notify new rental tenants of bed bug infestations that have plagued the building and the tenant’s individual unit during the previous year.
If you do not feel comfortable answering the media, please direct them to the OPMA. We are here to serve as the voice for our industry. Many interviews only publish and/or televise a fraction of what you state during an interview. Oftentimes after reading your interview or seeing yourself on television you ponder, “that is not what I said,” or “my answer was totally taken out of context.” Believe me, it has happened to me on more then one occasion.
If you are going to conduct an interview: 1) Be confident in your speaking abilities; 2) Be knowledgeable of the subject matter; 3) Only use factual statements; 4) Ask the reporter for the questions in advance; and 5) Never bad mouth a competitor, registered products and/or approved methods used to eradicate a bed bug situation. We, as an industry, are going to be under the microscope for years to come. If we fail to control bed bugs, the finger is going to be pointed at us, regardless of our handicap with current product efficacy issues.
During this current evolution in our industry, you cannot afford to miss OPMA’s Winter Meeting in Columbus, Ohio on December 6th - 7th. There will be a wealth of knowledge distributed and absorbed during this upcoming meeting. I hope to see you there!
For more details visit: http://www.ohiopma.org./
It has been my pleasure and distinct honor to represent such a passionate organization. It is very satisfying to know that OPMA is a special organization comprised of competitors which all work towards one goal. Our competitive business spirit towards one another has never detoured the relentless dedication and tireless pursuit our leaders endure, “to promote education and ethics for the pest control industry, to foster research and diffusion of knowledge of the industry among its members and to cooperate with the National Pest Management Association and with governmental and educational authorities for the good of the community and industry.” - OPMA Mission Statement
It was great to see many of you at the annual National Pest Management Association meeting in October in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Aloha,
Andrew Christman
President – OPMA
# # #
Wrapping up a Busy 2010!
Bed bugs are the #1 Issue in Our Industry Right Now
This first appeared in the fall 2010 issue of the Ohio Pest Management Association's quarterly newsletter, The Standard.
By Michelle Crawley
You don’t need to be a pest management professional (PMP) to know that bed bugs are the hot topic in the industry right now. The public is slowly becoming aware that they are a real problem, after seeing many stories in national and local newspapers, in Time magazine, on the nightly news, on national television shows like “The Doctors,” “Doctor Oz” and “The Today Show” – all of them talking about how to identify and prevent these pests. And just a glance at this quarter’s OPMA Standard newsletter shows we’re all about bed bugs.
We know that the only way to rid your household or business of these pests is to call a licensed PMP, so we talked to some of our own member companies to get their take on their experience with the pest, including: Hank Althaus of Scherzinger Corporation in Cincinnati, Steve Kmetz of Certified Pest Control in Cleveland, Lonnie Alonso of Columbus Pet Control, and Andrew Christman of Ohio Exterminating Company in Columbus.
In this issue of The Standard you’ll find the NPMA’s summary of their industry bed bug survey but here, closer to home, is what our four members had to say. . .
Becoming “A Fact of Life”
One thing that is for certain – and was mentioned by all – is that the bed bug problem is growing, and we have to get control and kill this pest. Up until 2003-2005, many of our PMP’s had never encountered a bed bug. They were common in the 1930s and ‘40s, but then largely forgotten. As Althaus said, “I have been in this business for 30 years and had never seen a bed bug until 2005, even having been in the navy and traveling around the world.”
It’s evident that bed bugs have taken most by surprise, especially the general public who thought that they were just part of a saying, “Don’t let the bed bugs bite.” No one actually thought there really were bed bugs to worry about. People had either forgotten or didn’t realize they had been a problem decades ago.
But the expansion of this pest has gotten out of control. The Time magazine article said that Ohio was ground zero for bed bugs. But is it really? Some think the publicity we’ve given on the subject has helped the state be perceived as #1. Many find it hard to believe that we could have more bed bugs than New York City, Chicago or Los Angeles. Christman says he doesn’t think we have more bed bugs than others – though we’re definitely top on the list. We certainly have a resistant strand and that is hard to kill. In addition, there is increased travel, more immigration and lack of once-available/more effective insecticides contributing to the problem, both here and around the globe.
“Cincinnati is one of the top cities because it is so transient,” says Kmetz. He and Althaus theorize that having an international airport, being on the river, having two major interstates going through town with lots of commerce, and a migrant worker population that can be found in the agriculture and horse farming industries also contributes to the growing problem. Cleveland is similar with the presence of the Cleveland clinic and its international visitors.
A lot of the recognition Ohio gets has to do with the public shock over the resurgence of the insect. And the work by the OPMA, OPARR, Ohio Department of Agriculture and others at the state and national level working on Ohio’s Section 18 request to EPA for use of Propoxur has also triggered a lot of media attention - building Ohio’s bed bug profile. “There are a host of things that have contributed to the public perception that Ohio is ground zero for bed bugs,” says Althaus.
“I think that the bed bug population is spreading so quickly that even if we are #1, I don’t think we will be for long,” says Alonso. “The thin line about who has the most bed bugs is getting blurred right now as they move across the country.”
The bottom line is that we live in a mobile society, and these little hitch hikers have lots of opportunities to spread. So much so, that Christman says that as things stand now they are “going to become a fact of life,” much like they were in the ‘30s and ‘40s. “Even with product efficacy, the bed bug problem is not going away anytime soon.”
The New Termite
Everyone agrees that the bed bugs are found everywhere. “Bed bug service is the new termite,” says Althaus. “We are on pace to do well over 1,100 bed bug jobs this year, compared to 2005 when we did two. It has escalated dramatically.”
They are being found anywhere the public goes – schools, hotels, dormitories, health-care facilities, movie theatres, stores, libraries, multi-family and residential homes.
“I’ve been surprised at how many single family dwellings we’ve serviced, particularly this year,” says Althaus. “In past years, it was focused mostly on multi-family housing and university dorms. This year, probably 50 percent of our business or more has been in single family residential environments, across all socio-economic strata. We’re not just in one type of neighborhood. Bed bugs are getting more deeply penetrated into the residential community.”
