Miss Heather and Renee of New York vs. Bed bugs both blogged about that terrifying (but as to be expected) situation.

Now Pete Donoghue of the Daily News has picked up the story via Miss Heather:

Brownbear cited three stations where he believed bedbugs had, at least temporarily, bedded down: Hoyt-Schermerhorn, Union Square in Manhattan and Fordham Road in the Bronx.

A housing preservation and development spokesman cautioned that Brownbear, while more knowledgeable about bedbugs than the average person, is not a trained scientist or inspector.

NYC Transit spokesman Charles Seaton said the agency would check out the three hubs.

Brownbear may not be a trained inspector, but he had bed bugs in his home for five months. He is probably more qualified than many in the HPD to identify a scurrying bed bug.

I am concerned that they are only going to look at those three hubs. NYC Transit employees should be taught to search for bed bugs, and doing so should be a routine occurrence in all trains and at all stations.

Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign quipped: “Bedbugs on subway benches! Yet another reason not to fall asleep waiting for a train.”

The New York Post declares understatedly that “Bed Bugs Lurk Under Subway.” If they were under the subway, however, we would not have to worry. The problem is, they are in the subway:

Sharis Lugo, 20, of Brooklyn leaped off a bench at the Union Square station when she heard the news, saying, “Ewww! That’s nasty . . . They’ve got to take these benches out of here!”

Now that’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater! Why not get rid of the bed bugs instead?

It is possible, you know. But the first step is admitting we have a problem.

And Fox News shares videos of grossed out subway passengers (though Fox claims this footage represents passengers’ response to this news, this footage could have been stock “the subway is dirty” soundbites– bed bugs were not mentioned).

Perhaps in all the hysteria, New Yorkers will be reminded that we have politicians, we can demand they take action, and right now, the best way to channel that desire is to throw in your lot with New York vs. Bed Bugs. It only takes two minutes to make a difference.

The New York Post asks people on NYC subway benches about bed bugs in NYC subway benches:

Update: More from Gawker.

The U.S. News Health column also picked this up: Bed Bug Infestations Continue.

So did United Press International, the AMNY Subway Tracker, Subway Blogger (imagne a whole blog about the NYC subways! How bizarre! Just kidding, folks), Wall Street Journal blog Buzzwatch, and Gadling.

• Thai trains play the bed bug blame game: blame backpackers for bed bug infestation
• Abbey the Bed Bug Dog: news report
• Mr. K, a North Carolina bed bug dog, in action
• Toronto Star: Within five years, bedbugs “will be more common than mice, roaches, carpenter ants”

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The fifth-annual New York Musical Theatre Festival has announced the 12 musicals selected for its Next Link Project.

The three-week festival – running Sept. 15–Oct. 5 – features musicals from around the world, culled from invitations and an open-submission process.

The works accepted for the Next Link Project benefit from the Next Link dramaturg team, as well as writer support resources, including industry networking and producer “matchmaking” events, and financial assistance through discounted technical support and waiving of production deposits.

And that winning bedbugged musical?

Bedbugs!!! The Musical
Book and lyrics by Fred Sauter, music by Paul Leschen

“A hell-bent exterminator must save New York City from the mutant bedbugs she accidentally creates in this 80’s inspired rock musical fantasy.”

Sounds fun!

Come September, it may be time for the first-ever Bedbugger cultural excursion.

Who’s in?

For additional press, see Theatermania.

• A new song about bed bugs
• new Useful Stuff page
• Toronto tenants camping outside to avoid bed bugs: update
• bed bugs not fun anymore (part 2)

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Kudos are now due to Renee of NewYorkvsBedbugs.org, who was surely the party responsible for convincing the Washington Post via this campaign to correct the erroneous information used by David Segal to dismiss the size of New York’s bed bug problem.

If you recall, Segal argued that the media was overstating the size of the bed bug problem in the US. To support this, Segal claimed that,

. . . there are so many bedbug false alarms that there’s reason to assume many perfectly sane people are ringing them. In New York, the city housing authority has fielded and checked out more than 2,500 bedbug complaints in the past three years; fewer than 500 turned out to be actual infestations.

