Pesticides are widely used in most type of farm work where any fruit or vegetable is grown in addition to other chemical or hazardous products.
Most health and safety legislation will include specific measures in relation to pesticides, in order to make sure that they are handled safely, and at the risk of anyone being exposed to them can be minimised or eliminated altogether.
One thing that is likely to be included in most health and safety legislation is that young workers, normally those aged under sixteen, possibly older, are normally excluded from being allowed to be involved in any work that involves the handling or use of pesticides.
Even allowing for any such regulation, it is possible that youth workers may come into contact with areas of the farm that have been treated with pesticides, and these areas should be flagged up as a potential hazard and signed or cordoned off appropriately.
Risk Assessment
The priority for any farm management is to assess who is most at risk from being involved with pesticides. In general there are two categories of people. Those who work with their hands in fields, forests or nurseries etc and those who handle pesticides in any agricultural operation, such as people who transport, mix or apply pesticides to any particular product.
Legislation
A lot of health and safety legislation is quite specific in the area of pesticides as to the responsibilities of the employer and what any employee can legitimately expect the employer to do.
Failure to comply with any particular legislation is likely to result in heavy fines and even possibly imprisonment for an employer, if the pesticide poisoning is particularly severe for any individual employee.
Signage
Specific notification to employees that pesticides are being used in a particular area is crucial, and certainly best practise for any employer is to give employees as much information as possible, in as timely a fashion as possible.
Notification should be verbal, oral and in writing as well. This can include signs being posted in areas where pesticides are going to be used, and ideally e-mail or text notifications to employees as well
Training
Anyone involved in the handling of pesticides needs to have specific training as to what type is being used, the potential risks associated with it, how these risks can be managed, and if there are any short or long term symptoms of potential poisoning or other health risks associated with the specific pesticide.
Emergency assistance
Given that most farms and agricultural businesses are quite remote and difficult to access for normal emergency response teams, specific measures need to be put in place to deal with any particular incident or emergency that may arise.
Pre-planning is possible because most of the risks and type of incidents associated with a specific pesticide can normally be known in advance, allowing for an employer to make proper and appropriate facilities and emergency care available.
Decontamination Facilities
Legislation should require an employer to provide both proper decontamination facilities and proper PPE for anyone handling or dealing with pesticides.
This should be done well in advance of any pesticides being used and anyone involved in their use should be fully aware of the requirements, both before and after application of pesticides to any product being grown on the farm or in any area where the pesticide is going to be used.
Restricted Entry Interval
Alongside signs and posters advising where and when pesticides are going to be used, there should also be signage advising for how long the specific area should be avoided once pesticides have been used there.
The time period can vary, but normally ranges from a few hours up to several days. This is a really important requirement as it will advise all employees who may be anywhere in the facility that pesticides have been used, and for a specific time period that work area should be avoided.
Given that there are a large number of specific requirements that are normally included in health and safety legislation relating to pesticides, there is often a provision in the legislation that an employee has the right to refuse to do the work if these conditions had not been put in place.
Such a commitment in legislation can be really important as there may be pressure on an employee to go ahead with certain work even if not all the necessary safety provisions have been put in place, and it is often extremely helpful if there is some legal framework that gives them the right to refuse.
