H-1551.1 _______________________________________________
HOUSE BILL 1775
_______________________________________________
State of Washington 55th Legislature 1997 Regular Session
By Representatives Cole, Conway, Cody, Fisher, Wood, Cooper, Hatfield, Romero, Blalock, Keiser, Mason, Wolfe, Boldt, Doumit, O'Brien, Tokuda, Murray and Lantz
Read first time 02/07/97. Referred to Committee on Agriculture & Ecology.
AN ACT Relating to notification of pesticide application; amending RCW 17.21.020; and adding a new section to chapter 17.21 RCW.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. RCW 17.21.020 and 1994 c 283 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.
(1) "Agricultural commodity" means any plant or part of a plant, or animal, or animal product, produced by a person (including farmers, ranchers, vineyardists, plant propagators, Christmas tree growers, aquaculturists, floriculturists, orchardists, foresters, or other comparable persons) primarily for sale, consumption, propagation, or other use by people or animals.
(2) "Agricultural land" means land on which an agricultural commodity is produced or land that is in a government-recognized conservation reserve program. This definition does not apply to private gardens where agricultural commodities are produced for personal consumption.
(3) "Apparatus" means any type of ground, water, or aerial equipment, device, or contrivance using motorized, mechanical, or pressurized power and used to apply any pesticide on land and anything that may be growing, habitating, or stored on or in such land, but shall not include any pressurized handsized household device used to apply any pesticide, or any equipment, device, or contrivance of which the person who is applying the pesticide is the source of power or energy in making such pesticide application, or any other small equipment, device, or contrivance that is transported in a piece of equipment licensed under this chapter as an apparatus.
(4) "Arthropod" means any invertebrate animal that belongs to the phylum arthropoda, which in addition to insects, includes allied classes whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs; for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and isopod crustaceans.
(5) "Certified applicator" means any individual who is licensed as a commercial pesticide applicator, commercial pesticide operator, public operator, private-commercial applicator, demonstration and research applicator, or certified private applicator, or any other individual who is certified by the director to use or supervise the use of any pesticide which is classified by the EPA or the director as a restricted use pesticide.
(6) "Commercial pesticide applicator" means any person who engages in the business of applying pesticides to the land of another.
(7) "Commercial pesticide operator" means any employee of a commercial pesticide applicator who uses or supervises the use of any pesticide and who is required to be licensed under provisions of this chapter.
(8) "Defoliant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to cause the leaves or foliage to drop from a plant with or without causing abscission.
(9) "Department" means the Washington state department of agriculture.
(10) "Desiccant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to artificially accelerate the drying of plant tissues.
(11) "Device" means any instrument or contrivance intended to trap, destroy, control, repel, or mitigate pests, but not including equipment used for the application of pesticides when sold separately from the pesticides.
(12) "Direct supervision" by certified private applicators shall mean that the designated restricted use pesticide shall be applied for purposes of producing any agricultural commodity on land owned or rented by the applicator or the applicator's employer, by a competent person acting under the instructions and control of a certified private applicator who is available if and when needed, even though such certified private applicator is not physically present at the time and place the pesticide is applied. The certified private applicator shall have direct management responsibility and familiarity of the pesticide, manner of application, pest, and land to which the pesticide is being applied. Direct supervision by all other certified applicators means direct on-the-job supervision and shall require that the certified applicator be physically present at the application site and that the person making the application be in voice and visual contact with the certified applicator at all times during the application. Direct supervision of an aerial apparatus means the pilot of the aircraft must be appropriately certified.
(13) "Director" means the director of the department or a duly authorized representative.
(14) "Engage in business" means any application of pesticides by any person upon lands or crops of another.
(15) "EPA" means the United States environmental protection agency.
(16) "EPA restricted use pesticide" means any pesticide classified for restricted use by the administrator, EPA.
(17) "FIFRA" means the federal insecticide, fungicide and rodenticide act as amended (61 Stat. 163, 7 U.S.C. Sec. 136 et seq.).
