Daily Archives: March 8, 2012

(PRWEB) March 08, 2012

For years, the hospitality industry has been fighting a chemical war against bed bugs. Now, with a growing menace of pesticide-resistant bed bugs and increasing documentation of human chemical injury, the question to consider is, Are we using the right tactics?

Is a chemical war really the best choice when it is proving increasingly less effective and when non-chemical, heat treatments like structural pasteurization co-invented by David Hedman in the patented ThermaPure Heat Process are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and are readily available to mitigate these concerns?

Chemical pesticides historically the first choice in killing bed bugs are increasingly cited as the cause of illness to occupants/residents and pest control applicators.

According to the Sept. 23, 2011 edition of the CDC and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (volume 60, No. 37), acute bed bug pesticide-related illnesses have been reported in at least seven states with one fatality reported due to pesticide poisoning.

But those made ill by pesticides in the CDC report are likely just a fraction of those that are ultimately affected by exposure to these chemicals. Many may overlook minor symptoms and often exposure to chemicals can be cumulative or have an extended latency period with symptoms exhibiting years, even decades later.

Bed bug pesticides are toxic. While commonly used pyrethrins are only slightly acutely toxic, they are a sensitizer/irritant that is considered to cause cancer. Permethrin is moderately acutely toxic, possibly cancer-causing, and can cause endocrine disruption. Propoxur, which is not registered by the EPA for bed bug control but has been used illegally by some pest control companies, is highly toxic and probably cancer-causing, with reproductive effects, neurotoxicity, and kidney/liver damage.

According to the CDC report, pesticide-related illnesses have been caused after chemical treatments conducted by both individual consumers and professional pest management companies.

Children, in particular, are at risk. They face the highest pesticide exposure risk since they tend to sit, crawl or roll on the ground, near application sites where pesticide vapors and residues may settle.

Also troubling is the CDCs evidence that pesticide-resistant bed bugs are on the rise and have been confirmed in at least five states, including California, Florida, Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia.

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Center for Disease Control (CDC) Recommends Heat in War on Bed Bugs