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Build more value into your business by offering services that are preventive instead of reactionary.

Integrated pest management (IPM) is a preventive, long-term strategy to control pests of every kind in every setting, with a focus on limiting the use of chemicals. There are several guiding principles to IPM, the most crucial of which is exclusion. Unfortunately, its also one of the most commonly overlooked and under-performed pest control services.

Exclusion services shift the focus of pest control from reactionary to preventative. It allows more time for inspection and observation instead of moving directly to treatment. Its also a green solution, as most of the products used are environmentally safe and cause no harm to people or pets.

Exclusion services allow pest management professionals are demonstrate their knowledge and professionalism. It improves the image of the industry. Were not spray jockeys. Were problem-solving professionals. Were experts. Customers like the option of having a PMP perform exclusion services rather than a general contractor. PMPs understand pests and their behaviors.

The principles of exclusion are essentially the same for residential and commercial structures. Exclusion methods are dependent on the design of the structure from homes and condos, to retail stores and warehouses. They differ only in the types of building materials and extent of exclusion needed; commercial buildings having more access points.

Commercial buildings have unique access points homes dont: dock levelers; trash compactor transition points where it meets the building; astragal seals, especially primary customer entrances; under and around doors; overhead doors; and, loading dock pedestrian doors. There are more opportunities for pests to invade commercial structures.

EXCLUSION SERVICES INCREASE REVENUE. Pest management professionals (PMP) have an opportunity to increase revenue by providing exclusion services and, if priced correctly, theyll also see increased profits. Consider using time and materials to price jobs. PMPs may expect to invoice residential customers $4001,200, depending on the structure and landscape. Exclusion services also reduce the likelihood of call-backs and, since little trapping or treating may be necessary, expenses are reduced. In addition to increased revenue and reduced costs, exclusion services can increase customer satisfaction and retention.

Revenue from commercial pest exclusion services can vary greatly. A PMP may invoice commercial customers anywhere from thousands of dollars up to six figures, depending on the structure. One PMP shared that there really is no limit to the revenue potential working with commercial customers. It depends on the time, effort, planning, and follow-up necessary to perform a flawless exclusion. Consider a multi-story building and the time it takes for planning, access to elevated areas, hidden voids, dismantling equipment, and deconstruction to perform a thorough inspection and exclusion. Time and materials invoicing, again, seems to be the best option.

THERES NO AREA THAT CANT BE PROOFED. Any area that can allow pest entry or harborage can be pest proofed, from cracks in a homes foundation, to roof voids in food processing plants where insects and vertebrates can take up residence. The goal of exclusion is to block every possible access point. Not just most of them, all of them. Denied access to one access point, pests will move on to find another.

LET THEM LEAD THE WAY. Use your detective skills and let the pests show you their access points. Look for signs such as runways, rub marks, and gnawing to identify active paths. Start there. Then scour the structure for every other access point.

THINK SMALL, REALLY SMALL. If a mouse or rat can fit their heads into a hole or crack, the remainder of their body will most certainly fit through. These vertebrates dont have bones that are soft or the ability to disjointand they havent gone through circus contortionist training. Their bodies are simply long, flexible, and cylindrical. Mice can fit into a hole as small as 1/4 thats only slightly smaller than the diameter of a pencil. Rats can fit through holes as small as the diameter of a quarter.

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Pest Exclusion Services Increases Revenue, Boosts Customer Retention - PCT Magazine

Communication and collaboration were the key takeaways from a global pest management summit hosted by CEPA and NPMA.

What do pest management professionals and their commercial clients from Bangkok to Boston need to do to ensure that the food consumers eat at home or in restaurants is safe and free of pests and the bacteria they can transfer? Its simple communicate and collaborate.

That was the takeaway message for the nearly 170 attendees of the recent Global Summit for Pest Management Services, jointly sponsored by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) and Brussels-based Confederation of European Pest Management Associations (CEPA).

Attendees from every continent except Antarctica left New York City with a sharper focus on what skills their companies and employees will need to adequately service commercial clients engaged in food processing, distribution and storage.

DOCUMENTATION. Virtually every presenter who took the dais emphasized the need for thorough and accurate documentation. Mandates brought on by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and third-party auditors and inspectors place a premium on documentation.

The documentation needs to be more than just a spreadsheet, it needs to provide clients with information that will help them meet and exceed regulatory requirements, improve operational efficiencies and safeguard food.