(18) "Fumigant" means any pesticide product or combination of products that is a vapor or gas or forms a vapor or gas on application and whose method of pesticidal action is through the gaseous state.
(19) "Fungi" means all nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophytes (all nonchlorophyll-bearing plants of lower order than mosses and liverworts); for example, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, and yeasts, except those on or in a living person or other animals.
(20) "Fungicide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any fungi.
(21) "Herbicide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any weed or other higher plant.
(22) "Immediate service call" means a landscape application to satisfy an emergency customer request for service, or a treatment to control a pest to landscape plants.
(23) "Indoor treatment" means an application by a certified applicator, commercial property owner, employer, administrator, building manager, or agent of the owner or employer of any environmental protection agency registered pesticide to any building including, but not limited to, a workplace, educational institution, day-care facility, public facility, or public housing, including multifamily dwellings. This definition does not apply to privately owned or rented single‑family homes. A treatment is an indoor treatment although the treatment may include an outside perimeter treatment of the building if the primary purpose of the treatment is to treat the interior of the building.
(24) "Insect" means any small invertebrate animal, in any life stage, whose adult form is segmented and which generally belongs to the class insecta, comprised of six-legged, usually winged forms, as, for example, beetles, bugs, bees, and flies. The term insect shall also apply to other allied classes of arthropods whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs, for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and isopod crustaceans.
(((24)))
(25) "Insecticide" means any substance or mixture of
substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any insect.
(((25)))
(26) "Land" means all land and water areas, including airspace
and all plants, animals, structures, buildings, devices, and contrivances,
appurtenant to or situated on, fixed or mobile, including any used for
transportation.
(((26)))
(27) "Landscape application" means an application by a
certified applicator of any EPA registered pesticide to any exterior landscape
plants found around residential property, commercial properties such as
apartments or shopping centers, parks, golf courses, schools including nursery
schools and licensed day cares, or cemeteries or similar areas. This
definition shall not apply to: (a) Applications made by certified private
applicators; (b) mosquito abatement, gypsy moth eradication, or similar
wide-area pest control programs sponsored by governmental entities; and (c)
commercial pesticide applicators making structural applications.
(((27)))
(28) "Nematocide" means any substance or mixture of substances
intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate nematodes.
(((28)))
(29) "Nematode" means any invertebrate animal of the phylum
nemathelminthes and class nematoda, that is, unsegmented round worms with
elongated, fusiform, or saclike bodies covered with cuticle, and inhabiting
soil, water, plants or plant parts. Nematodes may also be called nemas or
eelworms.
(((29)))
(30) "Person" means any individual, partnership, association,
corporation, or organized group of persons whether or not incorporated.
(((30)))
(31) "Pest" means, but is not limited to, any insect, rodent,
nematode, snail, slug, weed, and any form of plant or animal life or virus,
except virus, bacteria, or other microorganisms on or in a living person or
other animal or in or on processed food or beverages or pharmaceuticals, which
is normally considered to be a pest, or which the director may declare to be a
pest.
(((31)))
(32) "Pesticide" means, but is not limited to:
(a) Any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, control, repel, or mitigate any pest;
(b) Any substance or mixture of substances intended to be used as a plant regulator, defoliant or desiccant; and
(c) Any spray adjuvant, such as a wetting agent, spreading agent, deposit builder, adhesive, emulsifying agent, deflocculating agent, water modifier, or similar agent with or without toxic properties of its own intended to be used with any pesticide as an aid to the application or effect thereof, and sold in a package or container separate from that of the pesticide with which it is to be used.
(((32)))
(33) "Pesticide advisory board" means the pesticide advisory
board as provided for in this chapter.
(((33)))
(34) "Plant regulator" means any substance or mixture of
substances intended through physiological action, to accelerate or retard the
rate of growth or maturation, or to otherwise alter the behavior of ornamental
or crop plants or their produce, but shall not include substances insofar as
they are intended to be used as plant nutrients, trace elements, nutritional
chemicals, plant inoculants, or soil amendments.