Christman has also seen them everywhere. “We’re getting the commercial accounts now – we’re talking freestanding commercial buildings – in healthcare, general retail, warehouses, doctor and dentist offices, etc. It seems like things have exponentially increased in the last three and a half years.”
Alonso says the pest has especially been a curse on the lower income areas where they have less means to treat them. Like the others we talked to, he, too, had not experienced calls for bed bugs until 2003. “Now the overwhelming majority of our work is bed bug related,” he says.
Kmetz agrees. “A few years ago we had zero cases of bed bugs. Over the last few months, 30 percent of our business is bed bug related.”
No magic wand
The methods of treating bed bugs are as diverse as the populations served. And everyone has an opinion about what works best. One thing is for sure, everyone agrees that bed bugs are tough to treat. And it’s labor intensive.
“A majority of the costs to treat bed bugs are from labor, not the product or method itself,” says Christman. “You have to send out two technicians to deal with the bulky furniture like sofas, hide-a-way beds, king size beds, etc.
“The fact is we need products that work faster. It’s tough to tell people that it’s going to take two to three treatments, over several weeks or months before they can get rid of the problem. They want it gone today.”
Alonso says that, “until you kill the bed bug or physically remove it, it will feed or reproduce. Everything we do has to be guided by killing this pest.”
At Scherzinger, Althaus offers two programs for treating bed bugs: chemical and heat. “We use conventional pesticides and are very detailed and thorough. We’ll penetrate cracks and crevices including furniture. There is a lot prep work for that service. Our minimum program is four services over an eight week period (and that’s on a mild infestation). Many programs extend beyond that. But you don’t go into a one-bedroom apartment and walk out in five minutes like you do treating for other general pests. You need to plan on being there for a few hours or longer, depending on the infestation. You cannot afford to miss anything.”
In March, Scherzinger got their first heat trailer, and has since bought two more. “We keep those busy and that method is easiest on the consumer. The nice thing about heat is that it kills all life stages of bedbugs. It is a one-time service and has a lot less preparation than the chemical treatment – for example, you may have to open your drawers, but not empty them. The downside, however, is that there is no residual. So you need to be very sure you identify the source of the problem so they are not reintroduced. Heat is also expensive. The equipment is a high capital expense and it’s an all day, two-man job. It makes it difficult for lower income clients to avail themselves to this and for owners of multifamily buildings to build that kind of expense into their economies.”
At Certified Pest Control, Kmetz uses canines for inspection and he treats with strictly heat (120+ degrees Fahrenheit). He says that his customers like the fact that there is less aggravation and preparation for when using heat. While he is not convinced that we should bring back products used years ago, he concedes that, “right now there is no magic wand. We need to give everyone more effective tools in the toolbox. And we qualified professionals to apply and treat for this pest.”
“If a thorough treatment is done and the client cooperates with all of the necessary preparation that is needed, you are going to get control,” says Christman. “But it matters how thorough the treatment is and how well the occupant prepared. There are products on the market that are working well.”
Alonso uses traditional pesticides. “The reality is that the bed bug population has expanded, and we need to control it as quickly as we can, and we need a product with residual effect. One of the real problems is that the bed bug populations are being transferred. We can eliminate an initial infestation, but need to impact further infestation. So we always use products that provide residual control.”
Alonso points out that “while everyone has their own niche and beliefs as to what works, the bottom line is that it boils down to what the customer can afford and what they are willing to accept. There is room for many treatments. The customer will choose the option, method/technology and pricing that is best for them.”
Kmetz agrees and points out that what the customer will choose will be based on success.
Althaus says that from what he hears, there is not a lot out there in the pipeline to treat these pests. “There is no magic wand in the works. There are a lot of economies involved in bringing a product to market these days and getting it through the regulatory process takes a lot of time and money.”
Do-It-Yourself-ers
Kmetz and Althaus point out that we need a chemical that can be sold to the general public that has desirable effect. Of course the big danger is that people try home remedies or products not labeled or produced for a residential setting. There have been many horror stories of people purchasing something at a lawn and garden or feed store that is intended for agricultural use and they’ve taken it inside and caused serious, unintended consequences. This is especially the case when people cannot afford the professional treatments.
“Many people say the public cannot control bedbugs on their own,” says Alonso. “My theory is different. I say, not only can they, but they better get involved. Many people cannot afford professional treatment, so as an industry we should realize that people will do things themselves, whether we or the EPA tells them they can or cannot. I think we can help them by getting them better products and explaining to them how to correctly do the treatment, rather than tell them they cannot. There’s a whole contingent of people who are DIYers with many things, let alone on an expensive procedure like bedbug control. At Columbus Pest Control we probably sell more product to the public than we perform services. And you have to realize our office is in a lower income area. Customers come in and we explain how to use the product and show them pictures, posters and pamphlets. I feel we’re doing a valuable service to our community by selling them product and giving them proper instruction. Rather than having them going somewhere else and buy something that will not control bed bugs, we think it’s better to point people in the right direction.”
Althaus says, “At the end of the day we need effective chemistry - something that is affordable across all socioeconomic strata to get ahead of the problem. If folks are not going to get services from a professional or have access to an effective product, they will use things that were not intended for bed bug control and end up causing more harm than good.”
Alonso says that there are many methods to try and, instead of shooting arrows at each other in the industry, we should realize that there are different options that ultimately the client will choose what is right for them.
Kmetz points out that despite the options out there, there will always be a majority of the population that has bed bugs and doesn’t care, or just lives with them. That may be due to where they come from and what they are used to, where they are living or the fact that they don’t want to draw attention to themselves. “They won’t be taking precautions to prevent the spread of bed bugs, and that in itself is a huge problem that is really taking a toll on apartment managers. And when you are in a condo or apartment there is no ‘majority rules’ way of dealing with them. One person can try heat, but someone else may use something that spreads them around to others again.”
Althaus adds, “Sometimes people don’t report them for fear of eviction or deportation.” The fact is that many scenarios can play into how these bugs spread in a multifamily environment. We need to consider this in our approaches.”
The EPA
We all know about Ohio’s Section 18 request for the use of Propoxur and the fact that the emergency exemption has not been granted. This continues to cause uproar in our industry.
