Issues & Events

What’s Going on Around Capital Square?
By Belinda Jones, Legislative Counsel - Capitol Consulting Group

If you have not noticed by now, 2010 is an election year. As such, the Ohio General Assembly has recessed for summer. Your elected officials and their opponents are busy running for office in the districts. While things are quiet in Columbus, we thought it would be good to update you on where things stand on a few issues that we had been working on before the break.

By way of issue introduction, you might be interested to know that Ohio Professional Applicators for Responsible Regulation (OPARR) maintains a working “status sheet” of bills that we monitor on your behalf.

Slightly over 1,000 bills are introduced every General Assembly (every two years). Our firm reads all new bill introductions and if we think they may have even an ancillary connection to OPARR members, we put the bill number on the status sheet. As you might guess, any bill that pertains to pesticides or fertilizers is automatically on the watch list. We also put some bills that have small business applications (like a tax change for golf courses or a workers’ compensation bill). Although hundreds of bills are introduced, only a small percentage of those bills are passed. But the fact that they are introduced requires us to “keep our eyes on them.” By and large, most bills on the status sheet are under the status marked “monitoring” - meaning we are not taking an active position on the bill as of now. However, when a bill is starting to get hearings, the OPARR board will discuss the bill and decide whether we need to take a position on a bill and/ or take action on a bill. 

For example, bills pertaining to bed bugs are on an elevated status. Senate Resolution 132, sponsored by Sen. Eric Kearney (D-Cincinnati), and its companion House Resolution 182, sponsored by Rep. Dale Mallory (D-Cincinnati), urges the Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant an emergency exemption for the use of propoxur to control bed bugs in Ohio. After hearing strong testimony in support of the resolutions from the Ohio Department of Agriculture and Lonnie Alonso, president of Columbus Pest Control Inc. and chairman of the OPARR, both resolutions were voted out of the environment committees considering them in both the House and Senate in mid-May. We will be working hard when session resumes after the fall election for a full floor vote of both resolutions in the House and Senate.

The hearings on the resolutions gave OPMA and OPARR a good chance to testify before the committees and heighten legislative awareness of not only bed bugs but the importance of the pest control industry. Additionally, this visibility has helped us on the regulatory side of the equation as we have been active in a Strickland Administration Bedbug Workgroup. In fact the workgroup participation of OPMA President Andrew Christman and Lonnie Alonso has been instrumental in “steering the ship” and helping the Strickland Administration gain a broad understanding of the problem (see separate story on page XX, “Strickland Responds to USEPA”). 

Even so, Rep. Mallory still has his eyes on another bill, HB 201. HB 201, legislation sponsored by Rep. Mallory, also is pending in the Ohio General Assembly. The bill establishes the Bedbug Awareness, Education and Prevent Program to provide information to the public about the problem and to require boards of health to adopt vermin control policies. The bill makes a $335,000 appropriation for the creation of the program and has had one hearing in the House Finance and Appropriations Committee.  We are also working closely with Representative Mallory on this proposal and will keep you informed of additional hearings and discussions on this bill after the election.

Of coutse OPARR is not just limited to bed bug bills, we also monitor turfgrass bills, for example SB 51. SB 51 was introduced by Sen. Sue Morano (D-Lorain). SB 51 designates the last week in May “Ohio Turfgrass Week.” This bill is marked “support” on the status sheet and OPARR, OLCA and others have written letters, testified in support in committee, etc. The bill passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee, passed out of the Ohio Senate, passed out of the House Agriculture Committee and is currently sitting idle in the House Rules Committee. The House Rules Committee determines which bills are put on the House floor. In general, Ohio House Speaker Armond Budish (D-Cleveland), who chairs the Rules Committee, does not like to put “naming” bills on the floor (for fear that voters might not think a mere naming bill is worth the taxpayer’s time). Still, OPARR supports SB 51 because the hearings have given us the chance, in testimony and letters, to tell legislators the economic, environmental and historic importance of turfgrass in Ohio. 

Finally, we monitor bills that affect other areas of your business like workers’ compensation. Hearings of the Competitive Workers’ Compensation Task Force chaired by Senator Tim Grendell (R-Chesterland) continue over the summer recess. This task force was created after the passage of Senate Resolution 118 passed by a party line vote to review the feasibility of allowing employers the option to obtain private insurance to insure their obligations under the workers’ compensation system of Ohio. The committee met in June and heard testimony from two attorneys advocating for a public system. The committee is expected to meet again in August. A report of the task force is due December 31, 2010.

For more information on any of these bills, please contact Belinda Jones at bjones@capitol-consulting.net.

Ohio, OPARR, OPMA and MCS!
By Rich Kozlovich, Chairman, OPMA Editorial Review Committee

Recently, there was a naming bill introduced into the Ohio Senate to officially name a month of the year the “Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome Awareness Month.” Fortunately through some legislative legerdemain that I don’t understand, this bill was put on hold. However, as I understand it was done in such a way that may allow for it to come up again. As a result, I think it worthwhile to explore the whole concept of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS).

