[Safety Issues] Proceed with Caution!

When carefully and wisely used, pesticides benefit human beings and our environment. Pesticides have made it possible to produce and protect higher quality food and fiber. They’ve made it possible to protect various structures. They can be safely transported, stored and applied…but when these same chemicals are misused or accidentally spilled they can become hazardous to humans, animals and plants. The pest control industry, more than most, knows these facts.

“A pesticide spill can happen to anyone, so it’s very important to do some careful pre-planning on how to safely and quickly respond on the possibility that it will happen to you.” That’s the advice Fred Whitford, director of Purdue Pesticide Programs, gave attendees during his session at the NPMA PestWorld conference, held in Dallas last year.

“Your emergency preparedness — or lack of it — will have a direct impact on the severity of the spill. By that I mean the degree of injury and/or contamination the spill will cause,” he said.

HYPOTHETICALLY SPEAKING. Whitford enlisted the aid of several audience members and did some role playing with them. He had them react to a hypothetical pesticide spill and asked them questions designed to bring out these important points:

• A small liquid pesticide spill from leaky application equipment should be cleaned up immediately, no matter how it occurs. 
• Confine the spill and absorb the chemical with kitty litter or another absorbent material. 
• Once all of the liquid is absorbed, bag the absorbent and dispose of it according to state and federal regulations.

“It takes a team approach, however, to deal with a major spill,” Whitford added. “If that happens, don’t panic. Exercise common sense and keep calm. That will help you through the worst of spills. To be effective, a company’s spill response must be built around its employees, including supervisors, applicators and office staff. They must all work as a team to address the crisis.”

SIX KEY STEPS. According to Whitford, there are six important steps to take in the event of a major pesticide spill:

Step 1: Be concerned about human and environmental safety. “If an injured person is involved and can’t be initially moved, call 911 and perform CPR if you are able. Don’t move an injured party unless his or her life is in danger,” Whitford said. “If possible, remove anyone exposed to the pesticide from the site and see to their proper treatment.”

Step 2: Assess and evaluate the accident. “Determine the pesticide involved in the accident. Make sure you know the name of the product, type of formulation, active ingredient, and the manufacturer’s name and address. The product label or MSDS should always be consulted immediately for the proper procedure for controlling a spill,” he said. “For easy access, it’s important to have your MSDS sheets collected in a binder on your truck. That binder should be arranged alphabetically by product name.”

Step 3: Stop the leak at its source. “The third step is to stop the leak at its source if you are qualified to do so. Your main objective is to contain the spill by preventing it from getting into drains or ditches and contaminating water,” Whitford said. “Never hose down a pesticide spill with water. This will only spread the contamination.”

Whitford said it is wise to keep a shovel on your truck. With it you can possibly dam up the spill on the ground. Shut down broken or malfunctioning equipment and seal any leaking containers.

Soak up the spilled pesticide with any of the commercially available various spill control products or other absorbent materials listed in the MSDS. “But never put yourself or others at risk,” Whitford said. “Keep people away from the spill and wear appropriate safety equipment.”

Step 4: Contact your corporate office as soon as the spill has been contained and report all pertinent details about the accident. “In the team effort we mentioned, depending on the type of spill, your office personnel should immediately contact police or fire officials and the appropriate state authorities,” Whitford said.

In addition, the office staff should call the manufacturer, locate the pertinent MSDS in the company files, and call 911 to confirm that they have been contacted, he added.

“Management’s role in this team effort is to go immediately to the spill site and bring appropriate information and supplies from the office,” Whitford said. “The manager should be prepared to deal with the authorities by providing information as accurately as possible. Federal law dictates that any spill of materials listed on the DOT HAZMAT list must be reported immediately to the National Response Center if they are at or above the Reportable Quantity level. Additionally, management should immediately phone your company’s insurance carrier.”

Step 5: Correct spill cleanup procedure. “You must dispose of hazardous waste products used in a cleanup per local, state and federal hazardous waste requirements,” Whitford said. “Shovel all contaminated material into leak-proof containers and dispose of them in an appropriate landfill or hazardous waste facilities as instructed by authorities. Spills that occur indoors should be ventilated for several hours to get rid of pesticide odors.”

Step 6: Proper media relations. The sixth step, according to Whitford, is proper media relations. “Do not talk to news reporters that come on the spill scene, unless you have been instructed by your management to do so,” he said. “There are obvious legal and public relations ramifications to this. So be very careful.”

The author is a writer based in Milwaukee, and can be reached at jfox@giemedia.com.