That information was, of course, entirely incorrect, as well as misleading.

The correction now preceding the article on the Washington Post’s site reads,

Correction to This Article
The article about bedbugs said that 500 of the 2,500 bedbug complaints lodged with the New York City Housing Authority between 2005 and 2007 turned out to be actual infestations. After taking a closer look at its records, the authority now says it did not keep detailed reports on bedbugs until last year. Of the 1,720 bedbug complaints received in 2007, a spokesman says, 70 percent resulted in treatment by an exterminator.

Nevertheless, my main complaint about the article still holds: the information cited in the correction is still misleading.

Segal only chose to cite NYCHA data in his article. The NYCHA only deals with infestations in public housing. As this NYCHA website reminds us, only 5.1% of the NYC population lives in NYCHA housing. Most tenants renting NYC apartments would not be eligible to call NYCHA to report a housing problem.

The vast majority of tenants in NYC would call the Housing and Preservation Department (HPD) via the city’s 311 hotline, to report that a landlord was not dealing with a bed bug complaint. I stress that they would only call 311 if (a) they lived in housing for which the landlord is reponsible for eliminating bed bugs (buildings of less than 3 units are one example of those which are apparently exempt), (b) they had tried to get the landlord to remedy the bed bug problem and it had not been dealt with, and (c) they were not afraid of any repercussions for reporting the landlord in this way. (In fact, my anecdotal information suggests that most tenants with bed bugs in NYC don’t call 311; it’s also a given that zero homeowners would be included in this data, since HPD would not help them; so the HPD data is a very low estimate of how many tenants in NYC have bed bugs in a given year.)

Still, as the Daily News correctly reported last year, in the fiscal year ending June 2007, there were 6889 complaints of bed bugs reported to HPD and 2008 summonses handed out to landlords as a result. Including this statistic along with the NYCHA data would lead to a fuller estimate of how many rental tenants had bed bugs in FY 2006-2007. It would be woefully understated, but not as much as the data the Washington Post provides.

The Washington Post was right to correct the inaccuracy of the NYCHA data Segal offered up, but this correction does not fully correct the inaccuracy of the facts presented in support of Segal’s argument.

New Yorkers should visit NewYorkvsBedBugs.org and write a letter to their city councilpersons.
Do it, and things might get better.

• David Segal strikes again, telling WNYC radio bed bugs are getting “hyperbolic coverage”
• Nashua, N.H. laws may change in part based on recent bed bug cases there
• Lexington, KY vs. New York, NY: a tale of two bedbugged cities
• Columbia Spectator on bed bugs, again with the HPD statistic soup

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In a ruling of first impression, a Manhattan judge has scratched a request for punitive damages in a bedbug case.

But the judge, Acting Supreme Court Justice Judith J. Gische, let go forward the negligence claims of two Maryland tourists for bites they sustained during a two-night stay at the theater district’s Milford Plaza.

The tourists, Debra Grogan and her adult daughter, Dana, are seeking $2 million in compensatory damages and an unspecified amount of punitive damages.

In rejecting their request for punitive damages, Justice Gische referred to a New York City Department of Health pamphlet in ruling that the two women had failed “to raise a triable issue of fact whether bedbugs are anything more than a nuisance.”

It’s important to understand that the plantiffs are still able to proceed with their claims for $2 million in compensatory damages for negligence. Only the request for punitive damages has been rejected.

What is interesting here is that in making this decision, the judge apparently cited the NYCDOMHH Bed Bug Fact Sheet, which asks and answers questions about bed bugs, and says:

ARE BED BUGS DANGEROUS?

Although bed bugs are a nuisance, they are not known to spread disease.

The plaintiff is suing the Milford Plaza and the Pest Control Operator with whom the Milford had a contract (PAC Extermination Services). The Grogans stayed in a room infested with bed bugs that was near two rooms treated for bed bugs less than a month earlier, but which was itself not treated:

Evidence in the case showed that three weeks before the Grogans’ stay, the hotel had asked PAC to exterminate bedbugs in two rooms near the room reserved by the Grogans. Work orders had been issued for rooms 1511 and 1512 on Dec. 22, 2002. The Grogans stayed in room 1540 from Jan. 17 to Jan. 19, 2003.

