If you listen to the news or read some of the popular magazines or papers, you might be led to believe that there is a rampant use of pesticides in America. You might form an opinion that farmers are spraying lots of everything on all their crops and animals, that businesses are spraying everything in sight, and that homeowners are randomly using pesticides for everything.

I will be the first to admit that without a doubt, there is some abuse to the proper use of pesticides. Some businesses might dump pesticides illegally, some homeowners may find ways to obtain pesticides they should not have and then use them improperly, and some farmers may intentionally apply a pesticide improperly in hopes of stopping a devastating insect or disease. But these instances are rare. In America, the purchase and the use of pesticides are highly regulated and highly monitored.

This is unlike, in many other countries, where there are very minimum regulations and essentially no monitoring of what pesticides are used for and how they are used. This is why I have some real concerns about the need for every American to take a very proactive stance at making sure we have a strong agricultural production system in America, so we do not have to rely on exports from other countries for the foods we eat or the agricultural products we use.

Here in the United States, pesticides are screened and approved by the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protective Association. Then pesticides are regulated by both of these agencies as well as the United States Department of Agriculture. Here in North Carolina, the final regulations for the sale, purchase, and use of pesticides are handled by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture.

By their formulation and by their concentrations, some pesticides are much more toxic than others. These products are identified as Restricted-Use Pesticides (RUP). Anyone, including farmers, who wishes to purchase or use these products must have the proper certification card or license to do so. Just anyone cannot go into a store and buy these products. Anyone without the proper certification/license caught using these products is subject to fines of $10,000 or more and the possibility of prison.

Dealers who sell Restricted-Use Pesticides or commercial applicators who apply Restricted-Use Pesticides for others must have a special license to do so. To obtain a license, they must attend training classes, pass a written test, and then attend a certain number of hours of training each year in order to renew their license. The license is very specific. There are different requirements for crop pesticides, animal pesticides, ornamental pesticides, right-of-way pesticides, aquatic pesticides, structural pesticides, pesticides applied with airplanes, et cetera.

Farmers also must have a special Private Applicators certification card in order to purchase and use Restricted-Use Pesticides. With this certification, they can purchase these products to use for their own farm operations, and they can apply these products in their own farm operations. They cannot legally purchase these products and then go apply them for other farmers or for businesses or homeowners.

Until now, farmers have had to simply attend a four-hour training session in order to obtain their Private Applicator's certification card and then attend a two-hour training session every three years to renew the card. If they ever let their certification lapse, they were required to pass a written test in order to get their certification back.

Effective October 1, 2002, the regulations for farmers will change. In order to receive their certification card for the first time, they will be required to pass a written exam. Then they will be required to attend a minimum of one two-hour training session on pesticide safety and an additional two-hour training session related to the proper selection and the proper use of pesticides on the farm. As in the past, if they let their certification lapse, they will need to take a written exam to get their certification back.

Those wishing to secure a Private Pesticide certification card prior to the new regulations being implemented are encouraged to attend the Pesticide Certification meeting scheduled for Tuesday, September 24, from 6 to 10 p.m. at the O. P. Owens Agriculture Center, Highway 72 West, Lumberton. Contact Charlie Lowery, pesticide educator on the Extension staff, by calling 671-3276 to register. He may also be contacted for more information about various licenses, the proper use of pesticides, and information about training classes offered here in Robeson County or other places in the region.

Why don't all these regulations apply to homeowners who can go to a garden center, purchase from a selection of hundreds of different weed or bug killers, and then go home and start spraying? Products that are allowed to be sold to homeowners are the very least toxic that will provide results for the intended pest. In addition, they are very diluted. If you look at the tiny print on the ingredients section of the label, you will see that often the amount of actual pesticide in the container is much less than one percent. All the rest of the stuff in the container is "inert," meaning it is just something like a water carrier.

If you use pesticides, use them wisely. If you need more information, contact us.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 9/20/02