Legislative Update – By Jim Steed, Chair of the Legislative Committee, PAPCO and Third Vice President

This year has produced one of the most challenging anti-pesticide bills introduced to the state legislature in the last decade. AB 2596 Bloom sought to ban the use of nearly all rodenticides in the state of California. Animal rights groups, lead by Poison Free Malibu, assert that the damage to wildlife from secondary poisoning (eating rodents that have consumed bait) is unacceptable and the only resolution is to ban the use of rodenticides throughout the state.

The Federal EPA and Cal EPA have looked very hard at rodenticides over the last 10 years and put in place several new guidelines for the use of rodenticides. The activists feel that these measures have failed and so they have pressured Mr. Blooms office to present a ban statewide.

PCOC has tried to engage the sponsors of the bill in a dialogue about improving the stewardship of rodenticides, but we were told that only an outright ban would be satisfactory.

We then went to work with a broad coalition of pest industry and food and ag industry partners to convince lawmakers that this was a colossally stupid idea. The bill received so much opposition that Mr. Bloom decided to withdraw the bill for this year and regroup.

We expect to see the bill re-introduced next January or February. We are continuing to maintain our broad coalition and take some pro-active steps as a responsible industry. NPMA is putting together an online course that should be available to all California PCOs in September or October. PCOC is dedicating district meeting training in October to the topic of rodenticides, and we have also just established a brand new partnership with University of California Irvine to create a west coast rodent academy.

If this bill is reintroduced and is successfully passed next year the consequences WILL be devastating. We need to come together with the full strength of our combined industry to ensure success. For this, two things are needed.

#1 — Support PAPCO. PAPCO is our political action committee and the money end of our efforts. Donations to PAPCO help fund the donations that we make to politicians and support our professional lobbyist and supports important activities like Legislative Days. Please make sure that you make your Club 99 donations and support PAPCO fundraisers.

#2 — Plan on attending Legislative Days next spring. There is only one thing that speaks louder than money in the Capitol and that's the voice of voters. Make it a point to come join us in Sacramento and carry this message first hand to the politicians from your hometown.

Thanks for all of the hard work that you have done already. It's been a great year, but there is a tougher fight waiting for us next year and we need to rise up to this challenge.

James Steed

PAPCO Chair

Legislative Chair

Pest Control Operators of California
www.pcoc.org

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