There’s an article in today’s Toronto Sun updating us on Toronto’s Bed Bug Project.

Toronto Public Health reported yesterday that it has recorded a near 1,000% increase in bed bug infestation calls and they aren’t just from flophouses.

The blood-sucking bugs have prompted 1,444 calls to public health officials for help — up from 147 calls in 2006 — in the first seven months of this year.

And that’s seven months in to this year; I wonder how much higher that percentage will have grown by the end of this year.

However, with any luck, and a lot of work, the tide may be turning in Toronto, because public officials have ideas about ways to reduce the spread of bed bugs, and fight current infestations. And they’re doing their best to implement them.

The Toronto Board of Health is meeting Monday and will be hearing the Bed Bug Project Update including funding requests. As the Sun reports,

A report before the board of health — Toronto Bed Bug Project Update — is calling for $75,000 in funding to help elderly or vulnerable people receive bed bug treatment.

“We have ongoing concern regarding the ability of vulnerable residents to undergo the necessary treatment,” said city Councillor Paula Fletcher, a member of the health board.

“Increased education, increased funding for preparation and treatment and increased control mechanisms are required to bring the bed bug problem in Toronto to heel.”

There are also recommendations on the table to increase the city’s “Bug and Scrub” program, a provincially funded plan. “Bed Bug Project is a good working model to tackle these pests … city officials, community agencies, landlords, and the pest control industry working together,” said Rima Zavys, director of homelessness and housing help services at WoodGreen Community Services.

And working together is key.

We have heard about Bug and Scrub before and are excited the project may be expanded. Bug and Scrub pays people living in a shelter a very decent wage and trains them to do bed bug treatments; the company charges a sliding scale fee to those needing bed bug treatment.
Toronto residents can find out about hiring Bug and Scrub here.

Also, we have often called for assistance to those who cannot pay for bed bug treatment or who cannot complete (nor pay someone else to complete) the preparations required before treatment. We’re happy to see in the agenda for Monday’s meeting (see this PDF, page 3) that the Medical Officer of Health is calling on the Toronto City Council to

… approve a request for one time emergency funding of $75,000 gross and net in the Toronto Public Health 2009 Operating Budget to assist vulnerable adults who do not qualify for Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) support, to purchase services to prepare their residences for bed bug pesticide treatment…

This help in with preparations for bed bug treatment is sorely needed by the elderly, persons with disabilities, and others, everywhere. But such help is so rare. (One rare example: San Francisco City Assessor Chris Daley got $63,000 in the 2007 budget to help low-income people with bed bugs pay for laundry and the freezing of possessions. It’s discussed here if you scroll way down.)

You can read much more about the Toronto Bed Bug Project on New York vs. Bed Bugs, where Renee has laid out a detailed analysis and links to lots more of the juicy stuff.

Toronto Public Health’s Bed Bugs page.

Thanks to BugsinTO and LJ for tipping me off to the Toronto Sun article!

Updates (11/18):

More Monday from CTV and from Donovan Vincent in The Star, who says of the $75K requested today,

… that’s just one-time funding, and city officials are predicting that far more will be called for when a special committee tackling the city’s bedbug problem reports next spring.

“I don’t want to guess, but it’ll be a lot more than $75,000,” Councillor John Filion, who chairs the Toronto Board of Health, said yesterday.

The Toronto Sun reports today that

Public Health also decided to expand the city’s “bug and scrub” program, which helps residents on either Ontario Works or disability move their furniture and clean their apartments. It also struck a team of three board members to work with service agencies to decide what more Public Health can do to curb bed bugs in the city.

The Sun also notes that many do not think enough is being done:

But according to some social service providers, the city’s response to what they call a “health hazard” is not enough.

Sandra Van, of South Etobicoke’s LAMP Community Health Care, said her organization pulled out of the city’s bed bug steering committee when it appeared no one was taking the issue seriously enough.

“A comprehensive approach with adequate resources needs to be made immediately,” she said, noting she thinks bed bugs should be declared a health hazard. “This report, including the suggested future actions, do not adequately address the problem.”

Even some city councillors aren’t completely satisfied.

