9.4 Professionalism, Product Stewardship & Communicating Risk to the Public

9.4 Professionalism, Product Stewardship & Communicating Risk to the Public

Utah Administrative Code R68-7-8(3)(i) requires certified applicators to demonstrate professionalism, "including understanding the importance of each of the following: (i) maintaining chemical security for restricted use pesticides; (ii) how to communicate information about pesticide exposures and risks with customers and the public; and (iii) appropriate product stewardship for certified applicators." That is a competency an exam can test, and it is the competency that determines whether an applicator's career is spent doing work or answering complaints.

1. What Professionalism Means Here

Utah gives this teeth. R68-7-20(4) makes it an unlawful act to make false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims — including any written or spoken misrepresentation of the use or effect of pesticides, of an applicator's certification, or of the methods or manner in which pesticides may be applied. Overselling a treatment in a sales call is not just poor practice; it is a listed violation.

2. Product Stewardship

Stewardship is the obligation to protect the continued availability and safe use of the products the industry depends on:

1. Use the lowest effective approach. Apply only when monitoring justifies it, at the labeled rate, using a method matched to the situation.
2. Protect efficacy for the next user. Rotating modes of action preserves chemistries for the whole industry, not just for your account.
3. Protect the label. Every off-label use, drift event, and water detection creates pressure to restrict or cancel a registration. Applicators lose products through misuse by other applicators.
4. Handle containers and waste correctly. Rinse, recycle, and return through approved programs.
5. Protect pollinators and sensitive sites proactively, not only when a label forces it.
6. Keep records that would survive review, because good records are the only durable evidence that a job was done correctly.

3. Communicating Risk Honestly

The most common question an applicator receives is "is that stuff safe?" There are three ways to answer it, and only one of them is defensible.

• "It's completely safe" — false, and it destroys credibility the moment someone reads the label's DANGER or WARNING signal word.
• "I can't discuss that" — reads as concealment and produces the phone call to UDAF.
• The honest answer — explain that risk is a function of the product's toxicity and the amount of exposure, and describe specifically what is being done to keep exposure low.

A Workable Script

"This product is registered by EPA for this use. Like any pesticide it can be harmful with enough exposure, so the label sets rules I follow: the rate, the equipment, the protective gear I wear, and how long people and pets should stay off the area. For this application, that's [X hours]. I'll leave you the product name, its EPA registration number, and our phone number. If you'd like the full label or the safety data sheet, I can get you both."

That answer is accurate, it is specific, it gives the person something actionable, and it does not require the applicator to be a toxicologist.

Communication Principles

1. Acknowledge the concern before answering it. Concern about children, pets, gardens, and bees is legitimate.
2. Use plain language. "Restricted-entry interval" means "stay off the lawn until this evening."
3. Give the specifics you legally must anyway. For a restricted-use pesticide with a DANGER or DANGER-POISON signal word, Utah already requires a written statement with the business name, license number and phone, the applicator's name and license number, the date and time, the service type with brand name and EPA registration number, and an invitation to call for more information (R68-7-16(4)).
4. Never guess about health effects. Refer medical questions to the Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222 or a physician, with the label in hand.
5. Do not disparage the neighbor, the complainant, or the regulator.

4. Working With Neighbors, Beekeepers, and Sensitive Sites

Advance notice costs nothing and prevents most complaints. Before an application near a property line:

• Identify sensitive sites: schools, daycare centers, hospitals, care facilities, homes with medically sensitive occupants, organic and certified-seed operations, apiaries, surface water, and habitat for listed species.
• Talk to registered beekeepers in the area before applying a product with bee precautions, and time applications to avoid foraging.
• Note that R68-7-19(8) prohibits applying pesticides by aircraft or air blast sprayer to property abutting or adjacent to schools in session, hospitals, nursing homes, or similar establishments when occupied, under conditions that may result in contamination of those establishments or their premises.
• Remember that R68-7-20(17) makes it unlawful to apply pesticides on or in any building, structure, or property without the consent of the owner, manager, or responsible party, with a narrow exception for government agencies abating a public health problem under UDAF direction.

5. When a Complaint Arrives

1. Listen and take it seriously. Record the date, time, location, and what the person observed.
2. Pull the record immediately. Utah's 24-hour recording requirement means the record should already exist.
3. Preserve evidence: the product, the label, the weather data for the application window, equipment settings, and photographs.
4. Cooperate with UDAF. The department can enter premises and audit records, and R68-7-16(2)(b) treats failure to respond fully to a department request within two business days as evidence of failure to properly train or equip.
5. Do not alter records. Proffering false or fraudulent records is a separate unlawful act under R68-7-20(9), and it converts a possible administrative penalty into a fraud finding.

6. The Business's Responsibility for Its People

Under R68-7-16(2)(a), a pesticide business, its qualifying party, or its applicator may be held responsible for the acts or omissions of an employee. The business must properly train, equip, and prepare employees and keep records of that training and equipment — including the employee's name and license number, the topics and specific products covered, and the signatures of trainees and trainer, with the agenda and training materials retained two years after the employee leaves. The burden of proving those duties were met rests on the business owner, qualifying party, or designated supervisor by a preponderance of the evidence.