The Grogans’ argument is backed up by an entomologist’s testimony that bed bugs travel from room to room:

In support of their claims, the Grogans presented the affidavit of an expert in insects who teaches epidemiology and other courses at the University of Alabama School of Medicine.

(It’s worth noting that although bed bugs are not currently known to spread disease, they are still the subject of study by an entomologist who teaches epidemiology in a medical school.)

The entomologist, Robert J. Novak, reported that bedbugs can “easily” migrate from one room to another and that “proper eradication techniques” require inspection of “adjacent or contiguous rooms, or even rooms on several floors above and below” the floor where the pests had been spotted.

With the defendants having offered no affidavit to counter Dr. Novak’s assertions, Gische wrote, the Grogans had presented enough evidence that the hotel had “constructive notice” of the need to fumigate room 1540 to deny the defendants’ motion for summary judgment.

The case must go to trial, Gische ruled, because Novak’s affidavit “set forth genuine issues of fact about the life span of bedbugs, how they migrate and whether these factors should have been (or were) taken into consideration by the defendants in how rooms were treated following bedbug complaints by other guests.”

Even more interesting, this case may have ramifications for the ways PCOs treat for bed bugs.

PAC Extermination Services had argued that it should be released from the case because its obligations were limited to completing work in specifics rooms the hotel had asked to be fumigate.

But Gische said a jury must decide whether the exterminator’s duties were so “comprehensive and exclusive” that it had assumed a duty to keep rooms, other than those for which it received work orders, in “a reasonably safe condition.”

We often hear from PCOs who treat buildings that landlords will ask them to treat just the infested room or rooms, and will often refuse to have other adjacent units on the same or other floors inspected. I can only assume that many hotel managers will make the same request.

In such a case, it’s my understanding that PCOs have two choices: refuse the job (knowing some other PCO will be happy to do as the landlord asks), or do the job, knowing it is likely not enough. This is not an easy choice to make, by any means.

Depending on the court’s findings in this case, we may see a change in this. It may mean more PCOs refuse to treat under such circumstances, insisting instead that adjacent and nearby units are inspected and/or treated.

It could also have ramifications for the price of treatment, since it will doubtless lead to more litigation along the same lines.

• Mathias v. Accor: an oldie but goodie
• Gaston County, N.C. health officials to hotel: bed bugs not a serious violation
• FAQ: Where can I read about bed bug lawsuits? Can you help me find a lawyer?
• Virginia Beach hotel sued over alleged bed bug attack

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Well, it’s happening.

New York vs. Bed Bugs, (slogan: “NYC is the underdog!”) declares:

We believe that the city should lead the fight against bed bugs.

From Australia to Boston to Cincinnati to Toronto, local governments, public health officials and communities have already devised and implemented an impressive array of sensible solutions, policies and protocols to control the spread of bed bugs.

We believe that the city can adopt measures to combat bed bugs as a pressing quality of life issue and should utilize the tools and strategies of public health surveillance and education to achieve control of this economically important urban pest.

The city should immediately act to form a task force—with entomologists and urban pest management experts as advisers—to be charged with devising a comprehensive plan with specific attention to the following objectives:

* tracking infestations data;

* rolling out a comprehensive public education campaign;

* establishing clear bed bug control guidelines and policies;

* providing assistance to tenants, landlords and homeowners;

* facilitating and monitoring the specialized training of pest control officers and bed bug inspectors;

* implementing sensible mattress and used furniture regulations; and

* establishing trash collection protocols.

Sound sensible?

Check out newyorkvsbedbugs.org for more information.

Two new bed bug websites of note in one evening! What’s next?!?