“I am sure that (USEPA) would like to see an alternative product made available that they can embrace,” says Althaus. “While they have broadened the label on some products in the market, those products have not been as effective as Propoxur. It’s frustrating that we have research, such as from Mike Potter in Lexington, which clearly demonstrates that Propoxur is the superior molecule available to kill all life stages of this target pest and this request is not being granted. The idea that we have products that can take care of this pest, which is growing exponentially year to year, and that we have the professionals with the know-how to go out and take care of this pest, but we’re unwilling to give them the tool to do it strikes me as tragic.”
Alonso was featured in a CBS national news story about the bed bug problem, and he mentioned Propoxur in the story and the difficulty finding it these days. “I don’t know of any data anywhere that shows that the use of Propoxur is problematic. This is a product that has been used since the early ‘60s. Yet the EPA says it is dangerous. I’ve offered to let (USEPA) come to Columbus and set up their equipment where we are doing treatments so that they can get real-world data, but they refuse and keep claiming the product is dangerous. It’s unbelievable that they are turning a blind eye on what people are doing to control bed bugs and are slamming a product like Propoxur.
“One of the problems we are having is trying to understand the EPA. They talk about integrated pest management procedures like vacuuming and encasing your mattresses – and all that is well and good, but it doesn’t kill a bed bug. Bed bugs are breeding and we need to do something to reverse the trend. We need to kill them.”
“We need a chemical that we can sell to the public that has effect,” agrees Kmetz.
Education – does it help or hurt?
Because of the many stories out there about bed bugs, the general public is becoming aware that it’s a problem. But does all of this awareness educate the public or cause panic?
“Both,” says Christman. “At first, we desperately needed to educate the public. But now so much of the publicity has caused panic. I lot of the calls I receive are from people just wanting us to do an inspection to tell them if they have bed bugs or not. We’re getting more and more of those types of calls.”
“There’s no doubt that the public needs to be educated,” says Alonso. “But they are confused. They don’t know a lot about bed bugs because it’s a new phenomenon to many people. There’s also a lot of bad information out there and people selling remedies that don’t work. Unfortunately it takes time and money for the consumer to determine what tool is best.”
“People don’t care about this problem until it happens to them,” says Kmetz. “You can educate all you want, but until people get bed bugs, they don’t always pay attention.”
Althaus acknowledges that educating the pubic is important in that they understand the nature of the beast to help them prevent infestation of their homes, but, as far as educating the public, he says, “The only way I’ve ever seen knowledge kill a bug is if someone used the book they were reading to kill it!
“Still, I don’t want to belittle education. And certainly we need to educate PMP’s, but I think that, by and large, the industry does a good job nationally and at state levels in educating PMP’s about controlling pests. Is there a place for education? Yes, without question. But it doesn’t kill insects unless it’s in the hands and minds of a pest management professional that is there to provide a control service. The general public knowing a lot about the insect isn’t going to kill the bed bugs, and it doesn’t matter what level of precaution you take, you always run the risk that you’ll get a hitchhiker on you that gets introduced into your home and is the genesis of a problem at your property.”
Emotional stress
Kmetz points out that one of the things people don’t realize until they get bed bugs is the emotional toll that having them takes on a family. There is the embarrassment of having them, the stress and fear of having them bite their family, being afraid to sleep in one’s bed, and the work that goes along with getting rid of them. Kmetz had one client call off the wedding with his fiancée after seeing how poorly she handled the situation of having bed bugs, which were found in their apartment just one week before their wedding.
Bridezilla aside, he says from the PMP perspective, “(Killing bed bugs) is the most rewarding service I’ve ever provided to people. We take them from utter chaos back to reality. They are so happy to be able to peacefully sleep in their own beds again.”
How can the OPMA help?
“It’s important to link people with good companies and to advise them to contact a professional. Right now, it’s not a do-it-yourself kind of job,” says Kmetz.
“The more voices that are raised – especially with the OPMA and OPARR members and leadership, the better,” says Althaus. “Many members have been generous with their time in getting with legislators and regulators engaging in dialogues with a broad range of agencies, or serving on task forces and going to meetings with representatives from EPA. There is no lack of activity on this level. There are many voices asking for help and for solutions. But from a political perspective, at the state and federal level, we need to make our voices heard about what we’re willing to accept and what we’re NOT wiling to accept. Start contributing to a PAC fund at the state level and support candidates that support our industry. Be engaged in the political process. Help to encourage those people that are supporting our efforts.”
Alonso agrees – “Keep going to meetings and being involved.”
Christman points out that in the near future the OPMA will be putting on a lot of training geared toward bed bugs and bed bug control. “Our members can’t be trained enough on the proper treatments, what to expect from your customers and what they expect from you. We will also have a separate training on how to prevent them.”
Christman mentioned a web site that he and others have voluntarily put together with information on bed bugs – you can find it at www.centralohiobedbugs.org.
Bottom Line
Christman says that we need the right combination of product efficacy, proper preparation and education so that people can recognize the problem quickly and get it under control.
Althaus agrees, “We need to have a relatively safe, effective, economical product brought to market or made available to the market on a broad basis. And once the product is developed and delivered into the marketplace, there needs to be a concerted effort to educate the public on the proper way to use that product and to apply it in a manner that is going to be effective and to protect those that you want to protect from the bed bugs. It does no good to kill the people while trying to kill the bed bugs.”
Says, Alonso, “We started seeing the bed bugs and attacking them in 2003 with all of these different methods, ideas and actions and guess what? – The bed bug population is outpacing us. We’re not winning the war. It’s getting worse by the week, month and year, and they are spreading quickly throughout the country. And we have the USEPA dragging their feet. On behalf of the public, we need to kill bed bugs and kill them quick. This has gotten way out of control. We HAVE to get control.”
# # #
Here’s what our members are saying
By Michelle Crawley
You don’t need to be a pest management professional (PMP) to know that bed bugs are the hot topic in the industry right now. The public is slowly becoming aware that they are a real problem, after seeing many stories in national and local newspapers, in Time magazine, on the nightly news, on national television shows like “The Doctors,” “Doctor Oz” and “The Today Show” – all of them talking about how to identify and prevent these pests. And just a glance at this quarter’s OPMA Standard newsletter shows we’re all about bed bugs.
