9.3 Mixing, Loading, Handling, and Child-Access Precautions

40 CFR 171.103(c)(2)(ix) is the Core mixing-and-children sentence: commercial applicators must know proper identification, storage, transport, handling, mixing procedures, and disposal methods for pesticides and used containers, including precautions to prevent children from having access to pesticides and pesticide containers. For most New Jersey commercial crews, mixing and loading concentrate is the highest-exposure minutes of the day. The spray mix is dilute. The jug, the measuring cup, the hopper, and the torn bag of wettable powder are not.

Why mix/load exposure dwarfs the spray pass

Splashes, vapors at the pour spout, dust from opening a bag, and a hose end dropped into a tank are how dermal and inhalation doses spike. That is why labels so often add mix/load-only PPE: a chemical-resistant apron, protective eyewear, a higher glove category, sometimes a respirator that is not required once the tank holds dilute spray. Putting on only the application set to “just dump the jug” is the classic Core miss.

New Jersey use rules sit on top of the label. N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2(b) forbids transporting, handling, storing, mixing, or loading any pesticide or pesticide container in a manner that causes harm, injury, or damage to persons, property, or the environment, or a significant risk of that harm. 7:30-10.2(i) requires a readable copy of the registered label at the application or mixing site. 7:30-10.2(e) requires reasonable precautions before, during, and after application, including transmitting relevant label precautions to people who may be exposed. 7:30-9.9(a) and (b) forbid applying with equipment that is not properly maintained and calibrated — a leaking pump at the mix pad is both a maintenance violation and an exposure event.

Practical mixing discipline on a New Jersey site:

• Read the label before opening the container; keep that label at the pad.
• Put on mix/load PPE before the seal is broken.
• Mix outdoors or on a well-ventilated mix pad, not in a closed van body.
• Stand upwind of the pour.
• Keep opened containers below eye level; do not hoist a jug above your face.
• Use dedicated measuring devices, never kitchen cups or drink bottles.
• Follow the label’s mixing order (often water first, then product, then remaining water — but the label wins).
• Do not overfill; leave room for agitation.
• Use a closed system when the label requires one, and whenever the setup is available.
• Clean drips immediately; do not walk concentrate onto the truck cab floor.

N.J.A.C. 7:30-9.9(d) is a product-specific extra: mixing or loading a restricted-use 2,4-D compound requires at least chemical-resistant gloves and eye protection (goggles or a face shield), even if someone is tempted to treat “just measuring” as bare-hand work.

WPS 40 CFR 170.509 requires decontamination supplies for handlers — soap, clean water, and towels. When the labeling requires protective eyewear, at least one pint of water for emergency eye flushing must be immediately available to the handler. A hose across the yard is not immediately available if it cannot be reached with concentrate in the eyes.

Closed systems

40 CFR 170.607(d) defines a closed system as an engineering control that removes the pesticide from its original container and transfers it through connecting hoses, pipes, and couplings that are tight enough to prevent handler exposure except for the negligible escape associated with normal operation. When the system meets 170.607(d)(2) and the employer meets (d)(3), including training the handler to operate it, WPS allows limited PPE substitutions:

• For products with the signal word DANGER or WARNING, handlers may substitute a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, shoes and socks, a chemical-resistant apron, protective eyewear, and any protective gloves specified on the labeling for handlers.
• For other products, handlers may substitute protective eyewear, a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, and shoes and socks.

Those substitutions are not a shorts-and-sandals rule. If the closed system leaks, is disconnected in a way that exposes product, or is not actually closed, full labeling PPE returns. If the label requires a closed system, using one is mandatory; the exception language does not authorize skipping a required engineering control. Enclosed-cab exceptions in 170.607 are a different paragraph and apply to application, not to opening jugs at the pad.

Backflow prevention

N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2(h) is a high-yield New Jersey item: no person shall add water to any pesticide handling, storage, or application equipment via a hose, pump, or other equipment unless that hose, pump, or other equipment is fitted with an effective valve or device to prevent backflow of pesticides or liquids containing pesticides into water-supply systems, streams, lakes, other sources of water, or other areas.