• Lexington, KY vs. New York, NY: a tale of two bedbugged cities
• Finally, somebody does something: Cincinnati’s new Bed Bug Remediation Commission
• More on New York’s response to bed bugs
• NYC Bedbuggers: time to have some local politicians over for a bite or two

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Above the Law claims,

1. An email was sent around Cravath last week about the presence of bed bugs at the firm.
2. A few bedbugs were found on two floors, the 21st floor and the 41st floor, which are being fumigated.
3. Two employees had bedbugs in their apartments and told the firm, which caused the firm to investigate.
4. The 21st floor is a paralegal / administration floor, but the 41st floor is a litigation floor — which means that one of the two employees may be a lawyer.
6. Both of the employees are still with the firm (i.e., they have not been fired, like the poor soul at Cadwalader who, rumor has it, got canned after self-reporting).
7. The email about the bed bug problem was protected against forwarding or copying.

Apparently ATL did not do so well at math, as they left out #5. (I bet they billed for it anyway!)

But we’ll forgive them, since this is pretty juicy stuff they’re dishing.

Anyway, I would not blame those in the NYC legal profession for getting a bit nervous, seeing two of their bright stars come down with bed bugs. But let’s face it: any type of workplace or residence can become home to bed bugs.

Educating employees on what to watch out for, at home and at work, would be a good idea.

Here’s a hint: developing a workplace policy that says people who tell you they have bed bugs at home won’t get sacked might mean employees are more forthcoming.

• Cadwalader, Wickersham, and Taft’s alleged bed bugs, part two
• NYC office of Very Important International Law Firm has bed bugs
• Fox NY claims it became infested with bed bugs “a few weeks ago”; tipster tells Gawker they fired employee who brought them in
• Covington, Kentucky IRS building infested with bed bugs

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Then, a year later, in November 2007, someone else claimed there were bed bugs in the Fox newsroom. This second rumor was circulated by mediabistro blogger TVNewser.

Now a Fox executive has told the New York Times that they just recently discovered they had bed bugs in their newsroom, that they have been treated and are gone:

In an interview on Monday, Warren Vandeveer, senior vice president for operations and engineering at Fox News, said the cable channel had realized it had a problem a few weeks ago, when an employee “caught a bug and showed it to us.” An exterminator determined that the incursion was limited to a “very small area in the newsroom.”

The NYTimes claims Vanderveer told them that the problem was discovered “a few weeks ago,” the exterminator’s treatment ended “about a week ago,” and the bed bugs are now “totally eradicated.” If that timeline of detection and treatment is accurate, many experts might say it is too soon to say for sure that the problem is “totally eradicated.”

As for how long ago Fox has had a bed bug problem, is it true that bed bugs only first appeared in the Fox newsroom “a few weeks ago”? Or were they only first verified then?  Were they also there in November 2007 as per TVNewer’s tip? (TVNewser claimed the newsroom was getting pest control treatment last November.) Did TVNewser get faulty information? And were any bed bugs in Fox News in November 2006 as Claudia’s source claimed?

If the 2006 and/or 2007 rumors of bed bugs at Fox were incorrect, it’s a pretty big coincidence that the only station that we’ve heard rumored to be infested with bed bugs — twice — later became infested with bed bugs.

Vanderveer also apparently told the New York Times that

. . . the source of the bugs was not determined until the exterminator inspected the homes of about 20 employees. Mr. Vandeveer said the exterminator later described one employee’s home as having “the worst infestation he had seen in 25 years in the business.”

This raised all kinds of questions in my mind, but foremost in my mind is this one: did Fox insist all newsroom employees had their homes searched, or did they volunteer?

Finding that one employee has a serious, serious bed bug infestation may seem like a smoking gun to Fox, but it actually doesn’t in itself prove the employee brought them in to work (rather than someone else doing so).  I grant that it is highly likely.

But still: what if the home where bed bugs was found was not the worst case PCOs had found in 25 years? In that hypothetical case, would it be fair to link bed bugs to an employee whose home was found to have them? What kind of evidence is needed to verify such a connection? Even if every company employee’s home was searched, which does not seem to be the case here, could such a connection be proven?

Gawker claims to have gotten a tip alleging that the person who brought the bed bugs in was subsequently fired. (Gothamist asks, “Is that even legal?”)