“It’s basically an excuses report,” charged Councillor Howard Moscoe, who told the board he represents one of the city’s most infected buildings. In a letter to the board, he urged it to declare the bugs a “health hazard”.

Similar Posts:

• Bed bugs spread when no one who can pay for treating them is responsible for treating them

In reference to the Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008, Budget Travel asks, “Should taxpayers fund the war against bed bugs?” The Act, H.R. 6068, is now in consideration by the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection,and would primarily give states funding to inspect hotel rooms for bed bugs.

(Welcome to Budget Travel readers who surfed in via the link! You might like to read this Bedbugger article on how to avoid bed bugs when you travel.)

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Meanwhile, the bill Dale Mallory is sponsoring in the Ohio House of Representatives, which would establish a hotline where Ohio residents could report bed bugs or get information about them, and would require the Dept. of Health to educate the public about bed bugs, is also getting coverage from Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC and in Vindy.com.

H.B. 590 states,

The department of health shall make available on its web site information on the increasing incidences of bed bug (cimex lectularius) infestation and post notices that bed bugs are a public nuisance dangerous to public health.

You might protest that bed bugs are not a danger to public health, but then the World Health Organization includes bed bugs in its new book, The Public Health Significance of Urban Pests. (You can download a PDF on the right side of this page.) And the WHO not just includes bed bugs — as Renee reminds us in an analysis of the WHO study over on New York vs. Bed Bugs, a bed bug is on the cover, with a tick and a rat.

The WHO is concerned about the public health significance of bed bugs. Ohio, along with other states (and cities and countries) should be concerned too.Similar Posts:

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Ohio Representative Tyrone K. Yates has introduced House Bill 565 in the Ohio House of Representatives, and its aim is to improve policies regarding bed bug treatment in public places in Ohio.

SPONSOR: Yates (D)
TITLE: Vermin Control Policies
LOCATION: House Health Committee
SUMMARY:
Requires boards of health to adopt vermin control policies under which bedbug infestations are treated to the same extent as other infestations.

This is the bill, as introduced last Monday:

A BILL

To enact section 3707.012 of the Revised Code to require boards of health to adopt vermin control policies under which bedbug infestations are treated to the same extent as other infestations.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

Section 1. That section 3707.012 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

Sec. 3707.012. As used in this section, “board of health” means the board of health of a city or general health district or the city authority having the duties of a board of health under section 3709.05 of the Revised Code.

Each board of health shall adopt policies for the prevention, detection, and eradication of vermin in public places, including residential facilities other than private dwellings. Under each such policy, bedbug infestations shall be treated to the same extent as other vermin infestations.

This is the current status of the bill:

STATUS:
05/19/2008 INTRODUCED.
05/19/2008 To HOUSE Committee on RULES AND REFERENCE.
05/21/2008 From HOUSE Committee on RULES AND REFERENCE: Recommended referral.
05/21/2008 To HOUSE Committee on HEALTH.

This reminds me of when Cincinnati municipal codes needed to be revised in order to class bed bugs as “vermin.”

Treating bed bugs “to the same extent as other vermin infestations” seems to mean that one has to treat them until they are gone. Local, state, and national laws may need to be changed in order to help us fight bed bugs, a pest we haven’t really needed to deal with to this extent since before the 1950s.

Key here: boards of health are responsible for policies regarding the eradication of vermin in public places in Ohio. We often hear it claimed that bed bugs are not a health issue. Despite not being known to spread disease at this time, bed bugs are undoubtedly a health issue. They certainly should not be tolerated in private homes or public spaces.

Thanks go to Rep. Yates for sponsoring this Bill!

Ohio residents, write to your representative and support it! Here’s how to send a letter. Or find your representative by clicking here and email him or her.

Not only will you be letting them know you support H. B. 565, but you will also be letting them know you support bills which help fight bed bugs. This is unlikely to be the last piece of bed bug-related legislation you will ask them to support.Similar Posts:

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Jennifer Brown of The Star reports that Toronto politician Paula Fletcher is agitated about bed bugs–and trying to do something about them.

