April 2011
Regulatory Update: Dealer Manager Certification
As most everyone knows, the new Pennsylvania Pesticide Regulations were finally passed on December 11, 2010. One of the more significant changes included a new dealer manager certification. Each pesticide dealer location that sells restricted use products will need to have a certified “Dealer Manager” on staff. If an employee at the dealership already has a pesticide applicator certification, they can be "grandfathered" in as a “Certified Dealer Manager” for that location without taking the exam in this first year. Otherwise, an employee will need to take an exam, which will focus on storage, spills, toxicity, security, and relevant laws and regulations. Our office is working on developing a study manual to help prepare individuals for this exam. Unlike pesticide applicators, recertification credits will not be needed to maintain the dealer manager certification.
Poison Prevention Week
Chris Becker just finished coordinating and delivering a very successful Poison Prevention Week outreach program to urban areas. Actually, the week lasted the entire month of March. Chris invited Penn State Master Gardeners and extension educators to help us take the Poison Prevention message, which includes Mr. Yuk, to schools this year to reach kids in 1st grade. With the support of Master Gardeners, extension educators, and our staff, programs were presented in 29 schools in 9 counties and reached over 3,200 kids, a 300% increase over last year! Posters were shown in the classrooms to help kids recognize the signal words found not only on pesticides but also on common household products. Kids were given a homework assignment to work on with their parents/guardians to identify these products in their home and place a Mr. Yuk sticker on the product to remind them not to touch these products. Special thanks to the Master Gardeners, extension educators, and members of the Pesticide Education staff who helped Chris present these programs, and to our staff that assembled all the materials provided to the teachers and students (all 3,200 of them)!
Revised Fact Sheets Coming Soon
We are working very hard on revising our fact sheets. In the Pesticide Safety Fact Sheet series, the Pesticide Storage and Security fact sheet was revised and is now available in the Publication Distribution Center. We are currently working on revising the Transporting Pesticides in Pennsylvania and Spray Adjuvants fact sheets.
Updated Category Packets for Summer 2011
In addition, the following category materials are in the process of being updated: Category 10: Right-of-Way and Weeds; Category 12: Wood Destroying Pests; and Category 24: Swimming Pools. The goal is to have these materials updated and available by late summer 2011.
Follow Us on Social Media
We thought we were pretty current and mainstream with our blog (blog.pested.psu.edu), which started in January 2010. However, our hip, college-age, wage-payroll help talked us into having a facebook page (Search for Penn State Pesticide Education Page), a twitter account (twitter.com/PSUpested), and our own YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/PSUPested). These are pretty new concepts to our regular staff, so give us a little time to learn how we can best use these new tools.
And don’t forget our web page at pested.psu.edu!
Contact Information
We want to hear from you, so please contact us with your ideas, questions, thoughts, etc.
Kerry Richards, Director: kmh14@psu.edu
Sharon Gripp, Information Specialist: sgripp@psu.edu
