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            <p>visit us online at <a href="http://www.spcpweb.org">www.spcpweb.org</a></p>
            <br />
            <p class="larger"><strong>Spring 2009 </strong></p>
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                        <p class="headline"><strong>INDEX</strong></p>
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                        <p>                         <a href="#01">Note from Board Chair</a> 						<br />
                        <br />
                        <a href="#02">SPCP Helps Pass Bill to Protect Illinois Children from Outdoor Pesticide Use</a> 						<br />
                        <br />
                        <a href="#03">Natural Lawn Care &mdash; Cheap and Easy</a> 						<br />
                        <br />
                        <a href="#04">Municipal Program</a> 						<br />
                        <br />
                        <a href="#05">Illinois a National Leader in IPM Training for Schools and Childcares</a> 						<br />
                        <br />
                        <a href="#06">Beating Back Bed Bugs</a> 						<br />
                        <br />
                        <a href="#07">Bed Bug Confessions</a> 						<br />
                        <br />
                        <a href="#08">Chicago Public Schools Leads the Way in School IPM</a> 						<br />
                        <br />
                        <a href="#09">Celebrate SPCP&rsquo;s 15th Anniversary at the Ladybug Bash</a> 						<br />
                        <br />
                        <a href="#10">Donate to Safer Pest Control Project</a>                          						<br />
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                                    <p class="headline"><strong>Note from Board Chair</strong><br />
                                    <br />
                                    </p>
                                    <p><img width="120" hspace="5" height="145" border="0" align="right" alt="" src="http://www.spcpweb.org/newsletter/archive/spring2009/lil_levant.jpg" /> As I started to think what to write for this letter, I                                        procrastinated, of course, and went into my kitchen for                                        a snack. Who would have guessed that my topic was right                                        in front of me! They were traveling in packs of hundreds or                                        maybe thousands. They were marching across my kitchen                                        floor, up and down my cabinets, and across my counter tops.                                        It seemed as though Chicago&rsquo;s entire population of ants had                                        taken over my kitchen and now was resolutely moving toward                                        my dining room. I could have sworn I was in the kitchen not                                        more than an hour ago, and there had been no sign of ants.									  </p>
                                    <p><br />
                                    <br />
                                    </p>
                                    <p>So now what? Pull out the insecticide? Not a chance. Squash                                        them one-by-one with my fingers? I thought about it. Instead,                                        I sat down at my computer, turned to our friendly website,                                        www.spcpweb.org, and downloaded the factsheet about how                                        to deal with ants using Integrated Pest Management (IPM). I                                        followed the simple, cost-effective, non-toxic instructions                                        and &ndash; it worked! With a mixture of Borax applied to key                                        areas, the ants disappeared within a few days.                                      </p>
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                                    <br />
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                                    <p>Most people would have pulled out a can of spray insecticide                                        or called an exterminator who might have sprayed poisons                                        all over my kitchen. Thank goodness that through my                                        involvement with SPCP, I am aware of the long-term risks of                                        using toxic chemicals. For 15 years, Safer Pest Control Project                                        has been at the forefront of providing good counsel about                                        reducing health risks and adverse environmental impacts by                                        promoting safe alternatives to pest control. SPCP&rsquo;s website                                        is visited each year by over 200,000 people delivering free                                        information to an international audience.                                      </p>
                                    <p><br />
                                    <br />
                                    </p>
                                    <p>I hope you can help us by spreading the word of this great                                        organization and resource for safer pest control methods.                                        With your help, we can make sure people stay informed and                                        make the right choices.</p>
                                    <p><br />
                                    <br />
                                    </p>