She wants the health department to investigate whether they’re a health hazard:

Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth) has received so many calls from constituents she’s asked the health department to declare them a health hazard. Last month, Fletcher met with Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health. It was decided the Board of Health would issue a report in February on what should be done about bedbugs in the city and whether they should be declared a health hazard.

Here’s a hint, Toronto: stress, anxiety, loss of sleep, are all health issues. You need look no further. Something more sinister is clearly a possibility, but these other concerns are not to be taken lightly.

Next, Fletcher wants people to talk about how to get rid of bed bugs, and prevent their spread:

In the meantime, says Fletcher, “We will have a bedbug summit with all the people who are interested in and involved in this issue.” Fletcher is advocating the city address the problem with education, not enforcement.

“Some people said they were living beside a house and the bugs were travelling from the house or apartment next door,” she said. “I’d like to see a focus on what needs to change in terms of behaviours; what do you need to do to stop bringing them in and what do you need to do to get rid of the bedbugs.”

This is all familiar ground for us.

Fletcher seems a bit distracted by the idea that bed bugs primarily affect a certain region of Toronto:

The bedbug problem seems to be concentrated in areas south of Bloor Street, says Fletcher.

“They might be north of Bloor, but the infestations and pockets are definitely south of Bloor. Right now tracking them is not a requirement but that’s one thing we’re looking at is how are we going to track and where are we finding them?”

While they may be more common in certain neighborhoods (and certainly spread more easily to those next door than to those across town), they will spread anywhere, and are certainly moving in all directions. And not just from neighbor to neighbor, but to workplaces, co-workers, people who frequent the same gyms, doctors, schools, and shops. Public transportation is likely to be affected. (David Cain tells stories of encountering this situation in London.)
Fletcher mentions the concern of people bringing in used furniture, and getting them to not do so is a public education issue. But her ideas about eradication methods are quite progressive:

“Sometimes people are bringing bedbugs into a whole building inadvertently and they are travelling unit-to-unit. I’d like to see a model where there are teams of people who go into a building to assist and not simply spraying, but cleaning, washing, getting rid of them and then when the spraying happens, you have a better chance to eradicate them.”

The article also quotes PCO and bed bug dog handler Michael Goldman of Purity Pest Control, who claims that “most hotels” have bed bugs, at least in one room. This is a far cry from the claims made by other companies.

The article also concerns itself with the need for notification of other tenants when bed bugs are found in a building.

Unlike schools that send home letters when lice are found in a school, superintendents rarely post a notice saying bedbugs were a problem in a unit, says Fletcher.

Finally, there’s a nod to Vancouver, which has some of the more progressive bed bug-fighting protocols in place (though we rarely get details of them).

Vancouver has launched one of the best pilot projects in its downtown east side as the city prepares for the 2010 Winter Olympics. “They’re vigorously trying to figure out what to do with bedbugs and they have a program set up but it’s very labour-intensive.”

The Vancouver pilot included tenant and landlord education, public education workshops, pest control and development of a health and safety protocol.

I hope politicians in New York City and other US cities with bed bugs (from Boston to Cincinnati) will take note, and that they’ll trade notes with their counterparts in other cities, from San Francisco to Toronto and Vancouver.

The number one complaint I’ve heard now from professionals (entomologists and PCOs) in several cities is that their local politicians will not listen to those with bed bug experience. This is a grave mistake.

Though it is not explicitly mentioned here, it’s clear Paula Fletcher is listening.

However, there was one small problem. This:

“The chemical approach isn’t necessarily the only way or best way to go. It’s one piece of a bigger puzzle,” says Fletcher, who would like the city to help people control bedbugs. “What people have to learn is that to control bedbugs they must become good at cleaning their bedding. People have to be taught how to do that.”

People do not get bed bugs, nor do bed bugs persist, because people do not know how to clean their bedding.

Reminds me of  when the chief medical health officer in Vancouver, John Blatherwick, implied bed bugs were spreading in Vancouver due to hanky panky in downtown eastside hotels.  Doing or not doing “naughty things” had no bearing on the spread of bed bugs.  What is it with politicians and their weird ideas?

Read the rest of the article here. Similar Posts:

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