We know that the only way to rid your household or business of these pests is to call a licensed PMP, so we talked to some of our own member companies to get their take on their experience with the pest, including: Hank Althaus of Scherzinger Corporation in Cincinnati, Steve Kmetz of Certified Pest Control in Cleveland, Lonnie Alonso of Columbus Pet Control, and Andrew Christman of Ohio Exterminating Company in Columbus.
In this issue of The Standard you’ll find the NPMA’s summary of their industry bed bug survey but here, closer to home, is what our four members had to say. . .
Becoming “A Fact of Life”
One thing that is for certain – and was mentioned by all – is that the bed bug problem is growing, and we have to get control and kill this pest. Up until 2003-2005, many of our PMP’s had never encountered a bed bug. They were common in the 1930s and ‘40s, but then largely forgotten. As Althaus said, “I have been in this business for 30 years and had never seen a bed bug until 2005, even having been in the navy and traveling around the world.”
It’s evident that bed bugs have taken most by surprise, especially the general public who thought that they were just part of a saying, “Don’t let the bed bugs bite.” No one actually thought there really were bed bugs to worry about. People had either forgotten or didn’t realize they had been a problem decades ago.
But the expansion of this pest has gotten out of control. The Time magazine article said that Ohio was ground zero for bed bugs. But is it really? Some think the publicity we’ve given on the subject has helped the state be perceived as #1. Many find it hard to believe that we could have more bed bugs than New York City, Chicago or Los Angeles. Christman says he doesn’t think we have more bed bugs than others – though we’re definitely top on the list. We certainly have a resistant strand and that is hard to kill. In addition, there is increased travel, more immigration and lack of once-available/more effective insecticides contributing to the problem, both here and around the globe.
“Cincinnati is one of the top cities because it is so transient,” says Kmetz. He and Althaus theorize that having an international airport, being on the river, having two major interstates going through town with lots of commerce, and a migrant worker population that can be found in the agriculture and horse farming industries also contributes to the growing problem. Cleveland is similar with the presence of the Cleveland clinic and its international visitors.
A lot of the recognition Ohio gets has to do with the public shock over the resurgence of the insect. And the work by the OPMA, OPARR, Ohio Department of Agriculture and others at the state and national level working on Ohio’s Section 18 request to EPA for use of Propoxur has also triggered a lot of media attention - building Ohio’s bed bug profile. “There are a host of things that have contributed to the public perception that Ohio is ground zero for bed bugs,” says Althaus.
“I think that the bed bug population is spreading so quickly that even if we are #1, I don’t think we will be for long,” says Alonso. “The thin line about who has the most bed bugs is getting blurred right now as they move across the country.”
The bottom line is that we live in a mobile society, and these little hitch hikers have lots of opportunities to spread. So much so, that Christman says that as things stand now they are “going to become a fact of life,” much like they were in the ‘30s and ‘40s. “Even with product efficacy, the bed bug problem is not going away anytime soon.”
The New Termite
Everyone agrees that the bed bugs are found everywhere. “Bed bug service is the new termite,” says Althaus. “We are on pace to do well over 1,100 bed bug jobs this year, compared to 2005 when we did two. It has escalated dramatically.”
They are being found anywhere the public goes – schools, hotels, dormitories, health-care facilities, movie theatres, stores, libraries, multi-family and residential homes.
“I’ve been surprised at how many single family dwellings we’ve serviced, particularly this year,” says Althaus. “In past years, it was focused mostly on multi-family housing and university dorms. This year, probably 50 percent of our business or more has been in single family residential environments, across all socio-economic strata. We’re not just in one type of neighborhood. Bed bugs are getting more deeply penetrated into the residential community.”
Christman has also seen them everywhere. “We’re getting the commercial accounts now – we’re talking freestanding commercial buildings – in healthcare, general retail, warehouses, doctor and dentist offices, etc. It seems like things have exponentially increased in the last three and a half years.”
Alonso says the pest has especially been a curse on the lower income areas where they have less means to treat them. Like the others we talked to, he, too, had not experienced calls for bed bugs until 2003. “Now the overwhelming majority of our work is bed bug related,” he says.
Kmetz agrees. “A few years ago we had zero cases of bed bugs. Over the last few months, 30 percent of our business is bed bug related.”
No magic wand
The methods of treating bed bugs are as diverse as the populations served. And everyone has an opinion about what works best. One thing is for sure, everyone agrees that bed bugs are tough to treat. And it’s labor intensive.
“A majority of the costs to treat bed bugs are from labor, not the product or method itself,” says Christman. “You have to send out two technicians to deal with the bulky furniture like sofas, hide-a-way beds, king size beds, etc.
“The fact is we need products that work faster. It’s tough to tell people that it’s going to take two to three treatments, over several weeks or months before they can get rid of the problem. They want it gone today.”
Alonso says that, “until you kill the bed bug or physically remove it, it will feed or reproduce. Everything we do has to be guided by killing this pest.”
At Scherzinger, Althaus offers two programs for treating bed bugs: chemical and heat. “We use conventional pesticides and are very detailed and thorough. We’ll penetrate cracks and crevices including furniture. There is a lot prep work for that service. Our minimum program is four services over an eight week period (and that’s on a mild infestation). Many programs extend beyond that. But you don’t go into a one-bedroom apartment and walk out in five minutes like you do treating for other general pests. You need to plan on being there for a few hours or longer, depending on the infestation. You cannot afford to miss anything.”
In March, Scherzinger got their first heat trailer, and has since bought two more. “We keep those busy and that method is easiest on the consumer. The nice thing about heat is that it kills all life stages of bedbugs. It is a one-time service and has a lot less preparation than the chemical treatment – for example, you may have to open your drawers, but not empty them. The downside, however, is that there is no residual. So you need to be very sure you identify the source of the problem so they are not reintroduced. Heat is also expensive. The equipment is a high capital expense and it’s an all day, two-man job. It makes it difficult for lower income clients to avail themselves to this and for owners of multifamily buildings to build that kind of expense into their economies.”
At Certified Pest Control, Kmetz uses canines for inspection and he treats with strictly heat (120+ degrees Fahrenheit). He says that his customers like the fact that there is less aggravation and preparation for when using heat. While he is not convinced that we should bring back products used years ago, he concedes that, “right now there is no magic wand. We need to give everyone more effective tools in the toolbox. And we qualified professionals to apply and treat for this pest.”