This is the second time we’ve heard an employee was allegedly fired for bringing bed bugs to work. The first we heard of was at Cadwalader.

I am very glad for those who work at Fox that the bed bug infestation was detected and treated. I hope that the treatment which began only a few weeks ago continues until everyone really is certain.

• Another top NYC lawfirm gets bed bugs
• More rumors of bed bugs at Fox News
• Covington, Kentucky IRS building infested with bed bugs
• Richard Fagerlund knows how to kill bed bugs in one visit

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In this discussion, David Segal continues the argument he made in the Washington Post last week — that bed bug coverage is overblown in both its quantity and in its hyperbolic nature, when compared with the actual incidence of and difficulty of experiencing bed bugs.

He actually starts by making a valid point– that we need an academic study of how many bed bug cases there are in reality. I would agree with that in a New York minute. As Segal puts it:

. . . the problem with this story has always been that the stats on it are incredibly squishy. There’s just never been a good academic study that has explained exactly how bad the bed bugs really are.

Absolutely — not since Toronto (2003), anyway. And apparently never in New York. We need one ASAP.

However, I don’t agree with his assessment which follows:

David Segal: So every journalist and and almost every story that you see relies on one stat over and over again. And that is the number of calls to exterminators. And there’s a couple problems with this.

The first one is that it’s always tricky to get a sense of the scale of any problem from a party that has a financial interest if that problem gets worse. It creates at minimum the appearance of a conflict of interest.

This is a valid point. However, the stats most NYC journalists cite (and some of which which Segal cites) did not come from pest control operators but from the City of New York.

David Segal continues,

The other problem is that there are so many people who think that they have an infestation of bugs and are being eaten by bugs that psychologists have a name for it. They call it delusional parasitosis. In New York City there were two and a half thousand complaints to the housing authority in the last few years about bed bugs and the check out every one of them. And 500 turn out to be real so you have it seems two or three people who think they have a bed bug infestation and don’t, for every one that does.

Bob Garfield: So what you’re describing is literally a form of hysteria.

Whoa, Nellie! I have to cry foul here.

First of all, Segal cites NYC Housing Authority data here and in the Washington Post Article. This is itself a skewering of the statistics, since NYCHA only deals with infestations in public housing projects, with their own inspectors and their own pest control contractors. All other tenants’ infestations would be included in the data used by the Daily News — which cites much higher numbers of bed bug cases given by the NYC Housing and Preservation Department (NYCHPD) — the ones who take their stats from calls to 311 which lead to housing violations, based on HPD inspections. This agency reported approximately 6000 calls and over 2000 bed bug cases in the last fiscal year. Perhaps Segal does not understand the distinction between the NYCHA and NYCHPD data; he never mentions the latter. I assume, however, that he is not trying to mislead people (as he accuses the hyperbolic media of doing).

Anyone who looks into this issue for a while would realize that even the NYCHPD statistics are seriously flawed — they can only be considered to grossly underreport the actual incidence of bed bugs. I know this to be true: few New Yorkers call 311 to report their bed bugs as a housing violation. Many do not know to do so, and most who are aware of the option would not think of reporting their landlord either because everyone knows that when you have a problem in your apartment, you ask your landlord to fix it, or because (rightly or wrongly) they fear repercussions for doing so.

It is true that I know this only anecdotally from the hundreds and hundreds of NYC bed bug sufferers I have encountered, but I defy David Segal to prove otherwise. PCOs may certainly be overestimating the number of cases they treat, but I guarantee you the NYCHPD statistics grossly underestimate the size of the problem. They also leave out New York’s many co-op, condo, and house owners, who also get bed bugs but would never call 311 to report them.

Furthermore, there’s no evidence for Segal’s idea that more bed bug coverage = more false alarms, based on the NYCHPD data cited by the Daily News and other sources. As I wrote in my response to Segal’s Washington Post piece on 2/26,

Comparing fiscal year 2006 with fiscal year 2007, according to the stats above, the percentage of 311 complaints which are actual infestations verified by NYCHPD went up (from 25% in FY 2006 to 29% in FY 2007) — which may mean there were fewer false alarms in 2007 than 2006 (and/or, possibly, that there were more experienced inspectors, who were able to detect more infestations in the second year than the first).

