6.1 Transporting, Storing & Securing Pesticides
Key Takeaways
Pesticides should be carried in a secured cargo area, ideally an enclosed lockable box, never in a vehicle's passenger compartment.
Labels, Safety Data Sheets, and a spill kit should travel with every pesticide load.
Pesticide storage should be locked, posted, dry, ventilated to the outside, well lit, and floored with sealed concrete.
Store pesticides only in original labeled containers, with heavy containers and liquids on the lowest shelves.
The first step in a pesticide security program is a risk assessment of people, information, and property.
6.1 Transporting, Storing & Securing Pesticides
Spills, poisonings, thefts, and fires most often happen during transport and storage, not during spraying. Chapter 8 of the national core manual covers these risks, and DEEP's operator manual puts the Connecticut emphasis on children: "The greatest number of poisoning cases by far, involves young children," so pesticides must be kept locked up and equipment never left unattended. This section covers moving pesticides safely, designing and running a storage site, and securing both against misuse.
Transporting Pesticides
Who is responsible
The driver and/or the owner of the company is accountable for injuries and for any pesticide released into the environment. The driver is also the first person who can contain a spill, often before first responders arrive. Every driver must therefore know basic spill response, company procedures, and who notifies authorities. In Connecticut, all spills are reported immediately to DEEP Emergency Response at 860-424-3338.
Vehicle and load practices
- Never carry pesticides in the passenger compartment. Transport them in the vehicle's cargo area. Enclosed, lockable cargo boxes give the best protection against curious children, thieves, and vandals.
- Never transport pesticides with food, feed, seed, fertilizer, clothing, or PPE that could be contaminated.
- Carry only the amount needed. Secure containers against shifting, puncture, and impact; never stack them higher than the vehicle's sides; use tie-down rings or racks on flatbeds; and secure hand sprayers, backpack sprayers, and spreaders.
- Inspect containers before loading: labels legible and attached, closures tight, and outside surfaces free of pesticide.
- Protect pesticides from extreme temperatures and moisture in transit. Heat or cold can change a formulation's stability, and paper bags fail when wet.
- Never leave the vehicle unattended with pesticides unsecured.
Documents and spill kit
- Always carry product labels and Safety Data Sheets (SDSs), organized alphabetically by product name for quick access. The SDS tells responders the needed PPE, whether the spill is an inhalation or explosion risk, decontamination steps, and emergency telephone numbers.
- Carry a spill kit in every vehicle (contents in Section 6.2), including a broom and shovel.
DOT placards and security plans
The U.S. Department of Transportation requires diamond-shaped placards on vehicles carrying certain hazardous materials. Under the core manual's summary, vehicles carrying pesticides must be placarded when the pesticide:
- bears a DOT poison label;
- is in a container larger than 119 gallons; or
- is in quantities greater than 1,000 pounds.
Distributors usually supply the needed placards. Anyone shipping or transporting quantities that require placards must also have a transportation security plan. The plan covers preventing unauthorized access, security checks of employees who transport placarded materials, and the planned route. Some drivers of hazardous materials also need a commercial driver's license, shipping papers, and annual vehicle inspections.
Storing Pesticides
The core manual recommends a separate storage facility for pesticides, fertilizers, and similar products when possible. A well-designed site limits access, improves inventory control, protects people, reduces contamination risk, prevents temperature and moisture damage, prevents theft and misuse, and tells firefighters where the products are.
Site selection
- Choose a site where flooding and runoff will not reach it. Avoid flood zones and sites near streams or where runoff flows toward the building, and consider dikes where flooding is possible.
- Consider soil and land surface characteristics to protect surface water and groundwater. Never store pesticides near wells.