We were a reaction company but have shifted our mindset to prevention when it comes to food safety, says Dr. Randal Giroux, vice president of food safety and regulatory affairs for Cargill. There is a need for our pest management partners to be more than box checkers and to be critical thinkers who bring science to process.

Giroux says Cargill has more than 500 facilities worldwide that are impacted by expanded FSMA mandates and that documentation and data provided by their pest management partner is critical to helping them justify their pest management decisions.

John Carter, vice president of quality dairy for global food giant Danone, says commercial clients are looking to PMPs to collaborate for success. We look to the pest management professionals for expert answers, solutions and to not only protect our facilities but our brands as well, says Carter. We need PMPs to make sure we are doing the right things from an environmental and legal standpoint.

Establishing dual partnerships with both the local facility and corporate staffs is another strategy Carter sees working. The local plant manager or QA person understands the holistic approach and a pest professional can give them competence while keeping the corporate staff in the loop, says Carter. FSMA is changing the framework, encouraging steps to avoid problems and closer collaboration will help that.

Cargills Giroux added that they seek out expertise and value-add from their pest control partners and look for recommendations that deliver an impact. Our QA managers have so much on their plates and need pest professionals to be solution providers that make recommendations that will benefit our business, says Giroux. A significant food safety issue could bring us to our knees and we want to make sure we have the correct information to get ahead of it.

FSMA IMPACT. The impact FSMA mandates have had on the food processing industry are, in a word, significant. The manner in which food processors, transporters and warehouse facilities develop protocols to protect the products they make, ship and store have forever been changed.

Hank Hirsch, president of RK Environmental Services, a pest management and food safety consulting firm, aptly summed up FSMAs impact telling attendees that at the corporate level the FUD effect is taking place fear, uncertainty and doubt. The old way of thinking when it comes to food safety and the role pest management plays is being revisited, says Hirsch. The true value of the PMPs service is shifting to inspections, documentation and creating preventive pest management strategies.

Dr. Cornelius Hugo, global manager food safety services innovation for AIB, says FSMA has delivered the most sweeping reforms in food safety in more than 70 years and has shifted the focus from reacting to contamination issues to preventing them. More than 80 percent of food contamination issues are avoidable and FSMA puts the onus on the food industry to answer the question, What are you doing to prevent an unsanitary environment in your facility? he says.

The teeth FSMA has given U.S. Food & Drug Administration inspectors to enforce the mandates is leading to longer, deeper and more narrow inspections. The bar on what conditions will land a facility in hot water also has been lowered in an effort to achieve more strenuous enforcement.

There has been a shift from needing credible, viable information to take action to simply a reason to believe that the facility did not provide a safe environment to issue a recall or take other actions, says Hugo.

The new mandates allow FDA investigators to review any link in the food chain from farm to fork including processing, manufacturing and storage. The agency can retain products suspected of a violation for up to 30 days, deny imported food products, issue a product recall even if the manufacturer chooses not to, issue injunctions and prosecute owners and plant managers.

FSMAs reach not only lands on the 85,000 food processing and storage facilities in the United States but to more than 300,000 facilities around the world.

How prepared is the industry for FSMA? According to AIB research conducted of several thousand facilities globally, nearly 20 percent of food processing plants were unsatisfactory when it came to integrated pest management and nearly 11 percent needed improvement. What were the leading pest-related issues that generated these numbers? According to the AIB research, 35 percent centered on pest habitats and 26 percent on pesticide control.

Pest management professionals are not a static tool in the process of helping protect food, says Hugo. Closer collaboration between clients and PMPs is needed to ensure the programs in place are not just effective after the fact but preventive from the start.

Corporate sponsors of the Global Summit of Pest Management Services included BASF, Bayer, Syngenta, Babolna Bio, Edialux Products Professionals, Liphatech, Lodi Group and ServicePro.

The author is a frequent editorial contributor to PCT magazine and partner with B Communications. He can be reached at http://www.b-communications.com.

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Food Safety Takes Center Stage - PCT Magazine

Rentokil Initial plc (LON:RTO) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by BNP Paribas The Cerbat Gem Rentokil Initial plc is a commercial pest control company. The Company is engaged in the provision of route-based services, which protect people and enhance lives. The Company's segments include Europe, UK & Rest of World, Asia, North America, Pacific, ... and more »

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Rentokil Initial plc (LON:RTO) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by BNP Paribas - The Cerbat Gem

Whether theres too much or not enough water in your customers pipes, both have pest consequences that can be prevented.