Since there was undoubtedly more (and more hyperbolic) bed bug news coverage in fiscal year 2007 than FY 2006, it is not likely from this data that more news coverage correlates with more false alarms.

Finally, and most importantly, when “two or three people” call for a bed bug inspection and only one has bed bugs, it is not fair or accurate to assume that the others have delusional parasitosis, an actual medical condition. It is more likely, in my experience, that either: (a) they do not have bed bugs but some other likely explanation that is health- or pest-related (scabies, fleas, folliculitis, and very occasionally mites, also come to mind); (b) they do not have bed bugs but have heard of them, and perhaps have been exposed to them at a hotel or friend’s home, and are genuinely concerned they might have them; (c) they have bed bugs but the NYCHPD inspector does not find them. (We hear variations on all of these, every day at Bedbugger.)

Regarding scenario (c), PCOs and entomologists will tell you that bed bugs are difficult to detect, especially in their early stages. Yet bed bugs will bite from day one, and it is conceivable that at least some of these apparent “false alarms” are just undetected bed bug infestations.

I am sure it’s true that more news stories do lead to more people calling pest control operators for bed bug inspections, but it would be reasonable to assume that some of these people who read stories and call do also have bed bugs (and might not have realized this had they not seen a news report), while others will have false alarms.

Incidentally, University of Kentucky entomologist Michael Potter, who — as a tenured professor of entomology — will be making his salary whether he causes people become “hysterical” about bed bugs or not, has been cited as saying that up to 50% of people do not react to bed bug bites even if they are bitten. I am much more worried about all the people who have bed bugs and have no idea, and do not know to call for inspections, rather than those who wrongly suspect bed bugs and call.

Bob Garfield later asks Segal,

Have you gotten any kind of backlash over this piece at all? Have people who have actually been bitten by real live bed bugs called you and told you “how dare you!” or anything like that?

David Segal: A lot — and I’ve had a ton of email from people who hope that I get bed bugs, who have had bed bugs, who say “you’ve no idea what you’re talking about! It’s a total horror, and the more coverage about this the better.”

And I’m just waiting for the highly ironic infestation to begin in my own home.

I am one of those who would never wish bed bugs on anyone. However, I would concur that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Since David Segal lives in New York City, one of his friends or colleagues is bound to have an infestation any day now. Perhaps they’ll set him straight.

• Washington Post prints correction thanks to bed bug activist
• How bad are bed bugs in Toronto? Nobody knows for sure.
• Columbia Spectator on bed bugs, again with the HPD statistic soup
• Shout out to bedbuggers in San Francisco

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Toronto has had a serious bed bug problem for some time, just like New York, London, San Francisco, Vancouver–I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

The Toronto Star also has a journalist called Joe Fiorito who wrote extensively and repeatedly about how serious a problem bed bugs were, for everyone who gets them, but especially for the poor, the elderly, the disabled. You can see links to just some of Fiorito’s articles on my del.icio.us page. I mention Fiorito because I do not doubt for a moment the effects that good (or bad) journalism can have on public perceptions of the bed bug problem. In Fiorito’s case, the journalism was very good.

Then in November 12, 2007, Toronto City Councillor Paula Fletcher asked the Board of Health (of which she is a member) to take action on bed bugs. This is a PDF of her letter.

Fletcher wrote,

Traditionally Public Health officials consider and have categorized bed bugs as a nuisance because they do not carry and spread communicable diseases. However, ailments stemming from a bed bug infestation can range from secondary infections due to scratching to anxiety, embarrassment, and loss of sleep.

Moreover, residents who experience infestations are faced with considerable financial costs associated with fumigations as well as replacing furniture deemed to be unsalvageable.

Here is a politician who understands the bed bug problem. Clearly, she’s been listening to her constituents.

In the letter, Fletcher specifically asked the Board of Health to

• Review and report on the current procedures for bed bug inspection and control, including changing categorization of bed bugs as a public health ‘hazard’ and the harmonizing pest control under Municipal Licensing which currently deals with pest control relating to mice, cockroaches and termites
• Investigate and report back on a Bed-Bug Furniture Pick-up program
• Investigate and report back on North American best practices, including by-laws relating to sale and disposal of used furniture and mattresses
• [To provide an] Expansion of public education initiatives on measures, particularly to tenants, occupants of multi-residential units and users of shelters
• Report on the City’s regulatory authority to require action from property Owners, Operators of Hotels and Other Multi-unit dwellings including
  o Requirements for control and prevention, including pest control management plans included as part of landlord licensing requirements
  o Requirements for responding to complaints
  o Procedures for reporting to City officials
  o Treatment and control of bedbugs in hotel rooms
  o Guidelines for pest control companies
  o Responsibilities of tenants and homeowners

Fletcher noted that even though property owners are responsible for bed bug eradication, there is a need due to the “resilient and migratory nature” of bed bugs, for government agencies to re-examine their practices regarding the pest.

In response, Dr. David McKeown, the Toronto Medical Officer, unveiled a proposal for dealing with bed bugs last month. He asked the Board of Health to take action, outlined in this PDF.

McKeown’s report opened with a brief introductory paragraph, followed by this statement:

Bed bug infestations occur in all neighbourhoods and communities in the City and most households deal with the problem without assistance from the Municipality. This is not the case with the most vulnerable populations in our community. In recent months, Toronto Public Health has devoted significant resources to deal with severe infestations impacting on the health of the elderly, those living with physical and mental health issues and people living in poverty. This report is intended to focus primarily on strategies to ensure that vulnerable people get the assistance they need to lead independent, pest free lives.

The Medical Officer of Health’s made a series of proposals to the Board of Health (outlined in the same PDF) to deal with bed bugs.

The Board of Health then met on 2/26, and (as outlined in this PDF):

1. requested the Medical Officer of Health to establish an action committee comprised of city divisions, housing providers, health care organizations, social services, community groups, representatives of landlords and tenants, and other appropriate stakeholders to develop a comprehensive action plan to reduce bed bug infestations in the City of
Toronto with particular emphasis on vulnerable populations;

2. requested the Medical Officer of Health to report on the progress of the action committee within six months;

3. requested the government of Ontario to incorporate the issue of bed bug infestations in their poverty reduction strategy; and

4. referred all communications/submissions, and the following motions to the new Action Committee described in Recommendation 1:

Motion by Valerie Sterling:
“That Recommendation 1 be amended by adding the words “and in addition, consider broader public education and social marketing strategy to address the stigma associated with having bed bugs.”

Motion by Councillor Fletcher:
“That the Medical Officer of Health and TorontoPublic Health be requested to educate the medical community in identification of bed bug bites.”

This CBC article which was written in advance of the meeting notes that Toronto’s public health department surveyed PCOs about the increase in bed bug cases. This is the easiest way to get a realistic picture of the number of cases in a city, though of course those who self-treat will be left out.

Toronto Public Health surveyed 12 pest control companies in December 2007 and received six responses. All six reported an increase in numbers of inquires and calls related to bedbugs from 2006 to 2007. The majority of calls were in apartment buildings.

This was an informal check with just 12 companies. Remember the study done in Toronto in 2003? That year, every PCO reported every case of bed bugs in the city (well, theoretically, anyway). Most cases then were in single family homes. That might sound strange to some, since bed bugs are now a much bigger problem in apartment buildings, but it’s fully plausible.

Anyway, the Toronto officials know that if you want to know who has bed bugs in your city, you don’t simply rely on tracking official housing violations (as the New York government is trying to do) or official complaints to the Toronto Public Health Department. You ask the PCOs. Obviously, in this case this is just an informal inqury, not an official study (like the one in 2003). But the principle is the same.

