Commercial pesticide applicators

A farmer, however, disposing of waste pesticides which are hazardous wastes, from his own use, is not required to comply with the RCRA notification or management standards provided he triple rinses each emptied pesticide container and disposes of the pesticide residues on his own farm in a manner consistent with the disposal instructions on the pesticide label. This exemption from the RCRA management controls does not apply, however, to commercial pesticide applicators. 

Over the past five years, a system for removing pesticides from the wash water produced by pesticide applicators as they clean their equipment has been developed. The system incorporates a two-stage treatment process. The first step is the flocculation/coagulation and sedimentation of the pesticide contaminated wash water. The supernatant from the first step is then passed through activated carbon columns. This paper describes the development of the system, the evaluation of the system s adequacy to handle a wide variety of pesticides, and the recommendations on the implementation of this system to commercial pesticide applicators. 

Commercial pesticide applicators are faced with a serious problem in the proper disposal of the large volumes of pesticide contaminated wastewater that are produced during the cleanup of application equipment. Various studies (Whittaker et al. 1982) have reported that the typical agricultural pesticide applicator will produce between 100 and 400 liters of pesticide-contaminated wash water each time he cleans the equipment. For a typical applicator, this amounts to approximately 20,000 liters of waste annually from each piece of equipment (i.e., airplane or truck) that he uses. 

The information in this book is focused toward those involved in handling, mixing, and applying pesticides. It should be especially useful to commercial pesticide applicators, formulators, and handlers as well as employees of city, county, state, and federal agencies. Pesticide dealers, salespeople, consultants, and trainers should also find it helpful in their work. 

Sanderson WT, Ringenburg V, Biagini R. Exposure of commercial pesticide applicators to the herbicide alachlor. Am Ind Hyg Assoc J 1995 56 890-897. 

Method 1 (cellulose layers). The cellulose powder is washed twice with isopropanol-ammonium hydroxide-water (6 3 1), washed once in isopropanol and dried at 10S °C for 8 h. The plates (thickness, 0.25 mm) are prepared with a commercial TLC applicator. The slurry consists of 15 g of prepared cellulose in 85 ml of water which has been homogenized in a blender. The plates are dried at room temperature, and then eluted with diethyl ether in order to remove organic impurities. The plates are dried in air immediately before use. The pesticides are spotted and developed with appropriate solvent systems. The chromatoplate is dried in air and sprayed lightly with a 0.05% solution of fisetin in isopropanol. The separated spots are observed visually under a UV light at 365 nm (excitation, 370 nm emission, 533 nm). This method has been examined for several types of pesticides including carbamates, organophosphates, triazines and chlorinated hydrocarbons. 

Chlorophenols have been widely used for a variety of pesticidal applications. Chlorophenols and their sodium salts have been primarily used for wood preservation and as chemical intermediates in the manufacture of other pesticides or chemicals. In China, sodium pentachlorophenate (Na-PCP) was especially used to eradicate snails, Oncomelania hupensis, in the schistosomiasis area in China. Chinese commercial PCP or Na-PCP contained appreciable amounts of PCDD/Fs, and their concentrations in PCP and Na-PCP were 142 and 92 ng I-TEQ g-1, respectively (Bao et al., 1995). 

The highly viscous spray fluids used in pesticide application have been either water-in-oil emulsions or solutions of macromolecules both systems are non-Newtonian since their viscosity varies with the applied shear. While a viscosity parameter which is suitable for studies on drop formation was subsequently devised for such systems (II), it was necessary to use Newtonian liquids in the initial studies on the effect of viscosity on drop size. Sugar solutions behave as Newtonian liquids and provide a suitable means of varying viscosity over a wide range. These were prepared from a commercially available syrup by dilution with distilled water 1% w/v of a black dye (Nigrosine G140) was added to each solution to render the spray drops visible for sizing. 

Applicator Mixer/loader Commercial aerial Applicator Mixer/loader Commercial ground Mixer/loader + applicator Applicator Mixer/loader Dwers All pesticide handlers... 

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