9.1 Chemical-Resistant Clothing, Gloves, Footwear, and Eyewear

Why skin and eye PPE is a General Standards topic

Georgia commercial applicators sit a General Standards exam built on the National Pesticide Applicator Certification Core Manual. Chapter 6 of that manual is personal protective equipment: how to read the label, how to choose garments that actually resist the formulation, and how to wear them so liquid runs off instead of into a cuff. The same ideas appear in Rule 40-21-3 safety competency. They also appear in the federal Worker Protection Standard (WPS, 40 CFR Part 170) whenever you mix, load, apply, or otherwise handle pesticides on agricultural plants — including many Georgia cotton, peanut, pecan, peach, turf, nursery, and greenhouse jobs.

Label-required PPE is the minimum. FIFRA makes use inconsistent with labeling unlawful. You may add protection. You may not subtract it. A Category 24 lawn-care operator in Gwinnett County may require nitrile gloves and goggles on every tank mix even when a low-toxicity herbicide label allows a long-sleeved shirt and long pants. That extra employer rule is legal. Dropping the label's chemical-resistant gloves because a South Georgia peanut field is already 95°F is not. Heat is a real Georgia hazard; it is managed with water, rest, shade, and scheduling, not by editing the label.

WPS uses handler for a person who mixes, loads, applies, transfers, or disposes of pesticides, handles open containers, or cleans or repairs application equipment that contains pesticide. Ordinary workers who harvest or weed after the restricted-entry interval are a different WPS class; their early-entry PPE is labeled separately. This section stays at handler level. Do not confuse this Georgia Department of Agriculture commercial applicator exam with Structural Pest Control Commission Certified Operator credentials (HPC, WDO, or FUM).

Coveralls, chemical-resistant suits, and aprons

These three garments are not synonyms. The label names the one you must wear for that task.

Coveralls are a one-piece garment or a coordinated two-piece set of fabric — often cotton or cotton-polyester — that covers the torso, arms, and legs. National Core teaches them over work clothes. Fabric coveralls buy you a layer against splash and keep concentrate off street clothes. They soak through. Unless the labeling says chemical-resistant coveralls, treat them as cloth, not as a solvent barrier.

A chemical-resistant suit (including chemical-resistant coveralls made of a listed film or coated fabric) is cut from a material chosen to resist the formulation. Mix and load of emulsifiable concentrates, high-volume sprays, and any task the label flags when fabric is not enough are the usual triggers. The suit covers the body more completely than an apron. It also traps heat. On a July sod farm or a cotton boom job in the Coastal Plain, a coated suit can push a handler toward heat illness faster than the active ingredient can. That is not permission to take the suit off while you still owe the label that ensemble.

A chemical-resistant apron is a front panel, typically from chest or neck to the knees. National Core places it at mix, load, and equipment wash, where concentrate splash comes from in front of you. It does not replace a required chemical-resistant suit. It does not protect your back. If you turn toward a dripping boom while wearing only an apron over fabric coveralls, the back of the coveralls is still cloth.

Read the exact shirt-and-pants phrase. Some labels require coveralls over a short-sleeved shirt and short pants; others require coveralls over a long-sleeved shirt and long pants. Shorts and a tank top under a zipper leave skin at cuffs, tears, and necklines. When the label already requires a full chemical-resistant suit, still wear reasonable work clothes underneath so a snag does not become bare skin.

Hats matter when spray is overhead. A cotton baseball cap absorbs pesticide and holds it against the scalp and forehead. Air-blast in a peach or pecan orchard, a high boom, greenhouse hanging baskets, and some right-of-way guns put droplets on the crown of the head. If the label requires chemical-resistant headgear, use a hood or a wide-brim chemical-resistant hat that sheds liquid. A sweat-stained shop cap is not head PPE.

Unlined chemical-resistant gloves

Skin is the most common pesticide exposure route. Gloves are the item crews skip, reuse until they crack, or replace with whatever is in the truck.

National Core rule: unlined chemical-resistant gloves unless the labeling says otherwise. Cotton, canvas, leather, and terry absorb product and then hold it against the skin. A leather work glove that still "looks fine" after mixing 2,4-D is a pesticide poultice. Flock-lined or cotton-lined chemical-resistant gloves wick formulation into the lining. Once that lining is wet, you cannot wash the pesticide out of the fibers in a reliable way, so the glove becomes a reservoir.

Exceptions exist only when the label creates them. Some fumigants warn against particular rubber types. A few products name a material or allow a specific glove style. If the label is silent, do not invent cotton "for breathability" or leather "for grip."

Sleeve-to-glove overlap follows the direction liquid will run:

• Spraying downward (ground boom on cotton, peanuts, or soybeans): wear sleeves over the gloves so runoff does not pour into the glove cuff.
• Spraying overhead (air-blast pecans or peaches, tall nursery stock): wear gloves over the sleeves so runoff does not run down inside the sleeve.