“If a thorough treatment is done and the client cooperates with all of the necessary preparation that is needed, you are going to get control,” says Christman. “But it matters how thorough the treatment is and how well the occupant prepared. There are products on the market that are working well.”
Alonso uses traditional pesticides. “The reality is that the bed bug population has expanded, and we need to control it as quickly as we can, and we need a product with residual effect. One of the real problems is that the bed bug populations are being transferred. We can eliminate an initial infestation, but need to impact further infestation. So we always use products that provide residual control.”
Alonso points out that “while everyone has their own niche and beliefs as to what works, the bottom line is that it boils down to what the customer can afford and what they are willing to accept. There is room for many treatments. The customer will choose the option, method/technology and pricing that is best for them.”
Kmetz agrees and points out that what the customer will choose will be based on success.
Althaus says that from what he hears, there is not a lot out there in the pipeline to treat these pests. “There is no magic wand in the works. There are a lot of economies involved in bringing a product to market these days and getting it through the regulatory process takes a lot of time and money.”
Do-It-Yourself-ers
Kmetz and Althaus point out that we need a chemical that can be sold to the general public that has desirable effect. Of course the big danger is that people try home remedies or products not labeled or produced for a residential setting. There have been many horror stories of people purchasing something at a lawn and garden or feed store that is intended for agricultural use and they’ve taken it inside and caused serious, unintended consequences. This is especially the case when people cannot afford the professional treatments.
“Many people say the public cannot control bedbugs on their own,” says Alonso. “My theory is different. I say, not only can they, but they better get involved. Many people cannot afford professional treatment, so as an industry we should realize that people will do things themselves, whether we or the EPA tells them they can or cannot. I think we can help them by getting them better products and explaining to them how to correctly do the treatment, rather than tell them they cannot. There’s a whole contingent of people who are DIYers with many things, let alone on an expensive procedure like bedbug control. At Columbus Pest Control we probably sell more product to the public than we perform services. And you have to realize our office is in a lower income area. Customers come in and we explain how to use the product and show them pictures, posters and pamphlets. I feel we’re doing a valuable service to our community by selling them product and giving them proper instruction. Rather than having them going somewhere else and buy something that will not control bed bugs, we think it’s better to point people in the right direction.”
Althaus says, “At the end of the day we need effective chemistry - something that is affordable across all socioeconomic strata to get ahead of the problem. If folks are not going to get services from a professional or have access to an effective product, they will use things that were not intended for bed bug control and end up causing more harm than good.”
Alonso says that there are many methods to try and, instead of shooting arrows at each other in the industry, we should realize that there are different options that ultimately the client will choose what is right for them.
Kmetz points out that despite the options out there, there will always be a majority of the population that has bed bugs and doesn’t care, or just lives with them. That may be due to where they come from and what they are used to, where they are living or the fact that they don’t want to draw attention to themselves. “They won’t be taking precautions to prevent the spread of bed bugs, and that in itself is a huge problem that is really taking a toll on apartment managers. And when you are in a condo or apartment there is no ‘majority rules’ way of dealing with them. One person can try heat, but someone else may use something that spreads them around to others again.”
Althaus adds, “Sometimes people don’t report them for fear of eviction or deportation.” The fact is that many scenarios can play into how these bugs spread in a multifamily environment. We need to consider this in our approaches.”
The EPA
We all know about Ohio’s Section 18 request for the use of Propoxur and the fact that the emergency exemption has not been granted. This continues to cause uproar in our industry.
“I am sure that (USEPA) would like to see an alternative product made available that they can embrace,” says Althaus. “While they have broadened the label on some products in the market, those products have not been as effective as Propoxur. It’s frustrating that we have research, such as from Mike Potter in Lexington, which clearly demonstrates that Propoxur is the superior molecule available to kill all life stages of this target pest and this request is not being granted. The idea that we have products that can take care of this pest, which is growing exponentially year to year, and that we have the professionals with the know-how to go out and take care of this pest, but we’re unwilling to give them the tool to do it strikes me as tragic.”
Alonso was featured in a CBS national news story about the bed bug problem, and he mentioned Propoxur in the story and the difficulty finding it these days. “I don’t know of any data anywhere that shows that the use of Propoxur is problematic. This is a product that has been used since the early ‘60s. Yet the EPA says it is dangerous. I’ve offered to let (USEPA) come to Columbus and set up their equipment where we are doing treatments so that they can get real-world data, but they refuse and keep claiming the product is dangerous. It’s unbelievable that they are turning a blind eye on what people are doing to control bed bugs and are slamming a product like Propoxur.
“One of the problems we are having is trying to understand the EPA. They talk about integrated pest management procedures like vacuuming and encasing your mattresses – and all that is well and good, but it doesn’t kill a bed bug. Bed bugs are breeding and we need to do something to reverse the trend. We need to kill them.”
“We need a chemical that we can sell to the public that has effect,” agrees Kmetz.
Education – does it help or hurt?
Because of the many stories out there about bed bugs, the general public is becoming aware that it’s a problem. But does all of this awareness educate the public or cause panic?
“Both,” says Christman. “At first, we desperately needed to educate the public. But now so much of the publicity has caused panic. I lot of the calls I receive are from people just wanting us to do an inspection to tell them if they have bed bugs or not. We’re getting more and more of those types of calls.”
“There’s no doubt that the public needs to be educated,” says Alonso. “But they are confused. They don’t know a lot about bed bugs because it’s a new phenomenon to many people. There’s also a lot of bad information out there and people selling remedies that don’t work. Unfortunately it takes time and money for the consumer to determine what tool is best.”
“People don’t care about this problem until it happens to them,” says Kmetz. “You can educate all you want, but until people get bed bugs, they don’t always pay attention.”
Althaus acknowledges that educating the pubic is important in that they understand the nature of the beast to help them prevent infestation of their homes, but, as far as educating the public, he says, “The only way I’ve ever seen knowledge kill a bug is if someone used the book they were reading to kill it!
