The long saga of glyphosate approval and the recent announcement of the withdrawal of another product (carbendazim) have caused real concern amongst the amenity sector. It should have prompted everyone to fully consider and review their approaches to weed, pest and disease management using all existing techniques and optimising the use of available pesticides. We must all adopt a fully integrated approach to weed, pest and disease management.
It is clear that the review of pesticide actives has become much more stringent, in Europe, in recent years. It is all very risk averse, influenced strongly by powerful lobby groups and by economic and political considerations. European governments often are in office only due to coalitions and this can influence decision-making greatly. In the case of glyphosate re-approval this was, I believe, a major factor.
Hence, we as turf and amenity managers must ensure we approach the need to use pesticides in a responsible manner. Legislation requires anyone who uses pesticides in the course of employment or business to have received adequate instruction and to be competent in the duties undertaken. This requirement applies to both the safe use and handling of pesticides and the application method(s) used. In most cases, each user will need to undertake the Principles of Safe Handling & Application of Pesticides (PA1) plus a relevant application module.
A recent conversation with Ian Pryce, Short Course Co-ordinator at Harper Adams University, enabled me the chance to take both PA1 & PA6A Pesticide courses, something I have been meaning to do for a number of years.
Ian was soon back in touch with some dates for me to attend, and supplied a set of course notes to read and digest. Jon Spibey was the designated course trainer who delivered both the PA1 & PA6 courses.
The PA1 Course is focused on The Code of Practice for Using Plant Protection Products which states:- “By Law everyone who uses pesticides professionally must have received adequate training in using pesticides safely”.
Most of the day was centred on trainer explaining and discussing the core content, information to enable us to hopefully pass a multiple-choice exam paper at the end of the day. We were required to understand the following :-
Know the legislative requirements and codes of practice relating to the use of pesticides
Understand the relevance of product information
Know how to minimise the risk of human contamination and implement emergency procedures
Know how to store and transport pesticides safely
Know how to carry out an Environment risk assessment
Know how to manage and dispose of surplus pesticide and waste materials
Know the record keeping requirements
Know how to minimise the risk of environmental contamination and implement emergency procedures
The PA6 course, however, is focused on the safe use and handling of Pesticides when using pedestrian hand-held equipment.
The aim of the PA6 course was to ensure candidates can apply pesticides in a safe, effective manner and in accordance with current legislation. Learners are expected to read and understand pesticide labels, utilise a calculator to measure and calculate the area to be treated whilst ensuring correct quantities of pesticides are used.
I really enjoyed the practical side of the PA6 course, getting back to basics and learning how to inspect and conduct a dry and wet inspection of the knapsack sprayer, followed by gaining an understanding the importance of calibration and understanding the product label requirements.
The key point is to ensure you know how to calibrate the sprayer’s output; this is achieved by calculating your walking speed over 100 metres, in my case it was 84 seconds, measuring the spray width (1 metre) and the total output of the sprayer, the amount of water collected in a jug in 84 seconds (1.44 litres per 100m).
We were then tasked with spraying an area of 120 square metres and we needed to calculate the correct amount of water volume and pesticide required to spray this area. Based on the above calculations for the output of the knapsack sprayer and working to the product labels recommendations for Glyphosate 360, used in an amenity grassland situation, in this case, a recommended dose rate of (1.5 litres / hectare) was chosen for the target crop we will be spraying. Just for the record, the maximum dose rate allowed was (5 litre/ hectare), so we were working well inside the permitted limit. We also had to ensure we did not exceed the permitted total water volume stated in the label recommendation, which was set at between 80-250 litre/hectare. Based on this information we were now able to work out the precise amount of water and chemical required.
This was calculated at 1.72 litres of water and 17 millilitres of pesticide in the knapsack sprayer, using an Anvil green nozzle and pressure of 1 bar would ensure we were able to apply the correct dose rate to our test area. To help us achieve this we also set out a number of cones to ensure we did not miss or overdose any part of the test area.
After completing the two days of training, it was a case of revising and memorising the key statutory requirements of the legislation and codes of practice, H&S and understanding the key label recommendations and practicalities of using a knapsack sprayer under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH ).
We were then required to come back the following week to be assessed by A NPTC City & Guilds - qualified assessor and hopefully demonstrate our knowledge and understanding of how you can safely apply pesticides in a safe, effective manner in accordance with current legislation. I am pleased to say I passed both PA1 and PA6 courses and would like to thank Harper Adams University for delivering a well-run and managed pesticide course.
