These are called high-hazard pesticides. In a 1998 survey by the Washington Toxics
Coalition, 88 percent of thirty-three school districts reported using at least one high-
hazard pesticide. School districts surveyed represented a range of rural, urban, small,
and large districts, so the hazards of school pesticide use appear to be widespread.
Use of pesticides that can cause serious health effects faced no special restrictions
in Washington schools unless an individual school district took action to protect its
students and staff. School districts were not required to automatically notify all
parents or compile yearly reports of pesticide use. A request for information about
pesticide use might yield no response or a huge stack of application records.
As had occurred in California, activists achieved success after waging a five-year
campaign to highlight the widespread threat to children’s health. Governor Gary
Locke signed the Children’s Pesticide Right-to-Know Act into law in May of 2001.
The law required school districts to: notify parents annually about their pest manage-
ment policies and methods, including posting and notification requirements; main-
tain records of all pesticide applications to school facilities and make records readily
accessible; provide an annual summary of all pesticide use in the district during the
previous year; notify at least interested parents or all parents forty-eight hours in
advance of all pesticide applications, for example, with a registry; post notices forty-
eight hours in advance in a prominent place in the main office.^34
Restricted Spray Zones Around School
Property—Recommendations
Pesticides move off the target site when they are sprayed, whether indoors or out-
doors. When sprayed outside, pesticides drift onto nearby properties, resulting in off-
target residues. In order to adequately protect against drift, buffer zones should, at a
minimum, be established in a two-mile radius around the school’s property. Aerial
applications should have larger buffer zones, at least three miles encircling the school.
Buffer zones should be in effect at all times of day. It is especially important for spray
restrictions to be in place during commuting times and while students and employees
are on school grounds.
Posting Notification Signs for Indoor Pesticide
Applications—Recommendations
States employ different approaches in providing school pesticide use information
to parents, students, and staff. Some forms include posting notification signs and/or
distributing notices directly to the affected population. This is a vehicle for a basic
right-to-know if the notices are posted where parents, students, and staff can easily
see them. It is important to post signs for indoor pesticide applications because of the
extensive period of time students and school employees spend at school. Signs posted
prior to commencement of the pesticide application, not after, are more protective
because they effectively enable people to take precautionary action. Because of the
residues left behind after an application, signs should remain posted for at least
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