What’s the Law? Pesticide Drift
Continued from page 3
What are the rules regarding ground spraying near
residences?
Unlike aerial applications, ground spraying equipment may
legally spray up to a property’ line, but care should be made to
not allow drift from the target area. According to the regulations,
"No person shall apply a pesticide(s) under such conditions
that drift from pesticide (s) particles or vapors results in
adverse effect. ” Adverse effect is defined in the aerial rule to
mean "personal injury, damage to personal property’, damage
to real property, damage to the environment or any combination
of these. ”
Do the rules vary depending on the chemical used?
The law only addresses specific pesticides and “restricted
areas’’ under its aerial application regulations. However, each
pesticide's label addresses particular hazards and gives the
precautions needed to be followed.
How can wells and ground water be protected near
fields where pesticides are used?
Again, the label of a pesticide will address special concerns
about a product. Products that are known to leach easily and/or
have been detected in wells have very’ specific distances as to
how close they > can be applied to wells and other water
sources. If production areas or pesticide use areas are above
the well, channel runoff from those areas away from the well.
Furthermore, some labels have prohibitions on how close to
wells, streams, rivers, natural or impounded lakes and reservoirs
pesticides can be mixed and loaded. Best management practices
should be implemented to prevent pesticides from moving
toward a well. This includes having adequate buffers around
a well to prevent runoff or drift to it. Any spills that occur
should be cleaned up immediately. Keep an emergency spill
response kit near mix/load sites and storage areas so that
spills can be cleaned up quickly. Precautions should be taken to
prevent people who are not involved in the cleanup and animals
from being at the spill site and its vicinity. People involved in the
cleanup should wear the proper personal protective equipment.
If the recovered spilled pesticide cannot be applied to a
labeled pesticide site not exceeding the label rate for that site,
the material must be disposed of according to federal or state
procedures.
Who can test well water?
Having your well tested for contaminates including pesticides,
bacteria and nitrates is a good idea, especially if there is a
high potential for contamination. Most county health depart¬
ments will take a sample and send it to the N.C. Department
of Health and Human Services for analysis. You need to inform
the lab of the specific chemicals you want the water sample
tested for. If the N.C. Department of Health and Human
Services is unable to analyze for a specific pesticide, you will
need to have your sample analyzed by a commercial (private)
lab that can analyze for the pesticides that concern you.
How' do you wash clothes that are constantly exposed to
chemicals? Are there special precautions to take?
Clothing worn while working with pesticides or suspected
of having pesticide residues should be laundered separately
from family laundry after each use, using both prerinse and
regular washing cycles. Heavily contaminated clothing
should be discarded. Ideally, a washing machine dedicated to
farm clothing would be the best. In lieu of that, washing the
work clothes separate from other clothing and then running
the washing machine through a cycle empty > may prevent the
family’s clothing from being exposed. The proper use of
personal protective equipment will also aid in the prevention
of contaminated clothes. Any clothing that has been contami¬
nated with pesticides, for example from a spill, should be
disposed of properly, because the clothes may expose you and
others to excessive residues.
For additional information or answers to other pesticide-
related questions, please call the NCDA&CS Structural Pest
Control and Pesticides Division, (919) 733-3556, or
e-mail your questions to the division director, Jim Burnette:
james.bumette@ncmail.net.
1101 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1101
June 2007 official Newsletter for Norm Carolina Cold Star Growers v°|u™ 27
Inside This Edition
* Tuberculosis
(ТВ)
and Migrant Farm
Workers
* What’s the Law?
Pesticide Drift
нспаСЧГ
Cherie Berry
Commissioner of Labor
Agricultural Safety
and Health Bureau
Regina Luginbuhl
Bureau Chief
1101 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1101
1-800-625-2267
www.nclabor.com
Stay in touch with today's
workplace issues.
Sign up to receive a free subscription
to the NC Labor Ledger at
w ww.nclabor.com/news/ledgersubs.htm
Printed
6/07
1,500 copies of this public
document were printed at a
cost of S135, or S.09 per copy.
Gold Star Grower Survey: N.C. Growers Share Ideas
About Heat Stress, Heat Stroke
In 2005, four agricultural workers died from
heat stroke in North Carolina. Three of the four
were here on the guest worker program and
came with visas and passports and permission to
work on North Carolina farms.
In 2006, three agricultural workers died from
heat stroke in North Carolina. One was a guest
worker.
What happened? How did a preventable
incident — heat stress — escalate into heat stroke
and death? We decided to ask you, the employers,
about your ideas regarding heat stress prevention.
Our survey, conducted in December 2006,
was sent to 1,000 North Carolina growers and
resulted in a response rate of 36 percent. All
results were anonymous. Based on your
responses, we'll make suggestions to help you
promote safe health practices. Our goal is to
prevent heat stress and heat stroke on your farm,
on all farms. With the survey, we learned a lot.
We hope to share what we learned with you.
We learned that you, as the grower/farm
owner/operator, also suffered from heat. Many
of you have become sick from the heat your¬
selves. We know that you’re used to working
outside. You’ve done it for years. The day begins
and you have a lot to do. It’s July and hot and
steamy. Here’s what one respondent wrote:
“I had heat stroke the summer of 2005. I’ve
always worked outside. We took precautions
but I was the one who got way too hot. The
experience of the workers is what saved me.
They realized I had a problem before I knew it.
They helped me. I was so sick it took almost 2
'/2
months to recover! I now know that I was a
victim of heat stroke — if the men had not
warned me I could have died!”
Let’s look at some totals:
45 percent — or 165 —
responses indicating they,
the grower, had experi¬
enced heat stress or heat
stroke, cither while doing
farm work or in a non¬
farm activity.
2 1 percent of the total
responses stated “never”
when asked how often
they used one to four
methods on the survey
(“To prevent a heat
emergency”).
49 percent of respon¬
dents shortened or
changed their normal
work schedule to com¬
pensate for high heat
and humidity.
41 percent of growers
allow their workers
always or often to accli¬
mate to the heat and
humidity before begin¬
ning work full-time.
20 percent of respon¬
dents never provide
caffeinated beverages.
92 percent of growers
encourage their workers
to drink water always or
often.
Most growers who responded believe that the
H2A provider conducts or provides adequate
training. Some indicated that migrant health
clinicians provide training. Other comments
included:
“When I observe health problems, it is usually
too late. Workers should have health screening.”
What can you do? Many of you are already
doing a lot. But ask yourselves these questions:
Have your workers been trained? Ask them.
Four guest workers have died from heat stroke
in the past few years. Ask your H2A provider
exactly what training is provided. Be sure to
give the workers the NCDOL heat stress poster
or the green guide book we published on safety
and health for agricultural workers, the Guia.
Make sure they read the information and under-
Continued on page 2
