BP BHEAD INT S [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to addressing concerns about pesticide use in schools; amending RCW 17.21.020 and 17.21.400; adding a new section to chapter 28A.320 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 74.15 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. It is the intent of the legislature to improve student safety by providing parents and guardians with information concerning pesticides that pose risks to children. The metabolism, physiology, and diet of children puts them at higher risk than adults to pesticide exposure. Children spend much of their time in schools and day care centers, and parents and guardians have a right to be informed about potential health threats to their children.

Sec. 2. 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) "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) "Insecticide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any insect.

(25) "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) "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) "Nematocide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate nematodes.

(28) "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) "Person" means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, or organized group of persons whether or not incorporated.

(30) "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) "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) "Pesticide advisory board" means the pesticide advisory board as provided for in this chapter.

(33) "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) "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) "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) "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) "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) "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) "School facility" means any facility used for licensed day care, preschool, kindergarten, or elementary or secondary school purposes. School facility includes the buildings or structures, playgrounds, landscape areas, athletic fields, school vehicles, or any other area of school property visited or used by children attending the school. School facility does not include any postsecondary educational facility attended by secondary school students.

(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.

Sec. 3. RCW 17.21.400 and 1994 c 283 s 32 are each amended to read as follows:

(1)(a) A certified applicator making a landscape application shall display the name and telephone number of the applicator or the applicator's employer on any power application apparatus. The applicator shall also carry the material safety data sheet for each pesticide being applied.

(b) A certified applicator making a right of way application shall display the name and telephone number of the applicator or the applicator's employer and the words "VEGETATION MANAGEMENT APPLICATION" on any power application apparatus. The applicator shall also carry the material safety data sheet for each pesticide being applied.

(c) A certified applicator making a school facility application shall post notification signs in a central area at the treatment site and building entrances, forty-eight hours before pesticide application. Signs shall remain in place for at least one week after pesticide application. The school shall provide written notice to students, parents, guardians, and employees forty-eight hours before pesticide application.

(i) Posted and written notices shall state the name of the pesticide, its active ingredient, the date and time of application, and the area and rate of application. The header shall be the signal word from the pesticide label alongside the words "Pesticide Application"; for example, "WARNING: PESTICIDE APPLICATION." Posted notices shall be at least eight and one-half by eleven inches.

(ii) When a reasonable effort is made to substantially comply with notice provisions of this subsection, the school district or school, its employees, its chief administrator, and members of its governing board are not liable in any criminal action or for civil damages in their governmental or other capacities as a result of pesticide application notice.

(iii) Any school facility application during an extended break of one week or more, when the treatment ends no less than ninety-six hours before the end of break, is exempt from the requirements in this subsection.

(2) If a certified applicator receives a written request for information on a landscape, school facility, or right of way spray application, the applicator shall provide the requestor with the name or names of each pesticide applied and (a) a copy of the material safety data sheet for each pesticide; or (b) a pesticide fact sheet for each pesticide as developed or approved by the department.

(3) Except as otherwise provided under subsection (1)(c)(i) of this section, the director shall adopt rules establishing the size and lettering requirements of the apparatus display signs required under this section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A new section is added to chapter 28A.320 RCW to read as follows:

Schools shall provide notice of pesticide applications to students, parents, guardians, and employees pursuant to RCW 17.21.400.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. A new section is added to chapter 74.15 RCW to read as follows:

Day care centers shall provide notice of pesticide applications to children, parents, guardians, and employees pursuant to RCW 17.21.400.