Pesticides in Schools Data Sought

          WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Environmental Protection Agency should make a nationwide effort to determine what pesticides are used in schools and minimize the health risks to children, a Democratic senator said Tuesday.
          Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., released a study by the General Accounting Office that said too little is known about children's exposure to such toxic chemicals in classrooms and school playgrounds.
          ``This information gap is troubling,'' said Lieberman, the ranking Democrat on the Governmental Affairs Committee.
          ``We know that children are particularly vulnerable to risks associated with pesticides, including elevated rates of leukemia and brain cancer. So we have every right to be concerned,'' he continued.
          The GAO said its investigators could find no credible statistics on the amount of pesticide used in the nation's 110,000 public schools, nor how often students might have been exposed to dangerous chemicals. It said there is even less data on short-term or long-term health impacts.
          A private advocacy group, the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, has maintained that students frequently are exposed to unhealthy levels of pesticide residues in classrooms and on playgrounds because of spraying by pest control companies.
         ``All the data available suggest students face a hazard,'' said Jay Feldman, the coalition's executive director, who joined Lieberman at a news conference. Feldman acknowledged that hard data on pesticide use and health risks in schools is sketchy.
          Lieberman said he would join Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., in pushing for legislation that would require schools to notify parents before pesticides are to be used in a school and require schools to adopt pest management plans that rely less on toxic chemicals.
          In the meantime, Lieberman said, the EPA should take steps to minimize students' exposure to pesticides by establishing federal guidelines on parent notification and use of pesticides in school environments.
          And he said in a letter to EPA Administrator Carol Browner the agency should ``conduct a full-scale statistical survey on the use of pesticides in schools to determine whether there are risks ... to children due to accumulative exposure.''
          The EPA issued a statement saying that it was ``vitally important to call attention to potential risks from pesticides in schools and in all other places where children may be exposed.'' It said the agency would consider all of the recommendations by Lieberman and the GAO report.
          ``EPA evaluates pesticides for safety before registering them for use, including uses in schools based on the best science available,'' said the statement. While the EPA supports use of nonchemical and safer pest control approaches in schools, it has not supported a federal mandate for such programs, preferring to leave it up to the states.
          Six states _ Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Texas and West Virginia _ require schools to adopt integrated pest management strategies. Maryland and Texas are the only states to require parent notification in advance of pesticide use, although seven other states require schools to provide that information when requested by a parent, according to GAO.