Farm Chemical Handling, Mixing, and Loading: Worker Safety and Environmental Concerns

The potential exposure resulting from the handling of farm chemicals, whether they be crop protection chemicals, nutrients, or other products, is of considerable importance to mixers, loaders, and applicators. Therefore there is a need to develop educational programs and mechanisms that can reduce this exposure to farm workers and to the environment. New farm worker protection regulations now being promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) justify new approaches, either in education, training, or development of new devices, or in procedures to minimize exposure to farm workers. Procedures for mitigating potential intrusion of nutrients and other chemicals into our surface and underground water resources must proceed. New ideas for reducing pesticide waste, reducing off-target movement (drift) from field applications, and developing fundamentally new concepts for chemical delivery to the target site are in order. Ideas for future research and development are discussed in this paper.