When someone is diagnosed with “Multiple chemical sensitivities syndrome,” life changes radically. Dr Ronald E. Gots, executive director of Environmental Sensitivities Research Institute in Rockville, Maryland, a clearinghouse for scientific data, notes that “this is the beginning of a downward spiral of fruitless treatments.”

He goes on to say; “Unlike many ‘alternative medical practices,’ the diagnosis of MCS begins a downward spiral of fruitless treatments, culminating in withdrawal from society and condemning the sufferer to a life of misery and disability. This is a phenomenon in which the diagnosis is far more disabling than the symptoms.”

• One woman “hangs her mail on a clothesline for weeks before reading it, to allow the toxins in the ink to dissipate.”
• Another woman tried living in a six-by-nine-foot porcelain hut, but now just spends almost all her time on her porch, no matter how cold it gets.
• Yet another wears a protective mask while shopping but still develops breathlessness, palpitations, and vomiting when she smells gasoline fumes.

What exactly are the symptoms? According to one MCS supporter, “the illness can cause all the symptoms of every disease or disorder known [in] psychology, psychiatry, and the general medical profession.” One group studying the claims made by those who support the existence of this affliction listed the following symptoms:

sneezing, itching, twitching, numbness, difficulty swallowing, hoarseness, earache, chest pain, easy bruising, high or low blood pressure, sore muscles, cramps, eczema, heavy eyes, blurred vision, dyslexia, frequent urination, genital itching, PMS, backache, nausea, belching, constipation, hunger, thirst, headaches, apathy, forgetfulness, insomnia, IQ drop, depression, bitter or sweet slime in mouth, heat sensitivity, cold sensitivity, stiffness, swelling, neck pain, anxiety attacks, agitation, liver pain, hair loss, premature gray hair, brain fog, and genital sweating.

The paper went on to say, “Unfortunately this is not a complete list of symptoms.” If you haven’t suffered at least a dozen of the listed symptoms in the past year, you’re probably an android.

Apparently, there is no limit to the number of symptoms. If the number of symptoms are unlimited; what about the causes? The sky is the limit for causes also! Virtually anything and everything is claimed to be sources of causation.

“formaldehyde (found in furniture glue, particle board, and synthetic carpeting, pesticides, solvents, acrylic resins, mercury compounds, polyester, latex, gasoline, glues, paints, detergents and other cleaners, tobacco smoke, perfumes, newspaper print, hair cream, oral contraceptives, dry-cleaning solvents, and bleach. But the etiology of MCS goes beyond synthetic agents. It is claimed that MCS can be caused by viruses, molds, bacteria, and pollens.”

According to Herman Staudenmayer, a Denver psychologist and MCS skeptic, “There’s no chemical that is safe. There’s no food that is safe.” Gots went on to explain how MCS can become ‘trendy.’ “Support groups are contagious. They tell everybody what all the things are that give them symptoms, and that’s a contagious thing to do.”

This is an incurable affliction because it cannot be defined by the treatment. Let me explain. If I claim to have a sore throat and the doctor gives me an antibiotic, and the antibiotic works, then I had a sore throat. And the “cure” proves it is a sore throat because it works. “MCS is not considered a curable disease, and the treatments are as diverse as the symptoms and causes.” Those who claim to have MCS are probably more afflicted by the cures than the symptoms. There are about 400 believing practitioners providing services…unending services…to those who claim to be afflicted with this ailment. What do they do?

• One Maryland physician “prescribes a combination of the drugs phentermine and fenfluramine for MCS, which are actually weight loss drugs in the amphetamine family.”
• One doctor prescribes a “macrobiotic diet – based on grains and vegetables, free of wheat and dairy products,” making the claim that “it works by detoxifying the body, especially critical in today’s toxin-ridden world.”
• “Another clinical ecologist reportedly agrees with the macrobiotic diet but also recommends avoiding tap water, caffeine, and alcohol. He tells MCS sufferers to rid their homes of toxic chemicals such as cleaners and pesticides, improve the ventilation system, and avoid all drugs, whether prescription or over the counter.”
  
  ·Saunas supposedly ‘sweat out toxins.’ “But you can’t sweat out a toxin, because the sweat glands aren’t connected to any of the organs that process toxins.”
  
  ·         “Other treatments include coffee enemas, something called ‘salt-neutralization therapy,’ gamma globulin, interferon, vitamins, ginseng, and the patient’s urine (as a beverage or injection).”
  
  ·         This is the one I find most fascinating!  “A Sacramento-area specialist treats many of his patients with injections of ‘the north wind.’ He bubbles air through water, then injects the water as a ‘neutralizer.’ Why the north wind? Because many of his patients complain they feel worse when the wind blows from that direction.”