Yuck! You've discovered cockroaches in your kitchen, bedroom, everywhere. But they've been around for some 320 million years, so what's new?  What's new is that recent studies show that the filthy pests can cause the chronic breathing disorder of asthma, especially among youths in America's inner-city neighborhoods. 

In other words, they directly affect family, health, and home.  That's because roach feces, saliva, eggs, and outer covering, or cuticles, left behind on surfaces contain substances that are allergenic to humans, especially those with asthma or other respiratory conditions.  The health issue was deemed extremely important in consumer focus groups conducted for the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), which is interested in learning about perceptions of the pest control industry.  They found that consumers like the promise of a "safer, healthier living environment. "It's not just cockroaches that cause health concerns.  Pests of all types can transmit a host of diseases to humans and animals with effects ranging from minor discomfort to death.  Diseases spread by pests include bubonic plague, cholera, dengue, dysentery, hantavirus, Lyme disease, malaria, murine typhus, polio, rabies, food poisoning, staph, strep, tapeworms, tuberculosis and typhoid fever.  Even the friendly ladybug may not be so harmless after all.  In a November 1999 clinical case study, ladybugs were shown to trigger severe asthma attacks in a man whose house became infested with thousands of the reddish orange beetles with black spots.  A handful of cases of nasal allergies triggered by ladybugs have been reported.  But experts agree about the ancient cockroach.  "They aren't just a social problem, they can also threaten health," says Richard J. Brenner, known in the field of entomology as "the roach expert."  He works at the Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology in Gainesville, Florida.  In all fairness to cockroaches (if that's possible), only a few of the more than 4,000 species in the world are household pests.  The German cockroach - the No. 1 indoor cockroach - and the brown-banded cockroach are the most troublesome species in the United States.  "Both species are strictly domestic and are therefore most commonly associated with humans and their structures," Brenner says.  While it's true that insecticides are used in roach control, the pest management industry is in the forefront of widespread efforts to reduce pesticide use through new technologies, precisely because of health and environmental concerns.  The result is called Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a process that goes beyond traditional pest management techniques.  Though centuries old, the latest IPM techniques have found broad-based support from the scientific community, government, and the pest management industry.  The NPMA has advocated IPM for years through seminars, publications, and by supporting its techniques nationwide.  Under the process, an IPM technician conducts thorough inspections of a site, monitoring pests and identifying the conditions contributing to those pests.  Only then does the technician take reasonable and effective action - called precision targeting - to control them and to prevent them from returning. "IPM is the springboard of pest management into the new century," says Mark Lacey, Director of Field Services for the NPMA.  "It is the smart way to conduct pest management."  The public's awareness of health concerns associated with pests was heightened in May, 1997 when the New England Journal of Medicine published a study showing that the common cockroach is a major cause of a growing asthma epidemic among inner-city youth and apparently prompts a majority of the most serious cases.  Asthma is a serious health concern.  Anything from dust to passing clouds to stress can induce the response that constricts the asthmatic's airways, leaving the victim with a frightening sensation of drowning in air.  It is a chronic ailment brought on by a barely understood combination of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors, including cockroaches.  According to the study, asthmatic children "have significantly more days of wheezing, missed school days, and nights with lost sleep, and their parents or other care givers were awakened during the night and changed their daytime plans because of the child's asthma significantly more frequently.   "In another study, the National Institute of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shows that among several allergens common in homes, cockroach allergens cause the most health problems for asthmatic children.  And in January, 1998, allergist David Rosenstreich of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and his colleagues reported spending a year studying 1,500 asthmatic children in eight different cities.  The result: kids with the worst cases of asthma, who suffered more frequent and acute attacks, were those with the most sensitivity and exposure to cockroaches.  "They had three times as many hospitalizations as other asthmatic children," says Rosenstreich.  "They had twice as many emergency visits, missed school more often, and woke up more often.  "The study also showed that high exposure to cockroaches also seems to boost a child's risk of developing asthma in the first place, by creating the allergy that eventually leads to the disorder.  The Rosenstreich study concludes that "People should make every effort to clean up their indoor environment and make it allergen-proof, especially the bedroom.   That will help kids with asthma, even if it doesn't cure it.  It's a safe and simple thing to do.  "And that's where a pest management professional enters the picture.  "For every bug in your home, there may be hundreds that you can't see," says NPMA's Lacey.  "Today's pest management methods are safe and effective when applied by a qualified professional. And regular use of pest management can guarantee you a safer, healthier living environment. So why take chances with you and your family?  "The NPMA focus groups seem to agree. As one participant said, "This is about the health of my family.  You can't put a cost on that. " Article courtesy of pestworld.org