Building design and housekeeping
| Element | Practice |
|---|---|
| Security | Keep the cabinet, room, or building locked when not in use; post warning signs on doors and windows |
| Water | Keep the site dry. Moisture splits paper and cardboard, rusts metal, smears labels, clumps and degrades dry products, and triggers slow-release formulations |
| Temperature | Control temperature and follow label storage limits. Use exhaust fans vented to the outside; venting into an adjoining room "does little to solve the problem." Run the fan for a few minutes before entering |
| Lighting | Light the room well enough to read labels and spot leaks |
| Floors and shelves | Sealed concrete or other impervious floors, ideally sloping to a sump or recessed to contain spills; nonabsorbent metal or plastic shelving and pallets; never bare soil |
| What to store | Only pesticides, pesticide equipment, and a spill kit. No food, drink, tobacco, feed, medicine, seed, clothing, or PPE other than emergency PPE |
| Arrangement | Heaviest containers and liquids on lower shelves; nothing hanging over shelf edges; drums and bags on pallets; partly used dry products sealed in a covered tub or bag to prevent clumping |
| Bulk tanks | On a reinforced concrete pad inside a dike holding the tank's volume plus at least 10%; keep valves, pumps, and hoses inside the diked area |
Containers and labels
- Store pesticides only in their original labeled containers, or a properly labeled service container where state law allows. The operator manual is blunt: "Never put any pesticide in an unlabeled container." People have been hospitalized and killed after drinking pesticides kept in beverage bottles, and children associate a container's shape with its usual contents.
- Keep labels legible and facing out. If a label is damaged, immediately mark the container with the trade name, EPA registration number, signal word, and use classification, and get a replacement label.
- Inspect regularly. If a container leaks, put on PPE first, place the container inside a larger one such as a 5-gallon bucket, clean up spilled material into the bucket, and then use the product as the label allows or dispose of it according to label directions.
Inventory and shelf life
- Mark each container with its purchase date and use the oldest first.
- Buy only what you need for the season, and avoid storing large quantities for long periods.
- Keep outdated, cancelled, or unwanted products and containers awaiting recycling or disposal in a separate, marked section. When EPA cancels a product, keeping it past the use deadline can make it a hazardous waste disposal problem.
Emergency readiness at the storage site
Keep duplicate labels and SDSs away from the storage area, along with absorbents, a shovel, broom, and heavy plastic bags. Have clean water, an eyewash, PPE, a fire extinguisher rated for chemical fires, first aid supplies, emergency telephone numbers, and soap and paper towels nearby. Label measuring utensils and PPE so they are not used for anything else.
Pesticide Site Security
Security planning protects employees and the community against internal threats (employee theft) and external threats (theft, vandalism, sabotage, terrorism).
- Start with a risk assessment. List the assets — people, information, and property (storage buildings, vehicles, application equipment, bulk tanks, mixing sites, utilities) — the threats, and the protective steps.
- Train employees in inventory control, storage and equipment security, and emergency response. Employees often notice first when something is out of place.
- Secure buildings and grounds with locks, fencing, outdoor lighting, logs or badges, alarms, and cameras as needed.
- Secure equipment and vehicles. Don't leave keys in ignitions, lock cabinets, disable equipment left in the field, lock backpack sprayers onto trucks, and reclaim keys from departing employees.
- Protect confidential information with passwords, backups, and planning for power failures.
- Keep accurate inventories and include police and firefighters in developing the plan.
- Report suspicious activity to management and local authorities immediately, including unknown buyers who want to pay cash for large quantities. The FBI asks that suspicious activity related to buying or using pesticides be reported.
Tip
Common exam pairings: the first step in a security program is a risk assessment; the first thing to do with a leaking container is put on PPE; and the best transport protection is an enclosed, lockable cargo box.
Which practice for carrying pesticides to a job site is correct?
Carry small containers on the passenger floor so they can be watched
Stack containers above the truck sides to save space
Leave labels and SDSs at the shop so they stay clean
Carry pesticides in a secured, preferably enclosed and lockable, cargo area along with labels, SDSs, and a spill kit
During an inventory check, an applicator finds a leaking jug of insecticide concentrate on a storage shelf. What should be done first?
Hose the spill into the floor drain
Pour the remaining contents into an empty beverage bottle
Put on the appropriate personal protective equipment
Move the jug to the truck to use it up immediately
Which storage arrangement follows the national core manual's guidance?
Pesticides on wooden shelves next to seed and fertilizer for convenience
Heaviest containers and liquids on lower shelves of nonabsorbent metal or plastic, with nothing hanging over the edges
Liquids on top shelves so leaks can be seen
Containers stored on bare soil so spills soak in
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.