The exam picture is a garden hose submerged in a spray tank at a hydrant, barn spigot, or garden hose-bib with no air gap, vacuum breaker, check valve, or reduced-pressure device. If municipal pressure drops, tank contents can siphon into a drinking-water line. An air gap above the tank rim, a hose-bib vacuum breaker, a reduced-pressure backflow preventer, or another effective device is the compliance idea. Termiticide injection equipment has a parallel backflow cross-reference in the termiticide rules; the Core principle is the same. Never fill from a stream, pond, or hydrant in a way that can drain the tank backward into that source.

Children, containers, and take-home residue

40 CFR 171.103(c)(2)(ix) does not wait for a school contract. Children get into trucks, sheds, mix pads, and laundry piles. New Jersey’s container rule is blunt.

N.J.A.C. 7:30-9.6(c): no person shall place or keep any pesticide in any container commonly used for food, drink, or household products. A soda bottle, a milk jug, a Gatorade bottle, a spray-cleaner bottle, or a coffee can is a poisoning waiting for a child or a thirsty crew member. Keep product in the original labeled container, or in a service container that meets 7:30-9.6(b): either a copy of the registered label, or a readable label with brand or trade name, EPA Registration Number, name and percentage of active ingredients, and the appropriate signal word (Danger-Poison, Warning, or Caution). 7:30-9.6(a) forbids storing, transporting, or possessing pesticide if the registered label is missing, obscured, altered, or unreadable, with listed exceptions for service containers, application equipment, manufacturing, and public officials.

7:30-9.6(d) also requires compliance with the federal container and containment rules in 40 CFR Parts 156 and 165. Empty containers are not toys, sand buckets, or drinking-water jugs.

Child-access precautions that the Core expects you to name:

• Original containers with child-resistant closures actually clicked shut.
• Locked storage for unattended restricted-use pesticides (N.J.A.C. 7:30-9.5).
• No open mix tanks, measuring cups, or unlabeled secondary bottles left on a residential driveway, school loading dock, playground edge, or apartment hallway.
• Do not leave a running or staged sprayer where a child can reach the hose, the tank lid, or the granules.
• Do not take contaminated PPE or work clothes home (40 CFR 170.507(d)(10)). Change at work. Store street clothes away from the mix pad (170.507(d)(9)).
• N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2(j) forbids applying on an agricultural field while persons other than those involved in the application or evaluation are inside the target site unless they wear the protective clothing and equipment the labels require.
• Day-care timing in 7:30-10.2(n) is a related child-protection rule: with listed exceptions, no application of pesticides other than rodenticides, insect baits, and antimicrobials in or around a day-care facility during normal operating hours.

The employer still owns the safety equipment

N.J.A.C. 7:30-9.9(c) is the sentence to quote on the Core: all persons having employees who use, apply, transport, or otherwise handle any pesticide shall make available to such employees any necessary or appropriate safety equipment in good working order and shall train such employees in the proper operation of such safety equipment. The employer buys and maintains the chemical-resistant gloves, the eyewash, the backflow device, the closed-system couplers, and the respirator program. “Buy your own gloves if you want them” is a 9.9(c) failure. Cracked face shields in the truck toolbox are not “good working order.” Training is not a one-time signature; employees must know how to use the mix-pad eyewash, how to don mix/load PPE, and how to shut a leaking closed system down.

Worked New Jersey scenarios

Scenario H — submerged fill. A Category 3B crew fills a turf sprayer at a municipal hydrant by dropping the hose into the tank. There is no air gap and no backflow valve. N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2(h) is violated the moment water is added that way, even if no siphon is observed.

Scenario I — drink bottle. An operator pours leftover mix into a sports-drink bottle “just for this afternoon’s touch-up.” That is 7:30-9.6(c) regardless of whether a child actually drinks it, and it is a 171.103(c)(2)(ix) child-access failure sitting in a cup holder.

Scenario J — employer duty. The owner of a 7A firm tells operators that chemical-resistant gloves and goggles are optional personal purchases. 7:30-9.9(c) requires the employer to make necessary safety equipment available in good working order and to train employees. The label’s mix/load PPE is “necessary.”

Scenario K — closed-system shorts. A farm uses a true closed system to load a CAUTION product. The handler wears shorts, a T-shirt, and sneakers. Even the 170.607(d) substitution still requires a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, shoes and socks, and protective eyewear. The exception never authorizes street shorts at the pad.