(((34)))
(35) "Private applicator" means a certified applicator who
uses or is in direct supervision of the use of any pesticide classified by the
EPA or the director as a restricted use pesticide, for the purposes of
producing any agricultural commodity and for any associated noncrop application
on land owned or rented by the applicator or the applicator's employer or if
applied without compensation other than trading of personal services between
producers of agricultural commodities on the land of another person.
(((35)))
(36) "Private-commercial applicator" means a certified
applicator who uses or supervises the use of any pesticide classified by the
EPA or the director as a restricted use pesticide for purposes other than the
production of any agricultural commodity on lands owned or rented by the
applicator or the applicator's employer.
(((36)))
(37) "Residential property" includes property less than one
acre in size zoned as residential by a city, town, or county, but does not
include property zoned as agricultural or agricultural homesites.
(((37)))
(38) "Restricted use pesticide" means any pesticide or device
which, when used as directed or in accordance with a widespread and commonly
recognized practice, the director determines, subsequent to a hearing, requires
additional restrictions for that use to prevent unreasonable adverse effects on
the environment including people, lands, beneficial insects, animals, crops,
and wildlife, other than pests.
(((38)))
(39) "Rodenticide" means any substance or mixture of
substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate rodents, or any
other vertebrate animal which the director may declare by rule to be a pest.
(((39)))
(40) "Snails or slugs" include all harmful mollusks.
(((40)))
(41) "Unreasonable adverse effects on the environment" means
any unreasonable risk to people or the environment taking into account the
economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any
pesticide, or as otherwise determined by the director.
(((41)))
(42) "Weed" means any plant which grows where it is not
wanted.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 17.21 RCW to read as follows:
(1) A certified pesticide applicator making an indoor treatment shall:
(a) Post a pesticide notification sign at every entry point at least forty-eight hours before an indoor treatment and leave the sign posted at least one week after an indoor treatment;
(b) Provide a pesticide label and material safety data sheet to the property owner, employer, administrator, building manager, or agent of the owner or employer, or other responsible person, located on site with responsibility for providing the pesticide label and material safety data sheet upon request;
(c) Provide pesticide notification signs in a language other than English if requested by the property owner, employer, administrator, building manager, or agent of the owner or employer.
(2)(a) The director, principal, headmaster, president, or chief administrator of a school, educational institution, or day-care center shall inform students, parents, and guardians at the time of registration, and employees at the time of employment, that the school, educational institution, or day‑care center periodically provides indoor treatment, and that information on the indoor treatment is available at the request of each student, parent, guardian, or employee.
(b) The director, principal, headmaster, president, or chief administrator of a school, educational institution, or day-care center shall provide forty-eight hours written notice to students, parents, guardians, and employees of an indoor treatment. The notice must be substantially in the form required for a pesticide notification sign and may be distributed by mail or by hand delivery.
(3)(a) The certified applicator, property owner, employer, administrator, building manager, or agent of the owner or employer shall remove the pesticide notification sign no sooner than one week after indoor treatment. A certified applicator is not liable for the removal of a pesticide notification sign by unauthorized persons.
(b) The pesticide notification sign must be at least 8.5 inches by 11 inches using bold, upper-case twelve-point type with the following information:
(i) "WARNING PESTICIDES" as the header;
(ii) The trade and generic name of the pesticide;
(iii) The date and time of application;
(iv) The rate of application expressed in pounds;
(v) The area to be treated;
(vi) The name and phone number of the property owner, employer, administrator, building manager, or agent of the owner or employer;
(vii) The name of the certified applicator;
(viii) The name and phone number of the responsible party where the pesticide label and material safety data sheets may be obtained, if different from the property owner, employer, administrator, building manager, or agent of the owner or employer; and
(ix) A boxed-off warning stating: "CAUTION: Individuals taking medication, pregnant women, infants, children, and individuals with respiratory or heart disease, chemical sensitivities, or weakened immune systems may be particularly susceptible to adverse health effects due to pesticide exposure."
(4) The application of restricted use pesticides is prohibited.
(5) A certified applicator who complies with this section may not be held liable for personal property damage or bodily injury resulting from pesticide notification signs that are placed as required.
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