A Short History of Beyond Pesticides Ohio

Beyond Pesticides Ohio is the only organization in Ohio that focuses exclusively on pesticide issues. It continues to develop an authoritative voice in northeast Ohio and the state, and has generated effective media attention to and public education both the pesticide problem and effective solutions. For this reason and due to its accomplishments in the area of pest control methods, Beyond Pesticides Ohio is often the first call the media and public officials make when a pesticide concern arises. Beyond Pesticides Ohio has participated in public presentations before city councils and state agencies. It has also been involved in TV/radio/print interviews and debates on public health policy vis-à-vis the use and misuse of toxic chemicals for pest control. Beyond Pesticides Ohio has steered a course that a number of city councils (Lyndhurst, Ohio) and state agencies (Ohio Department of Agriculture) have followed. Since 1985, Beyond Pesticides Ohio either initiated or was instrumental in successfully increasing public awareness of the hazards of pesticides and achieving a concomitant reduction in the use of pesticides:

Beyond Pesticides Ohio, in a four-year effort, convinced the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the chemical lawn care industry to require that warning signs be posted on lawns that have been treated with chemicals. This was one of the first such regulations in the nation.

Following an Beyond Pesticides Ohio initiative, Cleveland Heights became the first municipality in the nation to legislatively prohibit the application of lawn chemicals on city property, including schools and day care centers.

Beyond Pesticides Ohio brought about the official adoption of IPM programs in half a dozen school districts as well as community and health centers in Greater Cleveland.

Addressing public fears of both disease and pesticide spraying in the wake of the WNv arrival in Ohio in 2001, Beyond Pesticides Ohio’s intervention resulted in the formation of a Community Task Force in the City of Shaker Heights. Other communities throughout the state have held up the restrained WNv response plan created by the task force as a model.

In May 2002, Beyond Pesticides Ohio held a WNv/Pesticide public forum at John Carroll University. The room was packed with health officials and others from all over Northeast Ohio. One direct result of the forum was that Lyndhurst, Ohio, using Beyond Pesticides Ohio as a resource, passed landmark legislation prohibiting the Cuyahoga County Board of Health from doing any broadcast spraying of pesticides to control WNv. This law has since received nationwide attention and is being used as a national model.

In 2004, Beyond Pesticides Ohio launched its highly successful Pesticide Alternatives for Safer School project funded by The George Gund and Nord Family Foundations. During the three year term of this project, hundreds of public and private schools in Northeast Ohio attended our free workshops to learn Integrated Pest Management and received free consultation from BPO staff and other IPM experts. The outcomes of this project include:

  • Over 100  public school districts and private schools adopted IPM policies. 
  • BPO worked collaboratively with the Ohio Department of Public Health to ensure a School IPM mandate requiring schools to adopt an IPM policy, was included in the  new school safety law (Jarod’s Law.)