Of course, where there are plumbing problems there is potential for pest problems. Leaks offer standing water to rodents, and clogged, scummy drains are breeding sites for flies. On the other hand, drains and pipes without water can also lead to pest problems when those spaces are used for movement and harborage. Recognizing and addressing these conditions can help you to eliminate pest problems at the source and avoid expensive callbacks.

FINDING THE SOURCE. With limited service time at an account, rapid inspection techniques can help to quickly locate areas of actual or potential pest activity, leading to quicker treatment and resolution of the problem. Efficient inspections include simultaneous targeted and generalized evaluation of the site.

Targeted inspections can be thought of as a top-down approach and involve interpretation of monitoring information. What pests are present on glueboards, insect light traps and pheromone traps during your visit? Many pests are predictable in their food source, and thus their breeding sites. By accurately identifying the pest and knowing a little about its biology (or reading about it in one of the many industry manuals), we can form a hypothesis about the type of breeding conditions that must be present for that pest to be found. I think of this like a mental matching game, connecting a pest to its preferred habitat.

Generalized inspections are the opposite: working bottom-up to identify conducive conditions and thinking about what pests could breed there. This is a way of viewing accounts that can be easily improved through training, and does not require the same sort of biological memorization needed for targeted inspections. An easy way to find standing water under equipment is to use your flashlight at a low angle to the floor. Relative to our topic, Pests of the Pipes, lets break this down into two categories:

TOO MUCH WATER. Water is one of the three key items that a pest needs to survive. For many pests, water is what puts food sources into a form that is accessible for pest feeding. For instance, dry crumbs on the floor are not attractive to fly larvae. However, add water and time for decomposition, and that is now a suitable food source for flies. Despite the importance of water, many sources are easily overlooked during inspections. By thinking about where water comes from and where it can collect, we can speed up our inspection time. Here are some common places to find pest-breeding water:

TOO LITTLE WATER. In contrast to excess water facilitating pest development, a lack of water in some pipes can provide harborage for pests and requires the addition of water. To understand why, lets take a quick look at plumbing traps.

If you have ever looked under the sink, you are familiar with a plumbing trap; that U-shaped pipe that (typically) changes the flow of water from vertical to horizontal. The main function of the trap is to create a water seal that prevents odors and harmful sewer gasses from escaping into the structure. Each time the drain is used, fresh water replaces standing water in the trap, maintaining a permanent seal.

A benefit of this design is that it deters pests from using pipes to move within or between buildings. Yes, cockroaches and rodents (especially rats) can overcome plumbing traps by crawling through a small amount of water, but regularly-used drains are less likely to harbor pests.

Problems with trap seals occur when drains are infrequently used and water evaporates over time, or if drains are clogged with debris. Floor drains in locations that do not wet mop floors, in production areas with lots of small spilled items, or drains near a deep fryer are susceptible to drying out.

ELIMINATING THE SOURCE. For every problem identified above, there is a solution to eliminate conducive conditions. While the responsibility for addressing any particular issue may belong to the building manager, pest professionals can provide add-on services that remove breeding sites and can halt pest activity.

A targeted inspection near a source with adult and nymph roaches and a cockroach egg parasitoid (ensign wasp).YOUR SAFETY. The most alarming response I see to pests of the pipes is the off-label use of pest strips. These products, which slowly release vapor from a resin plastic block, can be used in confined spaces where people will not be present for more than four hours. Most pest strips come in two sizes (16 grams or 65 grams), and are designed to treat 100 to 1,200 cubic feet for up to four months (1,200 cubic feet is equivalent to a room that measures 10 by 15 by 8 feet). Yet these devices have been placed near the drain in an open area where people are working all day, sometimes in numbers that far exceed the designated application rate. Because these devices are easily available at Big Box stores, site managers are often the ones responsible for this misapplication. Effort is needed to educate personnel that this type of treatment is illegal [off-label], dangerous, and ineffective.

A second, and similar educational opportunity for pest professionals is to inform site management that pouring bleach and/or hot water down the drain will not eliminate pest activity. These treatments do not remove the organic debris that sustains pest populations in drains.