“Still, I don’t want to belittle education. And certainly we need to educate PMP’s, but I think that, by and large, the industry does a good job nationally and at state levels in educating PMP’s about controlling pests. Is there a place for education? Yes, without question. But it doesn’t kill insects unless it’s in the hands and minds of a pest management professional that is there to provide a control service. The general public knowing a lot about the insect isn’t going to kill the bed bugs, and it doesn’t matter what level of precaution you take, you always run the risk that you’ll get a hitchhiker on you that gets introduced into your home and is the genesis of a problem at your property.”
Emotional stress
Kmetz points out that one of the things people don’t realize until they get bed bugs is the emotional toll that having them takes on a family. There is the embarrassment of having them, the stress and fear of having them bite their family, being afraid to sleep in one’s bed, and the work that goes along with getting rid of them. Kmetz had one client call off the wedding with his fiancée after seeing how poorly she handled the situation of having bed bugs, which were found in their apartment just one week before their wedding.
Bridezilla aside, he says from the PMP perspective, “(Killing bed bugs) is the most rewarding service I’ve ever provided to people. We take them from utter chaos back to reality. They are so happy to be able to peacefully sleep in their own beds again.”
How can the OPMA help?
“It’s important to link people with good companies and to advise them to contact a professional. Right now, it’s not a do-it-yourself kind of job,” says Kmetz.
“The more voices that are raised – especially with the OPMA and OPARR members and leadership, the better,” says Althaus. “Many members have been generous with their time in getting with legislators and regulators engaging in dialogues with a broad range of agencies, or serving on task forces and going to meetings with representatives from EPA. There is no lack of activity on this level. There are many voices asking for help and for solutions. But from a political perspective, at the state and federal level, we need to make our voices heard about what we’re willing to accept and what we’re NOT wiling to accept. Start contributing to a PAC fund at the state level and support candidates that support our industry. Be engaged in the political process. Help to encourage those people that are supporting our efforts.”
Alonso agrees – “Keep going to meetings and being involved.”
Christman points out that in the near future the OPMA will be putting on a lot of training geared toward bed bugs and bed bug control. “Our members can’t be trained enough on the proper treatments, what to expect from your customers and what they expect from you. We will also have a separate training on how to prevent them.”
Christman mentioned a web site that he and others have voluntarily put together with information on bed bugs – you can find it at www.centralohiobedbugs.org.
Bottom Line
Christman says that we need the right combination of product efficacy, proper preparation and education so that people can recognize the problem quickly and get it under control.
Althaus agrees, “We need to have a relatively safe, effective, economical product brought to market or made available to the market on a broad basis. And once the product is developed and delivered into the marketplace, there needs to be a concerted effort to educate the public on the proper way to use that product and to apply it in a manner that is going to be effective and to protect those that you want to protect from the bed bugs. It does no good to kill the people while trying to kill the bed bugs.”
Says, Alonso, “We started seeing the bed bugs and attacking them in 2003 with all of these different methods, ideas and actions and guess what? – The bed bug population is outpacing us. We’re not winning the war. It’s getting worse by the week, month and year, and they are spreading quickly throughout the country. And we have the USEPA dragging their feet. On behalf of the public, we need to kill bed bugs and kill them quick. This has gotten way out of control. We HAVE to get control.”
# # #
3 Billion and Counting and Me!
This first appeared in the fall 2010 issue of the Ohio Pest Management Association's quarterly newsletter, The Standard.
By Rich Kozlovich
Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) lived her early years in Springdale, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, and graduated from the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania College for Women (Chatham College) in 1929, later earning a master’s degree in zoology from John Hopkins University. She is the author of “Silent Spring” (her 4th book), published in 1962 and considered by some to be one of the most damaging books of the 20th century.
Her claims in this book about decreases in mammal and avian wildlife as a result of DDT were simply wrong. One of the many claims by Carson was that robins were in danger of extinction as a result of continued use of DDT. The truth was that there were more robins in the DDT era than before. And according to Audubon bird charts, there many have been as many as 47 times more. World renowned Ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson stated that the robin was the most abundant bird in North America around the same time that “Silent Spring” came out.
None of the predictions regarding cancer made by Carson ever came true. She herself died of breast cancer on April 14, 1964, at the age of 56, two years after her book came out. She did not live long enough to see real scientists using real science to shred her claims. Unfortunately, this gave impetus to her unscientific statements.
Considered the mother of the modern environmental movement, her radical naturalism became the standard for the movement. She taught that the environment had done all of the shaping and directing on the Earth and it was an act of arrogance for man to attempt to control nature. She is still lauded in various encyclopedias as a thorough, meticulous, highly qualified scientist. Those that have attacked her are presented as self-serving, large chemical companies.
Although the chemical companies did attack her (rightly so), there were also sincere, dedicated scientists such as Dr. J. Gordon Edwards, who had no ax to grind, philosophically or financially, and was just as concerned as Carson about large corporations and their designs on nature. Dr. Edwards was initially thrilled when her book first appeared. As he read “Silent Spring,” his enthusiasm waned when he realized that there was information in the book that simply wasn’t true. He noted “she was playing fast and loose with the facts.” Dr. Edwards, who considered himself to be an environmentalist, believed that “environmentalism didn’t need fraud to justify itself.”
Over the years, research on Carson’s work has shown this to be so. In spite of all the evidence showing that her work should not have been taken seriously, Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.
Approximately five years ago I became aware of a web site, www.3BillionAndCounting.com, created by Dr. D. Rutledge Taylor, who was making a feature documentary film (this film was shot in the purest and most respected form of artistic film making called vérité style, meaning no script and with interaction between the filmmaker and subject). The film debunks the lies about DDT, and makes clear once and for all the devastation the America’s ban on DDT caused worldwide. After posting comments on Doc’s web site for a while, he sent me a personal e-mail asking; who are you? We have communicated and shared information ever since. As a result, I was invited to the world premiere of his documentary movie, “3 Billion and Counting,” in New York City on September 17th, and I was pleased to find that I was listed separately in the credits as the Pest Control Consultant. I also finally got to meet the Doc and his producer Helene Udy, who lost a lifelong friend because of her stand regarding this film and its message.