Inspect gloves every time. Replace them when they are torn, swollen, discolored, stiff, or sticky. Disposable unlined chemical-resistant gloves are a work-period item, not a season-long tool. Keep a spare pair at the mix pad. After a Category 21 load, wash the gloves while they are still on, then remove them so the contaminated exterior does not wipe onto your hands.

Footwear, cuffs, and eyewear

Chemical-resistant footwear means unlined boots of a resistant material, often rubber or another polymer the label or EPA chart supports. Leather lace-ups absorb. Wear pant legs over the boot tops so liquid does not drain into the boot. Mix-and-load splash hits the shin first; that is why apron-to-boot coverage matters. Do not tuck coverall cuffs into the boots when you are spraying downward — that arrangement is a funnel into the foot.

Goggles are tight-fitting eye protection. Indirectly vented or unvented goggles, as the task requires, protect from splash, mist, and particles arriving from the front, sides, and below. They are the default mental picture when a wettable powder, an emulsifiable concentrate, or a face-height spray can reach the eyes.

A faceshield is a visor. It is excellent against forward splash when you pour concentrate or rinse a jug. It does not seal at the temples or under the chin. Side mist and upward splash can still reach the eyes. National Core teaching is to treat a faceshield as added protection at mix and load, often over goggles, unless the labeling expressly allows a faceshield as the protective eyewear. If the label simply says "protective eyewear," do not assume a loose visor meets it.

If labeling requires protective eyewear for a handler, WPS also requires eyeflush water immediately available. That decontamination duty is taught in 9.3; it starts with choosing eyewear that actually matches the splash pattern.

EPA chemical-resistance categories A through H

Many agricultural labels do not say "nitrile." They say chemical-resistant gloves and then a category letter from A through H, or they point you to the EPA chart. That letter is about the solvent system in the formulation, not a score for how "hot" the active ingredient is. Earlier letters are often easier on common glove materials; later letters are typically associated with more aggressive solvents. You are not expected to memorize a solvent-by-solvent breakthrough table for the Georgia exam, and this guide will not invent hour ratings.

Use the chart as a selection method:

1. Read the PPE statement. Note any category letter or named material.
2. Open the EPA Chemical Resistance Category Selection Chart (in National Core materials and on some labels).
3. Look for material families the chart treats as highly resistant for that letter. Families you will see named include barrier laminate, butyl rubber, nitrile rubber, neoprene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and viton.
4. Choose gloves, boots, or a suit made of a material the chart supports. If the label names a material, the name controls.
5. Treat highly resistant as the selection target. Do not pick a material the chart rates as slight or none because that is what the shop already purchased.

Breakthrough time still depends on thickness, manufacturer, temperature, and the exact mix. The chart is a selection aid. The label is the law. If two products in the same peanut tank specify different glove categories, use the more demanding combination or mix them as separate loads with the PPE each label requires.

A Category 24 technician who keeps one box of thin disposable latex for every product is not following the chart. Latex is often a poor match for solvent-heavy emulsifiable concentrates. Buy gloves to the label, not to last season's leftover inventory.

Georgia field pictures and exam traps

Picture a Category 21 mixer at a Tifton satellite shed pouring an emulsifiable concentrate that lists chemical-resistant gloves, a chemical-resistant apron, and protective eyewear. Fabric coveralls over a long-sleeved shirt are already on. That still does not retire the apron. Concentrate splash is a front-of-body problem. Add unlined gloves matched to the category letter, boots with pants over the tops, and goggles. A faceshield on top of the goggles is a smart extra for the pour. Heat that afternoon is a separate control problem: shade at the pad, water, and a slower pace — not a thinner glove.

Picture a Category 24 crew spraying a Peachtree City commercial lawn with a product that allows long sleeves, long pants, shoes, and socks. The owner may still require chemical-resistant gloves. That is lawful more. If the next tank is a concentrate whose label jumps to a chemical-resistant suit, the crew cannot stay in yesterday's cotton coveralls. The minimum moved. The employer cannot hold it down.

Picture air-blast in a Fort Valley peach block. Overhead spray changes glove orientation: gloves over sleeves. A cotton cap is the wrong headgear if the label wants chemical-resistant head protection. Goggles stay on even if a faceshield is used at the nurse tank, because orchard mist does not arrive only from dead ahead.

Trap: treating "coveralls" as "chemical-resistant." The words on the label control. Fabric is fabric. Trap: lined gloves because they feel nicer. Comfort linings become contamination linings. Trap: leather boots as "chemical-resistant enough." Leather holds pesticide. Trap: memorizing fake solvent hour charts. Use the EPA A–H method and the named material; do not recite invented breakthrough times. Trap: blaming Georgia statute for WPS PPE. Handler PPE duties in agricultural plant production are WPS and labeling duties. Georgia licensing law still requires you to follow the label.

WPS agricultural employers must provide the handler PPE the labeling requires (beyond ordinary work clothes the handler already wears), keep it clean and usable, and not send people into mix and load under-dressed. You still have to put it on. Section 9.2 covers respirators when the label names one. Section 9.3 covers wash, decontamination distance, and why contaminated PPE does not ride home in the family laundry.