SUMMARY. Pest problems in commercial settings can arise for several reasons, but the close link between preferred sites and water can increase inspection and treatment times to identify and address a problem. Technicians should be familiar with common water sources, and identify these as part of the generalized inspection. When dealing with a particular pest, targeted inspections that aim to identify the breeding site should be undertaken. In most cases, conducive conditions can be addressed or eliminated through sanitation, leading to long-term control and reduced callbacks.

The author is a pest management specialist in the New York State IPM Program at Cornell University. Contact him at mfrye@gie.net.

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Pests of the Pipes - PCT Magazine

CASTLE ROCK A pest control company has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Town of Castle Rock because of a 7 p.m. curfew for door-to-door sales.

I was just cleaning up from dinner, said Kristen Gerstner, a Castle Rock mother who was about to put her daughter to bed when the doorbell rang, despite the no soliciting sign on her front porch. Its hard to say no to them most of the time.

Utah-based pest control company Aptive Environmental is suing the Town of Castle Rock for adopting a 7 p.m. curfew for commercial solicitors, while not applying the same curfew to other groups such as charities or religious institutions.

There has to be a balancing test between what the government wants and what the business wants, said David Beller, a legal analyst for Denver7. In any case like this, its a very close call.

Beller said businesses do have First Amendment protections, but they are different from individuals, and the government also has a right to protect its citizens from harassment.

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Pest company sues Castle Rock over solicitation curfew - The Denver Post

California citrus growerswill soon get help from the State to stop a devastating plant disease threatening residential and commercial citrus trees.

Governor Brown signed the 2017 Budget Act this week and authorized $10 million in general funding to prevent the spread of the invasive insect Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) and the deadly and incurable plant disease it can carry, Huanglongbing (HLB).

California Citrus Mutual applauds Governor Brown and members of the California Legislature for recognizing the severity of this issue to not only the states citrus growers, but to the California economy and the many homeowners who enjoy citrus trees in their backyards, says Joel Nelsen, president of the citrus growers trade association California Citrus Mutual (CCM).

We know from what has happened in Florida that there are real and lasting economic consequences if HLB is allowed to take hold, continues Nelsen. California citrus is a $3.6 billion industry and supports over 22,000 jobs all of which could be lost if HLB is not stopped.

California is the largest fresh-market citrus producing region in the world and one of few areas that have not been affected by HLB, but that could change if HLB is allowed to spread. To-date, the disease has been found in 73 backyard citrus trees in the Los Angeles Basin, triggering quarantines in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

HLB is spreading at an alarming rate, and the addition of state funds will provide critically needed resources to help protect all citrus trees and prevent HLB from devastating the states vibrant citrus industry, concludes Nelsen.

The state funds will augment the nearly $25 million currently spent each year by commercial citrus growers for pest detection and eradication, including the release of beneficial insects for biological control of ACP, in residential areas and ongoing public outreach and education.

In 2009, the citrus industry created the Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Program and authorized a mandatory assessment paid by growers that raises $15-18 million per year on average. All funds are directed toward urban areas, where an estimated 6 in every 10 residents has at least one citrus tree in their yard.

CCM would like to thank the following legislators for their support of the California citrus industry and acknowledge their efforts to secure state funding to address this critical issue: Senators Richard Roth (D-Riverside), Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton), Andy Vidak (R-Hanford), and Jean Fuller (R-Visalia) and Assembly Members Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), Devon Mathis (R-Visalia), Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield), Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), Marc Levine (D-Marin), and Bill Quirk (D-Hayward).

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Governor Brown Authorizes State Funds to Help Stop Deadly Citrus Disease - Valley Voice

Rockwall County commissioners have taken another step to deal with issues that shut down the west wing of the Rockwall County Detention Center about six months ago.

County Judge David Sweet and commissioners Cliff Sevier and Lee Gilbert the only members of the court present for the Tuesday meeting voted to seek bids for a mold remediation project and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) replacement in the wing.

Mold in ductwork forced closure of the detention centers west wing about six months ago. The west wing normally houses 48 prisoners. Inmates have been transferred to Henderson County jail facilities on an as needed or overflow basis.

County Auditor Lisa Constant Wyle told commissioners Tuesday that an architect hired by the county had drawn up documents for the bids process.

County Maintenance Director Barry Compton is hopeful that going out for separate bids will work best from a time standpoint.

