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Back to School IPM Home

• What is School IPM HELPR? (School Health and Environmental impact LookuP Resource)
• Use School IPM HELPR: Look up hazard information for UCIPM recommended tactics
• How to read a pesticide label
• How pesticides are regulated
• About health and toxicology
• About the environmental impacts of pesticides
• Scientific and technical information on pesticides

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How risky is pesticide use on school grounds? It is important to remember that the amount of health risk is a combination of two factors: hazard (toxicity) and exposure (how much of the pesticide actually reaches a child). With enough exposure, any material can pose a significant risk to children. On the other hand, some highly toxic chemicals at extremely low exposure levels may pose negligible risks.

The links on this page will help you to compare the environmental and health impacts of pesticides used in California schools. In the future, we will continue to expand the resources offered here.

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We have integrated authoritative pest management recommendations from UCIPM with DPR's product-label database resources to put all the important information in one place. Starting with a specific pest, you can first read the appropriate management recommendations from UCIPM's Pest Notes series. A click of the mouse then takes you to a page summarizing toxicological and exposure data for all of the management tactics mentioned in the Pest Note. This page includes:

• Information on toxicity (fact sheets from National Pesticide Information Center, Extension Toxicology Network, and others).
• Information on exposure (availability of lower-exposure formulations such as baits, traps, or gels/pastes).
• Consequences of not treating (health, economic, and environmental implications).
• Lists of products available, with U.S. EPA signal words and restricted status.
• Status of pesticide active ingredients on various official government lists.

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Choose a pest from the list below. We recommend reading the UCIPM Pest Note first; a link will then take you to the health & environmental impact pages. Or, you may go directly to that page. (Note that the information on the School IPM HELPR pages alone is not sufficient for making management decisions.)

Pest	UCIPM Pest Note	School IPM HELPR
Ants
Other ants
Red imported fire ants
Cockroaches
Fleas
Flies
House flies
Little house flies
Head lice
Spiders
Termites
Dampwood termites
Drywood termites
Subterranean termites
Turf insect pests
Armyworms, cutworms
Billbugs
Black turfgrass ataenius
Fiery skipper
Masked chafers/white grubs
Sod webworms
Southern chinch bug
Vertebrate pests
California ground squirrel
Cliff swallows
Gophers
Mice
Rats
Weeds (general)
Yellowjackets and wasps

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Pesticide labels are legal documents, and using a pesticide in a manner inconsistent with label directions is against the law. Labels also contain a wealth of useful information on health and environmental impacts. To make interpreting labels easier, we have provided a link to the US EPA "Read the Label First" program.

• Read the label first [external web site]. An interactive pesticide label from the U.S. EPA.
• What are Signal Words [pdf] [external web site]. From the National Pesticide Telecommunications Network.
• "Read the Label First!" [pdf] - DPR Pesticide Info series pamphlet.

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• "Regulating Pesticides: Who, Why and How?" [pdf] - DPR Pesticide Info series pamphlet.
• "Pesticide Complaints? You Have the Right to... " [pdf] - DPR Pesticide Info series pamphlet.
• "County Plays Key Role in Regulating Pesticides" - DPR Pesticide Info series pamphlet.
• Regulating Pesticides: The California Story, a Guide to Pesticide Regulation in California - DPR publication.
• How the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates pesticides on a national level [external web site]

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• Pesticide Toxicology: Evaluating Safety and Risk [external web site] [pdf]: - Purdue University publication.
• Pesticides and Ecological Risk Assessment [external web site] - Purdue University publication.
• Pesticides and Epidemiology: Unraveling Disease Patterns [pdf][external web site] - Purdue University publication.
• Toxicology Information Briefs [external web site] - EXTOXNET: The Extension Toxicology Network.
• Toxicology [external web site] - Toxicology Information from the National Library of Medicine.
• Pesticide Exposure [external web site] - Enviro-Health Links from the National Library of Medicine.
• Environment and Disease: Medicine for the Layman [external web site] - National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.
• Pesticides and Cancer [external web site] - Evaluating Pesticides for Carcinogenic Potential, U.S. EPA
• Pesticides and Personal Safety [external web site] - Purdue University.
• Kids 'n' the Environment Health Sciences: Finding Ways to Help a Vulnerable population [external web site]: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences fact sheet.

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• Environment and Pesticides [external web site] - National Pesticide Telecommunications Network.
• Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program [external web site] - U.S. EPA.
• Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) Chemicals Program [external web site] - U.S. EPA.
• Endangered Species Project - DPR.
• Environmental Hazards Assessment Program - DPR.

• Look up active ingredients associated with product name. DPR product/label databases.
• Pesticide Health Effects on Humans [external web site] - Brief summaries from Cornell University.
• Toxicology Data Network [external web site] - A cluster of somewhat technical databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, and related areas, from the National Library of Medicine.
• Glossary of Pesticide Chemicals [pdf] [external web site] Lists alternative chemical names for pesticides and metabolites, and Chemical Abstract Service Registry numbers. U.S. FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
• DPR Toxicology Data Review Summaries
• Pesticide Active Ingredient Information [external web site] - Compilation of databases from Cornell University.