                                    <p>As chair of the board, I am committed to the good work                                        of SPCP. We are looking for new volunteers to help the                                        organization grow and expand in our mission. Won&rsquo;t you                                        join us? If you are interested, please contact me directly at 312-339-8356 or <a href="mailto: llevant@sbcglobal.net">llevant@sbcglobal.net</a>.									  </p>
                                    <p><br />
                                    <br />
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                                    <p> Best,<br />
                                    <strong>Lil Levant<br />
                                    SPCP <em>Board Chair</em></strong>							</p>
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            <p class="headline"><strong><br />
            </strong><a id="02" name="02"></a></p>
            <p class="headline"><strong>SPCP Helps Pass Bill to               Protect Illinois Children<br />
            from Outdoor Pesticide Use</strong>             <br />
            <br />
            </p>
            <p><img width="174" hspace="5" height="154" align="right" alt="" src="http://www.spcpweb.org/newsletter/archive/spring2009/rachel_heather.jpg" />Did you know that it is               perfectly legal to spray                chemicals on a school                playing field and to allow                children to play on the grass                20 minutes later? According                to current Department of                Agriculture regulations,                as long as the labels are                followed (usually until the                chemical is &lsquo;dry&rsquo;), kids can                           play on the fi eld soon after                toxic pesticides are used.                SPCP is concerned that                these products continue to remain active for several hours                to several days after application and can be tracked indoors,                inhaled, and absorbed through children&rsquo;s skin.<br />
            <br />
            Lawn chemical use at schools and childcares put children                in harm&rsquo;s way by using pesticides exactly where they play                &ndash; on the grass. Evidence strongly suggests that pesticides                disproportionately affect children&rsquo;s health. Their bodily                systems are still developing and their organs are not mature                enough to filter out these chemicals. However, children                often receive higher exposure to these contaminants because                they tend to play on the ground where they come into direct                contact with pesticide residue.<br />
            <br />
            Children are currently protected from pesticides inside                schools and childcares. SPCP decided to take action to extend                these protections to outdoor areas. We worked with State                Senator Heather Steans who introduced SB1769 in the Senate                and with Representative Karen May who sponsored the bill in                the House. SB1769 passed the house and awaits the Governors' signature. The following provisions are included:<br />
            <br />
            </p>
            <p>&nbsp;</p>
            <ul style="font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
                <li>Recommends a pesticide-free turf care program for schools                  and licensed childcares.</li>
                <br />
                <li>Increases the required parental notification time to 4 days                  (from 2) prior to application.</li>
                <br />
                <li>Adds childcares to the law; the current law only applies to                  schools.</li>
                <br />
                <li>Requires schools to assign a staff person to coordinate their                 lawn care program.</li>
                <br />
                <li>Gives customers and neighbors the right to request and                 receive copies of health and safety information from lawn                 product applicators.</li>
                <br />
                <li>Adds Illinois Department of Public Health as a supervising                 agency with responsibility for communicating and                 educating people about the law.<br />
                </li>
            </ul>
            <p> A provision to keep children off treated fields for at least 8               hours after application of lawn chemicals met with resistance               from the chemical lawn industry and is not included in the               fi nal version of the bill. While this was a small setback, the               bill as it stands does create more accountability and will move               schools and childcares in a safer direction regarding lawn               maintenance.</p>
            <br />
            <p>&nbsp;</p>
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            <td bgcolor="#ffffff" align="left"><a name="03"></a>
            <p class="headline"><strong>Natural Lawn Care&mdash;               Cheap and Easy</strong>             <br />
            <br />
            </p>
            <p><img width="277" hspace="5" height="293" align="right" alt="" src="http://www.spcpweb.org/newsletter/archive/spring2009/sidebar_grass.jpg" />                         Spring is the perfect time to transition to                 natural lawn care. This approach focuses on                 restoring soil to create a healthy and safe lawn.                 A natural lawn care program can reduce the                 cost, input, and labor associated with lawn                 care over time. That said, you still need to pay                 attention to potential weed, pest, and disease                 problems and act quickly with solutions.                 <br />
            <br />