He told commissioners of how he would like both projects to flow:

It looks like what were going to hopefully be able to do is have the HVAC contractor do the demolition they need to do and in the time frame theyre waiting for their equipment it should be ordered when we give them the go-ahead therell be a window there while theyre waiting on equipment. That window is when we do the mold remediation and, hopefully, by the time thats done, we have HVAC equipment to have installed.

He also told commissioners about plans for better exhaust fans to test for humidity.

The better design, he said, involves exhaust fans bringing in fresh air and taking air out, which is why we had the mold issue, according to the reports.

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Commissioners work to reopen west wing of county jail - Commerce Journal

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AUSTIN (KXAN) Its one step forward and two steps back for the Austin Police Department and its shuttered DNA lab. According to a new city memo, mold was recently discovered on DNA samples dating back to the 1990s and early 2000s at an evidence storage facility.

The department originally found out about the mold on April 25, 2017 when Signature Science, a lab that the city has contracted to conduct DNA analysis as its lab remains closed, notified them that at least one sexual assault kit sent to their lab seemed to have mold on it. The paperwork that arrived with the cases was also described as being damp.

The following day, an inspection of the evidence warehouse walk-in refrigerator revealed mold on some boxes in the back of the cooler. According to the memo, none of the evidence in this particular walk-in cooler had been tested and, therefore, had never been considered as DNA evidence in the deliberation of any case already adjudicated.

Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore said that while this development is concerning, it does not affect any current or active prosecutions.

As weve gotten the facts about the situation, were not alarmed. Right now, there really isnt any need to consider this something thats a debacle or a catastrophe in any way. There is no present impact on any cases in this office, said Moore.

The walk-in refrigerator in question is different than the storage freezer that broke last year.

An audit revealed of the 1,629 cases inspected, 780 had no visible mold and 849 had some signs of mold.

APD says they immediately hired a company to seal all seams on the outside of the refrigerator on May 3 to prevent moisture from entering. The department also installed a dehumidifier on June 2 to bring the humidity level down.

On June 21, Signature Science notified APD that no issues were observed with the samples processed from the case originally reported to have mold.

While APD says they were starting remediation efforts with recommendations from the DPS Capital Area Lab Section Manager to address the mold found on the cases, they have placed it on hold pending further research on mold remediation. A nationwide request has been sent out seeking information on the best way to address the mold issue.

Advocates for sexual assault survivors in Austin and Travis County say this is just another hit to the process, and the publics trust in the process, after the problems last year at the APD DNA lab.

The DNA lab is one piece of a very long system that victims have to navigate in order to seek any kind of justice after a sexual assault, explained Emily LeBlanc, the co-chair of the Sexual Assault Response and Resource Team, or SARRT. My initial reaction, of course, is concern primarily for how this affects the publics confidence in the process and potential victims willingness to come forward.

LeBlanc says Texas has a sexual assault reporting rate of only about nine percent.

Very few sexual assaults get reported to law enforcement to begin with, and when they do, its often years before they reach the prosecution stage. We tend to see victims drop out of that process along the way because of how difficult that is. So, putting one more barrier in an already lengthy, difficult, heart-wrenching process for victims of a really horrible crime, is likely to make that reporting number go down.

The mold discovery, LeBlanc says, is a symptom of a larger problem.

We have a justice system that allowed kits to sit and crimes go un-prosecuted since the 90s, and those seem to be the kits that seem to be affected by this most recent development, LeBlanc said.

She argues that something needs to be done.

Whatever we can do to restore the publics confidence, to be as transparent as possible, and to really process that evidence as quickly as possible so that we dont see a three-year delay from the time someones assaulted to the time that case is taken to prosecution, the better off were going to be and the safer were going to be as a community.

Survivors of sexual assault looking for information and resources, including legal aid, can call 1-844-303-7233 (SAFE).

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Mold found on hundreds of APD DNA samples - KXAN.com

SPARTANBURG CO., S.C. (WSPA) Over the last two years weve reported many times about the on-going mold issues at the Spartanburg County Courthouse.

Now that building has some company.

New testing confirms elevated levels of mold in two county owned buildings across the street.

In some cases, samplers found the worst kind of mold. We looked into what the county is doing about it:

The county showed us work that was underway in 180 Library street. An open air return, one of several spots slated for cleanup by the mold reports. The first one was done by JMAC Environmental, and the second, an air sample done by ECS Southeast.