The research that went into this film was a massive undertaking. Oftentimes we will read that there were over 9,000 pages of testimony in the DDT hearing presided over by Judge Sweeney. The Doc managed to find the original documents that have been stored all of these years at the National Archives. He knows they were the originals because he cut the wrappings himself – they had never been opened. He will be posting many of these 9,000 pages online along with all of the comments made by Judge Sweeney. . . and I believe that there were 90 pages in that ruling. That testimony makes it very clear that the ban on DDT was not a scientific decision, but a political decision made by the first director of the Environmental Protection Agency, William Ruckelshaus, which he later admitted.
The “stars” in the film included: Doctors Elizabeth Whelan and Gill Ross of the American Council on Science and Health; Dr. Paul Driessen, author of, “Eco-Imperialism, Green Power, Black Death;” Richard Tren, a Director of Africa Fighting Malaria and co-author of, “The Excellent Powder: DDT’s Political and Scientific History;” Dr. Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute; Roy Innes and a number of his associates from C.O.R.E. (some of whom have suffered from malaria themselves and lost family members to malaria). All participants outline the real story about the devastation caused by the unscientific ban on DDT.
Dr. Rutledge Taylor dedicated this film to Dr. Edwards, who single-handedly kept hope alive for millions in the third world by having the courage to be the lone voice in the wilderness in favor of keeping DDT, and that it might not fall prey to the POPS treaty.
Dr. Edwards suffered personal attacks for years because of his unbending stand on DDT, lecturing on this subject for the rest of his life, helping prove that all the claims about DDT were lies. Without his efforts, the fate of so many innocent women and children would have been sealed. Dr. Rutledge Taylor states, “It is why I dedicated this film to him/his tireless efforts. . . He simply could/would not stop, as his wife says in the end of the film, "you just don’t give up on something you KNOW is right.” I have much gratitude for this man. To me, HE should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”
What I find ironic is that Dr. Edwards, who can be credited with saving an untold number of lives because of his stand on DDT, is mostly unknown. Yet Rachel Carson is lauded, praised, and even has schools named after her, in spite of the fact that hundreds of millions have suffered or died as a result of her book.
Dr. Edwards was among that group of scientists who drank DDT every day for a year to prove that there would be no detrimental effects. He finally died at the age of 84 from a heart attack while climbing his favorite mountain in Glacier National Park.
In this feature documentary film, Dr. Rutledge Taylor addresses all the claims, from cancer to bird shell thinning and more. Please see it when you get the chance. This is a film that should be seen by every regulator and legislator, along with their staffs. Her pseudo-science ideologies are still taught in high schools this very day! My hope is that this film will rectify that.
###
By Rich Kozlovich
Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) lived her early years in Springdale, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, and graduated from the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania College for Women (Chatham College) in 1929, later earning a master’s degree in zoology from John Hopkins University. She is the author of “Silent Spring” (her 4th book), published in 1962 and considered by some to be one of the most damaging books of the 20th century.
Her claims in this book about decreases in mammal and avian wildlife as a result of DDT were simply wrong. One of the many claims by Carson was that robins were in danger of extinction as a result of continued use of DDT. The truth was that there were more robins in the DDT era than before. And according to Audubon bird charts, there many have been as many as 47 times more. World renowned Ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson stated that the robin was the most abundant bird in North America around the same time that “Silent Spring” came out.
None of the predictions regarding cancer made by Carson ever came true. She herself died of breast cancer on April 14, 1964, at the age of 56, two years after her book came out. She did not live long enough to see real scientists using real science to shred her claims. Unfortunately, this gave impetus to her unscientific statements.
Considered the mother of the modern environmental movement, her radical naturalism became the standard for the movement. She taught that the environment had done all of the shaping and directing on the Earth and it was an act of arrogance for man to attempt to control nature. She is still lauded in various encyclopedias as a thorough, meticulous, highly qualified scientist. Those that have attacked her are presented as self-serving, large chemical companies.
Although the chemical companies did attack her (rightly so), there were also sincere, dedicated scientists such as Dr. J. Gordon Edwards, who had no ax to grind, philosophically or financially, and was just as concerned as Carson about large corporations and their designs on nature. Dr. Edwards was initially thrilled when her book first appeared. As he read “Silent Spring,” his enthusiasm waned when he realized that there was information in the book that simply wasn’t true. He noted “she was playing fast and loose with the facts.” Dr. Edwards, who considered himself to be an environmentalist, believed that “environmentalism didn’t need fraud to justify itself.”
Over the years, research on Carson’s work has shown this to be so. In spite of all the evidence showing that her work should not have been taken seriously, Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.
• Carson advocated and promoted ideas that simply are not true.I was born in 1946, and like Carson, I grew up in southwest Pennsylvania. I can understand Carson’s fears for the environment. The effects on the local environment from pollution emanating from coal mines, steel mills and coke ovens in those days would make anyone concerned. Believe me when I tell you that you haven’t seen water pollution until you see a sulfur creek, or air pollution until you have see an old time coke oven. Having seen and experienced all of this, however, is still no excuse for dishonesty.
• She claimed that DDT was a serious carcinogenic agent that with continued use would eventually impact almost 100 percent of the population.
• She claimed that DDT was causing egg shell thinning and as a result the bird population was decreasing.
• She played fast and loose with the facts and made inappropriate citations.
Approximately five years ago I became aware of a web site, www.3BillionAndCounting.com, created by Dr. D. Rutledge Taylor, who was making a feature documentary film (this film was shot in the purest and most respected form of artistic film making called vérité style, meaning no script and with interaction between the filmmaker and subject). The film debunks the lies about DDT, and makes clear once and for all the devastation the America’s ban on DDT caused worldwide. After posting comments on Doc’s web site for a while, he sent me a personal e-mail asking; who are you? We have communicated and shared information ever since. As a result, I was invited to the world premiere of his documentary movie, “3 Billion and Counting,” in New York City on September 17th, and I was pleased to find that I was listed separately in the credits as the Pest Control Consultant. I also finally got to meet the Doc and his producer Helene Udy, who lost a lifelong friend because of her stand regarding this film and its message.
Dr. D. Rutledge Taylor, Helene Udy and Me.
