2.4 Trained Servicepersons & Direct Supervision in Ohio

2.4 Trained Servicepersons & Direct Supervision in Ohio

Ohio pest control runs on crews. The legal mechanism that lets an unlicensed crew member apply pesticides is the trained serviceperson, and the rule that governs it is OAC 901:5-11-02. Learn the vocabulary exactly: Ohio does not use "registered employee," "registered technician," or "apprentice applicator." Those terms come from other states and will be wrong answers.

Becoming a Trained Serviceperson

OAC 901:5-11-02(A)(1) prohibits an employee from acting as a trained serviceperson unless, before the employee's first occupational exposure to pesticides, the employee has either:

• read the ODA manual "Safety Training Guide for Trained Servicepersons," or
• completed an employer-sponsored training program providing training equivalent to the manual.

There is no ODA test and no ODA card for trained serviceperson status. The compliance artifact is paperwork.

The written verification

OAC 901:5-11-02(A)(2) requires the employee and the immediate supervisor to verify in writing that the employee read the manual or received equivalent training before first exposure. The employer keeps that signed, dated verification on file:

• throughout the trained serviceperson's employment, and
• for three years following termination of employment.

OAC 901:5-11-10(C)(2) repeats the three-year post-termination retention as a pesticide business duty, and makes the verification available to the director. Missing verification paperwork is one of the easiest violations for an inspector to document and one of the most common findings in Ohio.

The Direct Supervision Standard

This is the single most-tested Ohio number on the Core exam.

OAC 901:5-11-02(A)(3): No trained serviceperson shall apply pesticides for their employer unless the trained serviceperson is directly supervised by a commercial applicator that is located within either twenty-five miles distance or two hours time to the work site during the trained serviceperson's pesticide application activities.

Read the standard carefully:

• It is a distance-or-time test. Either condition satisfies it.
• It applies during the application activities, not merely at the start of the day.
• It requires a commercial applicator, licensed in the relevant category.
• Nothing in the Ohio rule requires continuous visual contact, hourly phone calls, or a written daily job sheet - although the federal supervision rule at 40 CFR 171.201 does require use-specific instructions before an RUP application, and product labeling may require the certified applicator's physical presence.

ORC 921.24 makes it a prohibited act to fail to provide training to trained servicepersons (division (J)), to fail to provide direct supervision as specified in rule (division (K)), and to fail to properly supervise a trained serviceperson (division (Z)). Three separate hooks - the legislature meant it.

The General Safety and Equipment Prohibitions

OAC 901:5-11-02(B) applies to everyone, licensed or not. No person shall:

1. Use a pesticide except in accordance with the label registered with ODA, or under FIFRA Sections 5, 18, or 24(c).
2. Employ someone forbidden such employment by state or federal labor law, or anyone who cannot satisfactorily communicate with or understand instructions from the pesticide applicator.
3. Permit any person under the age of eighteen to handle, mix, or load a pesticide whose label bears the signal words "DANGER - POISON" without on-site supervision by a pesticide applicator.
4. Permit mixing or loading where the light - natural or artificial - is insufficient to read the label and work safely.
5. Operate application equipment drawing water from surface waters or public water supplies without an effective anti-siphon device to prevent backflow.
6. Operate application equipment, including hoses and metering devices, in a condition or manner that results in leakage, spillage, dripping, backflow, vapors, or drift.
7. Knowingly loan, rent, or permit use of equipment that fails items 5 or 6, or that has not been thoroughly cleaned to prevent contamination from previous use.

An anti-siphon device, per OAC 901:5-11-01(A), is a check valve or mechanism preventing backflow; if it is not mechanical it must include a physical air gap of at least two times the diameter of the point of discharge between the water supply and the highest portion of the tank.

Fumigation Is Off Limits

OAC 901:5-11-02 also restricts fumigants: no commercial applicator may apply fumigants unless licensed in, and applying within, the pesticide-use categories Soil Fumigation (2f), Fumigation (10c), or Greenhouse Pest Control (6d). Fumigation is never a trained-serviceperson-runs-it-alone job.