            Creating conditions that allow your lawn to                 fl ourish will take some effort, but the payoff is                 huge. More information on natural methods,                 products and service providers, and upcoming                 trainings is on our website at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.spcpweb.org/yards">www.spcpweb.org/yards</a>. 			  </p>
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            <p class="headline"><a id="04" name="04"></a> </p>
            <p class="headline"><strong>Municipal Program</strong>               <br />
            <br />
            </p>
            <p><img width="316" hspace="5" height="240" align="right" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" alt="" src="http://www.spcpweb.org/newsletter/archive/spring2009/municipal_program.jpg" />               For the past year, SPCP has been collaborating with Evanston, Lisle, and Orland Park on a pilot project to reduce municipal pesticide use. Funded in part by the  Grand Victoria Foundation, the Municipal Pesticide  Reduction Policy Project was created to help these  partner municipalities develop procedures and policies  to reduce their use of pesticides while transforming them  into models for others to emulate.<br />
            <br />
            To date, we have helped them restructure their pest  control and landscaping contracts and produced flyers to  promote natural lawn care to their communities. These  materials and more will be compiled into a toolkit to help  more communities put similar programs in place.<br />
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            <td bgcolor="#ffffff" align="left"><a id="05" name="05"></a>
            <p class="headline"><strong>Illinois a National Leader in               IPM Training for Schools and               Childcares</strong><br />
            <br />
            </p>
            <p><img width="289" hspace="5" height="277" align="right" alt="" src="http://www.spcpweb.org/newsletter/archive/spring2009/sidebar_girl.jpg" />For the third year, SPCP and the Illinois Department of Public Health               are collaborating to educate schools and childcares statewide about               IPM. Attended by hundreds of school and childcare staff across               Illinois, these workshops are designed to help staff comply with IPM               laws and keep them up-to-date on the latest IPM tools and techniques.               To make the concept of IPM easier to put in place, the workshops               emphasize custodial, maintenance, and other programs already in               place and organize them into a coherent IPM strategy. SPCP staffers               Ruth Kerzee and Holly Thompson, along with Illinois Department of               Public Health IPM Director, Derrick Pehlman, conveyed the message               that using IPM will control pest problems and help protect Illinois&rsquo;           children from unnecessary pesticide exposure.<br />
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            <p class="headline"><strong>Beating Back Bed Bugs</strong><img width="251" height="266" align="right" alt="Beating Back Bed Bugs" src="http://www.spcpweb.org/newsletter/archive/spring2009/bug.jpg" /><br />
            <br />
            </p>
            <p>Like many cities in America, Chicago is experiencing a huge increase in bed bugs and               the problems that arise from this pest. Difficult to eradicate, and with a severe lack of               a coordinated strategy in Illinois, bed bugs pose an impressive challenge. 			  <br />
            <br />
            SPCP has               begun to provide information to key staff at the City of Chicago and to educate               tenants and landlords on prevention and safe methods of eradication. Below is a               first hand account from a renter in Chicago who succeeded in beating bed bugs               in her apartment.<br />
            <br />
            </p>
            <br />
            <a id="07" name="07"></a>
            <p class="headline"><strong>Bed Bug Confessions</strong> 			<br />
            <br />
            </p>
            <p><strong>By Lindsay Muscato, a writer and arts administrator in Chicago</strong><br />
            <br />
            I used to be a pack rat. I kept boxes and boxes of sentimental               notes, half-finished scrapbooks, craft supplies for someday,               and cassettes without a cassette player. But last spring, my               boyfriend and I were renting a quaint coach house on the               north side of Chicago when bedbugs hitched a ride into our               lives. We still don&rsquo;t quite know where to point the finger: I had               bought a couch on Craigslist; he carted home a headboard               from an alley. Whatever the cause, we began waking up               with a few bites here or there, in little groupings of threes.               After I researched our symptoms and learned it could be               bedbugs, I immediately called our landlord, who said he               would call a professional exterminator. Instead, while my               boyfriend and I went on a long-planned week of camping,               he sprayed chemicals from the local hardware store all over               our possessions.<br />
            <br />
            When we returned home from camping to find empty spray               bottles of generic pesticides scattered around the room,               panic set in. We knew we needed a licensed exterminator,               but no company would come out without the permission of               the landlord, who refused to entertain the notion. My legs               and arms were covered in ever-increasing bites, and I was               becoming a complete insomniac, crouched by the bed with               a mason jar at 3a.m. to catch more specimens. Fortunately               our lease was ending in a month, so we went DIY. We rented               a moving truck, and after taking two days off of work, we put               several plans into action at once:<br />