The “stars” in the film included: Doctors Elizabeth Whelan and Gill Ross of the American Council on Science and Health; Dr. Paul Driessen, author of, “Eco-Imperialism, Green Power, Black Death;” Richard Tren, a Director of Africa Fighting Malaria and co-author of, “The Excellent Powder: DDT’s Political and Scientific History;” Dr. Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute; Roy Innes and a number of his associates from C.O.R.E. (some of whom have suffered from malaria themselves and lost family members to malaria). All participants outline the real story about the devastation caused by the unscientific ban on DDT.
Richard Tren and Me
Dr. Rutledge Taylor dedicated this film to Dr. Edwards, who single-handedly kept hope alive for millions in the third world by having the courage to be the lone voice in the wilderness in favor of keeping DDT, and that it might not fall prey to the POPS treaty.
Dr. Edwards suffered personal attacks for years because of his unbending stand on DDT, lecturing on this subject for the rest of his life, helping prove that all the claims about DDT were lies. Without his efforts, the fate of so many innocent women and children would have been sealed. Dr. Rutledge Taylor states, “It is why I dedicated this film to him/his tireless efforts. . . He simply could/would not stop, as his wife says in the end of the film, "you just don’t give up on something you KNOW is right.” I have much gratitude for this man. To me, HE should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”
What I find ironic is that Dr. Edwards, who can be credited with saving an untold number of lives because of his stand on DDT, is mostly unknown. Yet Rachel Carson is lauded, praised, and even has schools named after her, in spite of the fact that hundreds of millions have suffered or died as a result of her book.
Dr. Edwards was among that group of scientists who drank DDT every day for a year to prove that there would be no detrimental effects. He finally died at the age of 84 from a heart attack while climbing his favorite mountain in Glacier National Park.
In this feature documentary film, Dr. Rutledge Taylor addresses all the claims, from cancer to bird shell thinning and more. Please see it when you get the chance. This is a film that should be seen by every regulator and legislator, along with their staffs. Her pseudo-science ideologies are still taught in high schools this very day! My hope is that this film will rectify that.
###
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Greenwashing America
By Alan Caruba
Every time you see some product being sold as “Green”, allegedly safer or beneficial for the environment, you can be sure that it is more expensive than a comparable product that does the same thing without making this claim.
Everything you eat, drink, wear or use begins as a “natural” product. It is absurd to think that calling it “Green” improves it in any fashion. Countless inspections before anything reaches the marketplace ensure product safety. To put it another way, a carrot is a carrot is a carrot.
Recently I received a news release from a public relations firm touting clients selling Green products such as “Parsley Plus All-Purpose Cleaner”, along with “stylish organic bed linens, “natural and organic clothing”, a “99.6% natural line” of shampoos, and, “100% Bamboo towels.”
In a similar fashion, every time you hear a corporation claiming it is concerned about the environment you can be sure that it is trying to protect itself against lawsuits from environmental groups or Environmental Protection Agency action that will eat into its profits and dividends.
A recent Wall Street Journal article, “Misleading Claims on ‘Green’ Labeling” cited a study asserting that “more than 95% of consumer products examined committed at least one offense of ‘greenwashing’, a term used to describe unproven environmental claims, according to TerraChoice, a North American environmental-marketing company that issued the report.”
“Environmental-marketing company”? By reading further down in the article, one learns that “TerraChoice was recently acquired by Underwriters Laboratories, an independent product-safety certification organization”, adding that both companies “could benefit if more manufacturers seek third-party verification of the eco-claims.” You think?
Consumers Union, an independent testing company, has built its reputation on its review of various products. Underwriters Laboratories has done the same, but there is no reason to believe any Green product claim, particularly since TerraChoice has announced it is probably a scam. Not surprisingly, third party certification has been offered by some major environmental organizations as yet another way to raise a few bucks.
It is no accident that the term “greenwashing” is akin to “brainwashing”, a term that came out of the Korean War when it was learned that American prisoners of war were subjected to “re-education” by their captors.
Communists have always been big on re-education, a practice of nations such as China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cambodia, and others where you were expected change your mind and learn to love Big Brother. The alternative was that you either stayed in their concentration camps or were systematically murdered for the crime of having been an intellectual, a landowner, or a bourgeois capitalist.
Communism murdered more people in the last century than all its wars combined.
Environmental organizations, in league with an unquestioning mainstream media, have been greenwashing and brainwashing the public for decades. It usually takes the form of scare campaigns and, in the case of supermarket products, it is directed a chemicals, plastics, how livestock is raised, or some other totally superfluous “issue” that has nothing to do with the quality, price or safety of the product. The object is always the same, to lay a guilt trip on the consumer, i.e., to greenwash them.
Green product claims go hand-in-hand with the metastasizing Green regulations whose bottom line raises the costs of everything in America these days. Angela Logomasini of the Competitive Enterprise Institute is an expert on regulatory affairs. When it comes to the environment, Congress passed 1,163 new laws between 1973 and 2006. Ms. Logomasini found that only 85 of those statutes reduced government regulation, while 795 increased it. The remaining were deemed to lack significant regulatory impact.
Five of the fifty volumes containing the federal regulatory code are devoted exclusively to environmental regulation and an additional twelve also address environmental regulation in some respect. The Small Business Administration concluded that environmental regulation is the leading regulatory expense for businesses with fewer than 20 employees, averaging $3,296 per worker.
Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency that generates the new laws and regulations is totally out of control. It has been on a regulatory binge anticipating a Congress controlled by Republicans. Nothing rational explains President Obama’s continued reference to greenhouse gas emissions, Green cars, and, especially, Green jobs when so many Americans are out of work..
The EPA, created by Richard Nixon with an executive order in 1970, has to be downsized to its original mandate, ensuring clean air and clean water. When it began to define rain puddles as navigable waters and ordinary dust as a pollutant, you have to know just how crazed and dangerous it has become.
It will take a generation or two for Americans to shake loose of the insanity that is environmentalism. Long seen as a religion, it seeks total control over every aspect of your life.
© Alan Caruba, 2010
November 7-8, 2010
I would like to thank Alan for allowing me to publish this in Paradigms and Demographics. Alan publishes hard hitting, insightful, factual bottom line articles daily at Warning Signs. For more information about Alan's background please read, "On Writers, Professional and Otherwise". RK
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