[The Real Olympics] An Olympic-Size Job

The 2012 Olympic Games take place in London this summer (July 27-Aug. 12) amidst a storm of financial controversy and a flurry of excitement. The U.K.’s population has gone mad for tickets and merchandising and the potential boost to tourism has been trumpeted all over the media.

But could the Games be bringing more than just human tourists?

Back in 2009, U.K. pest control expert Clive Boase warned that the 2012 Olympics ran the risk of being known as the “Bed Bug Olympics.” He was talking at PestEx, U.K.’s premier pest control event, and warned that if the U.K. didn’t make adequate plans it could be overrun with unwanted guests.

Since then, what has been done to ensure London is known more for its basketball than its bugs?

Under Control. The Olympic Village is the biggest urban regeneration project in Europe in more than 150 years, with approximately £1.4 billion (about $2.2 billion) being spent on the “Big 5” venues within the Olympic Park: the 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium; the Aquatics Centre; the Velopark; the Athletes’ Village; and a new broadcast and press center. There are also redevelopments planned in the wider area, with 3,600 new homes within the village and 9,000 new homes in the Olympic Park area.

It’s all exciting but how much of this extensive budget has been spent on pest control?

Simon Forrester is CEO of the British Pest Control Association, the U.K. trade association for the pest control industry. He thinks there has been an adequate level of planning. “As with all aspects of the Olympics, planning regarding pest activity has been extensive and has been ongoing for some time,” he said. “A number of pest control companies and local authorities have been involved in the proactive planning and control of pest species prior to and during the Olympics.”

To this end, a 2012 Public Health Steering Group was set up, jointly chaired by the Health Protection Agency and NHS London and looking at, among other things, environmental public health. And, in 2008, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) visited Beijing to see how the Chinese managed it.

Currently, Joint Local Authority Regulatory Services (JLARS) is in charge of auditing pest control for the Games. JLARS is a body formed by the Olympic Park Host Boroughs (Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest Councils) and the Olympic Delivery Authority to co-ordinate and standardize local authority regulatory service delivery. While JLARS is auditing the pest control, each contractor venue operator has arranged the individual contracts.

But it must be remembered that pests are superb adaptors and when an opportunity arises, they will rapidly infest and contaminate sites. “Whenever large amounts of new building and renovation work occurs, the potential for pest activity is increased as such works often involve heavy alteration to drain and sewage systems,” Forrester said. “Drain systems can offer pests easy access into properties and populated areas, and deficiencies and damage to drain and sewage systems often only become obvious many months or even years after building work is complete. Similarly, the Olympic site is built on a reclaimed post-industrial zone with large amounts of docks, empty warehousing and wasteland nearby.”

Olympic activity centers on London’s river, the Thames. This warm, damp area can be the perfect breeding ground for rats and mosquitoes. Rodent-borne diseases also may be an issue in this area. The hot summer weather may produce ideal conditions for wasp activity, especially in areas with a lot of people, sweet spillages and waste, and garbage bins that may become overfilled or not emptied frequently. This in turn raises concerns over insect stings and allergic reactions.

A recent independent report on the public health issues posed by mosquitoes suggested that a construction project on the scale required for the 2012 Olympic Games — covering an area twice the size of London Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 — could easily have an impact on local mosquito populations.

The report also suggested that numbers travelling to East London will be unprecedented as well as the diversity of countries represented by the visitors. It warned that the city could very well see a major biting outbreak or an influx of people infected with mosquito-borne pathogens.

“Away from the Games themselves, when we consider accommodation and eating establishments then the risks to health are from food poisoning illness transferred via pests such as rats and cockroaches,” Forrester said. “Although it’s fair to say that bed bugs are not necessarily a public health pest, there is the obvious distaste associated with infested sleeping areas, and the concern that they can be carried to, and away from the Games.”

Paul Bates is managing director of London pest controllers Cleankil. “It’s not just the athletes, it’s journalists, spectators and tourists, many of whom will have made stops in several countries en route to the U.K.,” he said.

Bates adds, “Travelers with backpacks are often the ones who unknowingly transport bed bugs with them and one of the steps hotels can take to reduce the risk of infestation is to make guests leave their luggage in a designated area. Pest control experts see bed bugs as the main problem but cockroaches also could be on the increase as cockroach nymphs are very small and can hitchhike in the same way bed bugs can.”

Rentokil, a leading U.K. pest control company, has several contracts for pest control at London hotels. “In terms of pest control in the U.K., standards are generally very high,” says Rentokil’s Malcolm Padley. “For instance, every major hotel will have a pest control contract to keep out any unwanted guests. At Rentokil we have the latest tools to support customers from a new heat treatment product which raises the temperature of a room to beyond the point where bed bugs and other insects can survive. We have also just launched in the U.K. a new form of bird control [AviGo using chili extract] to keep the pigeons away from monuments and other places where birds can perch, with the natural consequences below them. They don’t return.”

In response to concerns at pest increases in the city’s hotels directly from the impact of the Games, the CIEH produced official guidance documents for the hospitality industry. The guidance provides pest identification and reporting guidelines for all hospitality workers as well as useful advice for further treatment.

From the volume of planning concerned, says Forrester, “We would like to think that all problems have been anticipated and prevention measures put in place. London (and the U.K.) is used to large events that draw in visitors in big numbers — just not anything on quite the scale of London 2012.”

The author is a U.K.-based writer and can be contacted at hdavis@giemedia.com.