            </p>
            <p>             </p>
            <ol style="font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
                <li>We washed everything washable in hot water or put it in                 the dryer on high.</li>
                <br />
                <li>We baked all of our books and papers at 150 degrees, one                 cookie sheet at a time.</li>
                <br />
                <li>We bought a $600 steam cleaner and steamed each                 object before placing it in a moving box.</li>
                <br />
                <li>We encased our nearly new mattress in Protect-A-Bed                 covers and tossed the rest of the bedroom furniture and                 the couch.</li>
                <br />
                <li>We used a dusting of food-grade diatomaceous earth on                 anything we couldn&rsquo;t steam, wash, or bake.</li>
            </ol>
            <p>&nbsp;</p>
            <p> After each object was declared clean, we put it into a moving               box in our vestibule and then immediately put each full box               in the truck. We discarded all of our furniture right before               the garbage trucks arrived and marked it clearly as &ldquo;do not               take.&rdquo; We sawed the couch in half with a circular saw so it               wouldn&rsquo;t be re-used.<br />
            Oh, and I rented a lot of disaster documentaries, to watch               while I lifted cookie sheets of books in and out of our oven               and transferred new books in. I learned about the Jonestown               massacre, the fl oods in New Orleans, anything to put this               in perspective, because it felt like everything I owned was               ruined, diseased, or a liability.<br />
            Now it&rsquo;s a year later. My childhood bookshelf is gone, our               couch is gone, along with boxes and boxes of college books,               those half-finished scrapbooks, old clothes, and useless               ephemera. It was an excellent lesson in minimalism, and we               escaped to our new place, bug-free. But effects do linger: An               instant of panic over any insect bite. A flutter of anxiety near               the furniture at yard sales. Before tossing down my suitcases               at a hotel, I have to do a quick check of the mattress seams.               I&rsquo;ve let go of a lot of stuff; I&rsquo;m not a pack rat anymore. But I             have yet to ditch the paranoia.<br />
            <br />
            <img width="281" hspace="5" height="269" align="left" alt="EarthShare" src="http://www.spcpweb.org/newsletter/archive/spring2009/sidebar_earthshare.jpg" /><br />
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            <p class="headline"><strong>Chicago Public               Schools Leads the               Way in School IPM<br />
            </strong><br />
            </p>
            <p>Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has been                a leader in developing the state&rsquo;s largest                school district IPM program since 2001.                Recent amendments to CPS IPM policy, pest                control contracts, and landscaping contracts                demonstrate the benefits of the relationship                SPCP and CPS have developed over the past                10 years. These changes will reduce the                use of pesticides and herbicides inside and                outside CPS schools and will help move                CPS toward a sustainable, environmentally                friendly pest control program in line with                Chicago&rsquo;s overall goal to be a &lsquo;green&rsquo; city. This                year, we&rsquo;ll be developing an online training                course for CPS staff &ndash; look for its debut in                early 2010. Thanks to the support of Michael                Reese Health Trust and our other funders,            real change is taking hold at CPS.<br />
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            <p class="headline"><strong>Celebrate SPCP&rsquo;s 15th               Anniversary at the             Ladybug Bash</strong><br />
            <br />
            </p>
            <p><img width="186" height="100" align="right" alt="Bug" src="http://www.spcpweb.org/newsletter/archive/spring2009/save_date_bug.jpg" />Save the date for SPCP&rsquo;s anniversary celebration. Join us on Friday,<br />
            October 2 at Evanston&rsquo;s SPACE for an evening of festive fun as we celebrate<br />
            fi fteen years of accomplishments. The unique venue coupled with music,<br />
            food, and a silent auction will make this an evening to remember. We are<br />
            looking for volunteers to serve on the event committee. <br />
            <br />
            If you&rsquo;re interested in helping out, contact Kim Stone at <a href="mailto: kstone@spcpweb.org">kstone@spcpweb.org</a> or <br />
            (773) 878-7378 x 205.<br />
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            <p class="headline"><strong>Donate To Safer Pest Control Project </strong></p>
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            <p>Safer Pest Control Project relies on individual donations to support our work. One benefit of your donation is the complete version of the newsletter. Please take a minute and contribute! <br />
            <br />
            You can use the link provided here, or call us at (773) 878-7378. Thanks! <br />
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