Your Kid's Health:

Can You Trust Your Paint and Pesticide Store?

IKE 2005 Retail Store Survey

V.      Specific Results for Pesticides

Quotes of dangerous or illegal advice from retail store clerks in 2005 when IKE staff asked about methods to control cockroaches in an old home. 

?Bomb it, bomb the heck out of it.” “You can get a mask or something like that if you want, but they're scented these days, so it won't be so bad on you.”

“Traps don't really work.”

“Use Boric/Spray, traps don't work.”

“Don't know how well the traps work.”

Quality Advice Given

Pesticides must be used consistent with the EPA-approved label.  But the label leaves the user with significant flexibility and room for error, especially for the untrained consumer.  In addition, different products pose varying risks to children’s health.

IKE supports the goal of reducing exposure to both pests and pesticides.  Therefore, IKE recommends against using foggers and sprays because they spread the pesticide in the air residents breathe and usually leave a residue that children can ingest as they play on the floor.  In addition, foggers and sprays are not particularly effective since they have only a short-term impact on cockroach populations.  Finally, sprays do not penetrate most places where cockroaches are found. 

IKE believes that the best methods are gels that are injected into cracks where cockroaches are found or manufactured enclosed baits placed near cockroach infestations.  Boric acid is also acceptable when it is applied in places out of reach of children since it has a low toxicity. 

IKE considered clerks who recommended sprays or foggers as not giving good advice safest for kids.  Based on its 60 visits where clerks provided advice on the selection and use of pesticides to kill cockroaches in a home, IKE found the following:

·                    55% (24 of 44) of the clerks providing advice providing advice that was not safest for child

·                    The advice was generally clearer, better and more confidently delivered than in 2004. 

·                    Wal-Mart’s clerks generally were the most sensitive to the potential hazards of pesticides.

·                    A 100% score in the list below indicates that a chain’s clerk always recommended a product safer than sprays or foggers.  The eight major retail chains selling indoor pesticides had the following scores.

Warning Signs Posted

In January 2001, the Indiana Registered Pesticide Consultant Rule - 357 IAC 1-9 - became effective in Indiana.  It requires retail establishments that provide advice on the selection and use of pesticides to:

1.                  Have a pesticide consultant for each location registered with the Office of the Indiana State Chemist.

2.                  Post a notice in an area that employees will see stating that pesticide selection and use advice may be provided only by employees who have completed the required pesticide consultant training.

3.                  Post a sign in the public area to notify the pesticide customer of the customer’s ultimate responsibility to read and follow the directions on the pesticide label. 

Therefore, any retail store selling pesticides where clerks provide advice regarding the selection and use of a pesticide must have a sign posted and the clerks must be trained.  Unlike the 2004 survey, this year IKE asked the clerks whether they were trained.  Most indicated that they were not trained but continued to give advice.  During its visits, IKE found the following:

·                    Only 28% (17 of 60) of the major retail stores had the public notification signs posted by the indoor pesticides where the shopper could see them.

·                    A 100% score in the list below indicates that all of the chain’s stores had a warning sign posted.  The eight major retail chains selling pesticides had the following scores.

Advice Illegally Given

Where signs are not posted, retail hardware store clerks are not allowed to give pesticide selection and use advice.  Even where proper signs are posted, such advice can only be legally given by properly trained clerks.  In 2004 IKE did not ask whether the clerk providing advice had been trained. 

IKE evaluated compliance with the law by asking clerks how to get rid of cockroaches in an old home.  For example, it would be legal for the clerk to help the customer find a particular product or check a price.  But it could not help the customer decided which type of product or which bran d to use.  IKE found the following:   

·                    Help regarding pesticides was available on 73% (44 of 60) of the store visits. 

·                    Only one of the clerks (2.6%) gave advice legally.  IKE will file complaints with the Office of Indiana State Chemist for the violations at the 36 stores it identified. 

·                    A 100% score in the list below indicates that legal advice was always given.  The eight major retail chains selling pesticides had the following scores: