Staying during spraying « Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums

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Staying during spraying

(4 posts)

rockdove

newbite
Joined: Jun '09
Posts: 2

Posted 5 months ago
Sun Jun 7 2009 11:41:15
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My parents don't seem to understand that it is important to leave the apartment before spraying begins. The landlord said they shouldn't be there. The PCO recommended we leave but acted like it wasn't a big deal and got started despite our presence. My mother stayed during the whole treatment. The PCO applied (I believe) Suspend, Exciter and Tempo dust. My mother stunned me by later walking barefoot through the dust. She says she used to apply pesticide in her home years ago and doesn't think much of it.

The question is, IS it a dangerous if you have no immediate reaction to it? Or, is exposure to the quantity they apply in one or two treatments enough to act as a carcinogen or some type of toxin that can give you problems later on?

I suppose it's good as a precaution but what's the chance of anything negative occurring? I imagine even the PCOs must be exposed to a small amount of the chemicals on a daily basis despite the respirators they wear.
buggyinsocal

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Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,160

Posted 5 months ago
Sun Jun 7 2009 12:26:56
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My old landlord insisted that malathion was perfectly safe and kept insisting he should just spray that around the property rather than hire a PCO to deal with our ant problem.

::headdesk::

It's really hard to answer your question because, honestly, there's a lot we don't know. Plenty of people work with pesticides every day and have no negative health effects. (Of course, part of that is that they take proper safety precautions.)

On the other hand, a small percentage of people are very sensitive to any exposure and see negative effects from even slight exposure.

It's sort of like prescription drugs. Some people take a drug and have no side effects. Others, for whatever reason, get the really nasty ones. Everyone's metabolism is different, and everyone's threshold for response to exposure to pesticides is different.

As for what you can do, well, I doubt there's anything you could really do to stop your mom if that's how she feels.

It may be that it's probably mostly safe for her to be there but liability requirements mean that the PCO has to tell people it's not safe. I can tell you that the one thing I've heard over and over here is that the liquid pesticides should be dry before you go back into a place.

That said, is being in an apartment once while the liquids are being sprayed an absolute guarantee that your mom will have ill health effects? No. Is it a risk I would personally take without using the same protections a professional uses? No.

But then, I'm a tree hugging, liberal, organic food buying, brings her own bags shopping, buys milk in glass bottles, ditched her BPA plastic containing reusable water bottles California resident, so, you know, that gives you some idea about my bias.

Part of my reason for being that way, however, is that my personal feeling is that any negative effects from chemical pesticides happen over time with repeated exposure. The science I've seen seems to back that up. Once or twice is probably not going to be too damaging, unless there are underlying health issues. Someone has recently posted to the board about a horrific case of a PCO not applying pesticides as labeled, and her husband who was already in less than perfect health suffered as a result and ultimately passed away. Do I think that will happen to your mother? No. Do I think that your PCO was that irresponsible? No. Can I say conclusively that absolutely nothing will happen to her as a result? No. Does the fact that nothing happens to her mean it's safe for everyone? No.

I can't do anything about the exposure to the mosquito spraying trucks I grew up around, or the Off repellent I lathered on as a kid. I can have some control over how much pesticide exposure I get now. Plenty of people here and elsewhere would say I'm overreacting. I think all we can do in these situations is make the best informed choices we have with the information available. Personally, I think you're right to be concerned, and if it were my mother, I'd probably try to talk her out of doing it in the future (or at least get her to wear protective clothing and a proper respirator if she wants to stay). But her attitude sounds like my old landlord who firmly believed that it was a government conspiracy to keep good Americans from being able to use perfectly safe pesticides. And I'm not sure you're going to be able to change her mind.
rockdove

newbite
Joined: Jun '09
Posts: 2

Posted 3 months ago
Sun Jul 19 2009 13:35:04
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That was a very well thought out and informative response. (I know I'm replying a month later).

I suppose there are others out there without respirators who like to see what the PCO is doing exactly -- to see if they are getting their money's worth, if they have to pay out-of-pocket.
buggyinsocal

oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,160

Posted 3 months ago
Sun Jul 19 2009 22:36:51
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No worries about it being a month later. On academic time that's a blink of an eye.

Personally, if I wanted to stick around while a PCO applied chemicals in my apartment, I'd probably post here to ask what kind of respiratory protection I might need given the chemicals they were likely to work with, and any other safety equipment, and then I would ask the PCO if I could stick around if I wore it.

Generally speaking, the PCOs I dealt with were all mostly happy to have me around at the start of things. I suspect whether a particular technician were down with someone following them around would depend on temperment, how much coffee he or she had had that day before that call, and how stringent the company was about liability.

My guess is that esp. in the states, most insurance for pest control companies requires residents to be out of the residence. As with most things, how compliant a given tech is with that company policy will vary widely.

I would imagine, however, that if one wanted to stick around while the tech applied chemicals, having had respiratory or other protections on hand upon the arrival of the PCO and/or communicating clearly that you're interested in learning--not in being a control freak looking over his or her shoulder to make sure he or she did it "right" would go a long way.

and I would strongly discourage anyone with respiratory or cardiovascular health issues to stick around for the application of pesticides. While the effect of a one time exposure to the levels of chemicals we're likely to see in a treatment for bed bugs in a healthy person is probably highly unlikely to cause health problems, if the person exposed already had breathing or heart issues, a single exposure might have a very different outcome.

Any way, I hope that things are going well with both your bed bug infestation and your mom's health.