A Toronto Sun article last December noted that the Toronto Public Health Department had gotten 160 calls about bed bugs in the first nine months of 2006. But Reg Ayre, the city’s Healthy Environments manager, said back then that anecdotal evidence from PCOs showed much higher incidence of bed bugs. One PCO claimed to be treating 1200 cases a year, another claimed to treat 400-600 a month (more on that below). You can read more about this here. (Sadly, I cannot link to the original article, since the Toronto Sun is holding out on us, so you’ll have to make do with the report I did on it in December.)

There were other documents associated with the Board of Health meeting, including several fact sheets and this: a PDF of a Toronto Community Housing proposal for dealing with bed bugs in public housing. (The key components, not surprisingly, are educating staff about bed bugs, educating tenants about bed bugs, getting both to cooperate, and using only qualified pest control contractors).

Bed bugs are clearly a problem that is far more serious than current Toronto Public Health data. The officials in Toronto are smart to recognize this. Here in New York, city officials seem happy to cite the number of bed bug cases in NYCHA public housing, or the NYCHPD housing violations for bed bugs, though it is obvious to us that these are just the tip of the iceberg.

The action we’re seeing in Toronto seems to stem in part from

• a vocal and forward-thinking city councillor taking up the cause of bed bugs,
• a persistent and talented journalist taking up the cause of bed bugs,
• a Board of Health willing to re-consider the definition of a “health hazard,”
• a Medical Officer of Health looking deeper into available bed bug statistics, and prioritizing the issue.

Doubtless, there are many more factors I can’t yet see. In any case, I am grateful for all those working to solve this problem in Toronto, and anywhere else.

I can’t overestimate how significant it is that Fletcher and the Board of Health were willing to consider bed bugs as having a significant effect on health. On February 26, other issues the Board of Health was dealing with included the provision of dental care to people on low incomes, and a plan for dealing with an inflenza pandemic. Deadly possibilities like an infleunza pandemic must be planned for, but we also need to deal with bed bugs, even if the health effects are not deadly.

I hope that cities which have not yet taken action will use the work being done elsewhere as a starting point. McKeown’s report, for example, cited what was being done to deal with bed bugs in Vancouver, and Hamilton (Ontario). Problems may vary from place to place, but the bed bug enemy is the same, and cities would do well to use the best practices beginning to be developed elsewhere as a starting point.

I look forward to hearing more from Toronto.

Many thanks to hopelessnomo for helping me think about this issue and for providing the location of the Board of Health’s document stash.

• bed bug news for 2007-11-16
• Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher has some progressive ideas about bed bugs
• Toronto Public Health now has a Bed Bug Action Committee. Action, people.
• New York vs. Bed Bugs: NYC is the underdog!

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I say yes, especially if you live in Greenpoint.  Greenpointers and their Williamsburg neighbors are seriously bedbugged.

So, Miss Heather of newyorkshitty.com and her friend Ann Kansfield (the Co-Pastor of the Greenpoint Reformed Church) worked together and got HPD to agree to come to Greenpoint.  So far, this is the second HPD bed bug seminar to be announced in Brooklyn.  (The first to happen will be on 3/12, next Wednesday, in Bushwick.)

The Greenpoint bed bug seminar will be on May 6th from 6-8pm.  This announcement comes from Ann Kansfield, via Miss Heather’s blog, so I would not call HPD to sign up just yet.

But just so you know, the location will be:

Greenpoint Reform Church
136 Milton Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
(718) 383-5941

And if you want to thank Miss Heather for helping rid her ‘hood of crazy bed bugs, visit her blog and leave a comment.  There’s a request for people to put up flyers for the event in the neighborhood too, so if anyone local wants to vounteer, go and let Miss Heather know.

To thank Pastor Ann Kansfield for making this possible, Miss Heather says you can email her at pastor (at) greenpointchurch (dot) org.

I hope that others will consider lobbying for bed bug seminars in their neighborhoods, and help publicize those that are happening.   Thanks to Miss Heather and Ann Kansfield for their hard work!

• Bed bugs in NYC: if we could just get Bill Murray on the case
• Greenpoint HPD Bed Bug Seminar
• Winter scene in Williamsburg, with curbside mattresses
• HPD expands bed bug seminars

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