I cant say I was surprised, said Murray Glenn, the Solicitors Spokesman, when he heard about the elevated mold levels.

Glenn recalls how his whole office was forced to move out of the Spartanburg County Courthouse for 5 weeks last year during the mold remediation.

Last summer it was my office, round two which was several months ago was directly across from me, he said.

And round three, was this month in his satellite office across the street from the courthouse.

Air quality test results show slightly elevated levels of spores right near Glenns office. The testing was even done after blackened vents were replaced, and some parts of the building underwent air scrubbing.

Well that remains to be seen. Were going to certainly investigate and follow the ongoing study and procedures with very high interest to make sure our employees are safe, said Peter OBoyle.

On the same block as that building, the Department of Juvenile Justice building also came back with slightly elevated levels of mold. One of the offices even had Stachybotrys (or black mold) in the air which can be toxic.

At both buildings, the county says it has followed all the recommendations of the mold reports with attempts to fix water leaks as well as clean air vents.

It is important to note, most of the rooms in those two buildings showed normal, not elevated, levels of mold spores. But at issue is whether clean-up that was done before air tests (some air scrubbing, and installation of new vents) should have been done after to get a more accurate reading.

The county says it followed the protocol of the testing companies. If taxpayers approve the building of a new courthouse this fall, all of the offices in these two buildings will be relocated to the new facility according to the countys Judicial Strategic Plan.

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Spartanburg County dealing with another mold issue - WSPA.com - WSPA.com

Pima County has been awarded a three-year, $1.7 million grant for lead paint abatement and other home safety repairs from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Work funded by the grant will start in 2018 federal fiscal year.

About $1.5 million will be used to identify and remove lead hazards from an estimated 100 homes primarily in Ajo, the Flowing Wells area and the city of South Tucson. The areas were selected based on their large populations of low-income households with children, and concentrations of homes built before 1978.

Molly Hilber, the lead grant writer for this project, said the program will mostly target homes in these areas with children under the age of 6. The funding will also assist residents of Pima County who live outside the city of Tucson, which received a similar lead abatement grant from HUD in spring 2016.

The grant provides an additional $150,000 to help remove other household hazards in the selected areas. Potential items covered under the healthy homes funding include asbestos and mold removal, repairing broken handrails or steps, and removing other trip hazards.

Some of the funding will also be used for educational purposes.

Marcos Ysmael, the manager of the Pima County Housing Program, the department leading this project, said they are hoping to provide special safety trainings.

We are going to be promoting education for both homeowners and renters, as well as landlords, rental properties and contractors who will be working on these properties and may not be aware of all the hazards that could be present in these homes, he said.

Pima County will collaborate with several different local organizations to implement each part of the program.

Outreach and research will be done by The Southwest Fair Housing Council and the Sonoran Environmental Research Institute, which will assist Spanish-speaking communities and focus on outreach during community events.

The International Sonoran Desert Alliance and the Desert Senita Community Health Center will work to inform qualifying households in the Ajo area about this program. ISDA will undergo special training and will be responsible for conducting abatement in Ajo, under the supervision of Pima Countys Department of Community Development and Neighborhood Conservation.

Participating households will be able to have their children tested for lead through community health organizations including El Rio Community Health Centers, mobile nursing care services provided by the Pima County Health Department and Desert Senita Community Health Center, according to Hilber.

Lead poisoning in children can cause developmental delays, learning difficulties and a host of other serious health problems. Lead can be found in the paint of older homes, older water pipes and faucets, and in some toys manufactured outside of the United States.

I think every parent wants what is best for their children, but there are some very real barriers that make it difficult to get their homes assessed for lead hazards, she said. We hope to remove some of those barriers with this program so any child in Pima County can have access to a healthy home.

This is the first grant of its kind to be awarded to Pima County. This year HUD awarded $127 million in lead-abatement grants to 48 different agencies across the nation.

We dont always have the funding for lead abatement or to address these hazards in other properties, Ysmael said. This funding will allow us to be able to do that and hopefully we will get others involved, other partners and additional funding so we can keep this going.

To learn more about the program, call 724-8562.

Jamie Verwys is a University of Arizona journalism student who is an apprentice at the Star. Contact her at metro@tucson.com.

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County gets $1.7M HUD grant to rehab lead-tainted homes - Arizona Daily Star