Transcript The Role of Pesticide Safety Education Joanne Kick-Raack The Ohio State University

The Role of Pesticide Safety
Education
Joanne Kick-Raack
The Ohio State University
Extension
Different Viewpoints of
Certification & Training
Means to get a job, keep a job or get a
promotion/raise
Way to enhance company’s credibility, marketing
tool
Necessary/Unnecessary cost
Indoctrination-deliberately tell them what to
think, believe and do.
Provide information and develop skills for good
decision making and practices
Education plays a key role
In “influencing” human decisions, attitudes,
and behavior in the real world by providing
reliable information and developing critical
decision-making skills
And ultimately reaching human and
environmental protection goals
Integrated Pesticide Risk
Reduction Program
Proper registration and labeling
Enforcement
Education
Importance of Training
“One of the most important underlying
philosophies of FIFRA relates to
knowledge and competency. What really
happened was that Congress had given
formal endorsement to the principle that
training is a reliable and workable
ingredient in a regulatory process. It is the
legal recognition of the essentiality of
education and the competent person.”
John Osmun, Professor Emeritus, Purdue University
Congress also amended FIFRA to clarify
EPA’s obligation to appropriate funds
annually, on a matching basis, for training.
“Less than 1% of federal funding provided
for FIFRA related activities (registration,
regulation, and enforcement) is used to
train or educate the individual responsible
for selecting, applying, storing, and
disposing of a …pesticide”
AAPSE Strategic Plan
Laws and enforcement themselves do not
necessarily teach correct action/practices
Set standards but may not always explain
or help people meet those standards.
Applicators need knowledge not entirely
conveyable through labeling.
– “Do not contaminate water” on a label,
storage and disposal
– Recordkeeping regulations etc.
What is the end goal?
The applicator/worker is protected
The water is clean
Endangered species survive
Food is safe
Children are healthy
Labels, laws, enforcement and education are
tools to achieve the goal—not the goal
themselves
Exams/Training
Means to reach/influence every applicator who
does come through the system
The opportunity to build and measure
competence
Share enforcement actions in training
Enforcement is essential deterrent and can be
educational but also can often be “after the
fact”… complaint driven
– Drift has occurred
– A spill wasn’t handled
– A worker is sick
Risk reduction needs to be
proactive
TQA—total quality assurance
You can’t build in quality at the end of
production by inspecting
The individuals involved in the production
process have to be doing a quality job and
know what they are doing
In other words, it’s ultimately the applicator
who protects the environment and humans
Provide Consistency
Exams, manuals and teaching should be
in alignment
Standards should reflect what a competent
applicator NEEDS to know and address
real world situations
Too many inconsistencies obscure the
message
Balanced Viewpoint
Not the pro-pesticide view
Not the anti-pesticide view
Information in the public interest, based on
science and based on values
Education in the Public Interest
Public perception generally is that
universities are unbiased, most reliable
source of information
Public more likely to trust risk mitigation
efforts by public institutions--maintain
credibility of pesticide regulation programs
Also need to collaborate with
industry/environmental partners
A fundamental truth..
Learning is ultimately
controlled by the
learner
Ultimately protecting
people and the
environment is
controlled by the
applicator
Limits
People can know what’s proper and legal
and choose to do otherwise…for many
reasons:
– Financial cost—gain may outweigh
consequences like fines
Ex. Revenue generated or the cost of buying new
equipment
– Personal cost--too difficult/time consuming
– Invincibility thinking
– Perceived lack of relevance
Individual Responsibility
Plato argued that good people do not need laws to
act responsibly and bad people will find a way
around the law
Most people chose to do the right thing if they
understand and agree with the consequences
– Education promotes understanding
Always will be people who defy the law
regardless of enforcement consequences and
education
Performance
measures/outcomes
Education can help achieve outcomes
Challenge--Things that are easy to
measure often don’t matter…. and the
things that really matter often aren’t easy
to measure.
– Ex. How many spills, poisonings etc. have
been averted because of good education?
If you think education is costly, you
haven’t priced ignorance
– Ex. of lack of education—Superfund methyl
parathion cases.
Summary
Certification and training is the mechanism to
reach every licensed applicator
Proactive approach not reactive
Key to individuals reaching competency,
increasing competency and staying updated
Plays a key role in “ influencing” human
decisions in the real world
– Although it is not the ONLY influence
Key component in reaching human health and
environmental protection goals
“students cannot be mere
sponges, absorbing the ‘wisdom’
of a teacher’s lecture. Rather,
they must realistically engage
subject matter and actively
practice the art of critical
thinking” (Meyers, 1986, p.9)