MSUE
Pesticide Safety Education
Program
(PSEP)
OUR
WEB SITE: http://www.pested.msu.edu/
Final
Report (October 2006 to September 2007)
to
the
Michigan
Department of Agriculture, PPPM Division
and
the MDA Pesticide Advisory Committee
and
Bruce Wilkinson of EPA Region 5
Submitted by the MSU Pesticide Safety Education
Program, October 2007
Dr. Carolyn
Randall – Coordinator
Temporary
Labor Employees: John Stone, Erica
Jenkins, Susan Risley, Sheryl Goodreau
Our Objective:
The MSU Pesticide Safety Education
Program (PSEP) works with the Michigan Department of Agriculture Pesticide and
Plant Pest Management Division to carry out applicator certification and
training. As its part of a Memorandum of Understanding, the Program produces
educational materials and conducts training. Each quarter, the Pesticide Safety
Education Program reports its activities to the Pesticide Advisory Committee
(PAC), and provides a final report to MDA at the end of the fiscal year. This
report includes a summary of program accomplishments – based on the major
points in the Memorandum of Understanding – for the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
During the 2006-2007 MSUE Pesticide Safety Education Program accomplished the following:
Develop and revise
applicator training manuals, and provide exam questions.
Manuals Completed:
· National Pesticide Applicator Certification Core manual. A printed version of the manual was mailed out to the states in November of 2006. The manual is published by NASDA (National Association of State Departments of Agriculture). About half of the states plan to use the manual to educate and certify applicators. Carolyn Randall, PSEP Coordinator, is the main writer on the manual.
Manuals in progress:
·
Microbial
· Eric Jenkins returned for the summer to continue working on the Category 3A manual, Turfgrass Pest Management. There is now a draft of all 9 chapters.
·
The Michigan
Commercial Applicator Supplement to the National
Pesticide Applicator Certification Core Manual has been completed and sent
to the designer. A draft of the Michigan Private Applicator Supplement is in progress. Carolyn Randall added a chapter on private
applicator equipment and calibration with the help of Bob Wolf, agricultural engineer
from
Monitor and maintain stocks of bulletins in the MSU system.
MSU PSEP monitors manual stocks and arranges for reprinting of current bulletins as needed. Often this provides an opportunity to make minor corrections and changes. In FY 2006-2007, the following bulletins were reprinted with minor or no revision:
·
Category 5B,
Microbial
· Category 3A, Ornamental Pest Management, E-2291: 1,500 copies reprinted due to low inventory.
· Category 6, Right-of-Way Pest Management, E-2043: 2,000 copies were reprinted due to low inventory.
· Three-panel brochure, Questions and Answers about Bedbugs, E2971: 10,000 copies were reprinted due to low inventory. Five-thousand copies were put into the bulletin system and another 5,000 were delivered to PSEP.
Develop other
pesticide-related materials as requested and needed.
· E2946 Poison Ivy (new, November 2006) was developed with the assistance of Carolyn Randall. Copies are now available through the MSU Bulletin System.
· AM037 Pesticide Emergency Information, (November 2006) was revised by Carolyn Randall and 500 copies printed.
· E2814, Molds in the Home: What should you do? (major revision, October 2006) was revised and reprinted. One-thousand copies went into the MSU Extension bulletin system and 4,000 were delivered to the PSEP office.
· E2976, Questions and Answers about Head Lice (new, December 2006) was developed by Carolyn Randall with assistance from MDA. Six-thousand copies were printed (1,500 went into the bulletin system and the rest were delivered to the PSEP office).
· The PSEP Business Plan was completed and distributed to interested parties.
·
John
Stone and Carolyn Randall developed brochures and post-cards advertising
training programs in commercial/private core and 3A turfgrass/3B ornamentals
offered by MSU PSEP.
·
A new
core curriculum was created for the National
Pesticide Applicator Certification Core
Manual based on slides developed at
· An issue of the Pesticide Notes newsletter dated June – December, 2006 was posted on the website (9 pages). It can be downloaded from the web site at http://www.pested.msu.edu/Resources/ PesticideNotes/index.html. The feature article is “New Core Manual on the Way.”
·
A new
3-panel brochure, Questions and Answers
about Fleas (E-2986), was developed by Carolyn Randall with the help of MDA
staff and Mark Sheperdigian of Rose Pest Control. Six-thousand copies were printed: 1,500 copies went in to the bulletin system
and 4,500 were delivered to MSU PSEP.
·
Carolyn
assisted ANR Communications in production of the Spanish version of the Poison Ivy publication (E-2946SP). Carolyn arranged for Luis Donado, instructor
in MSU’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese to do the translation and
assisted with editing the new publication.
The bulletin can be obtained through the
·
A Project GREEEN grant proposal, Spanish Translation of Michigan Core Manual
Supplements, was submitted in January and awarded in April of 2007. Carolyn Randall is the P.I. on the grant for
$3,800. The grant is being used to pay
Luis Donado, instructor at MSU in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, to
translate the
·
Three
grant applications were submitted in May to MSU Extension’s Program Development
Funds. The purpose of these funds is to
stimulate growth of new Extension programs.
The grant applications submitted were Comprehensive Core Training Programs,
C. Randall, L. Swain, and J. Stone; Establishment of an IPM Academy, C.
Randall and L. Swain; Development of
Spanish Language Pesticide Applicator Training Materials, C. Randall, J.
Marinez, A. Escobar, and B. Lopez-Ariza.
Each grant application requested the maximum amount—$10,000. Two of the three grants were awarded. Establishment
of an IPM Academy was awarded at $5,000 and
Development of Spanish Language Pesticide Applicator Training Materials was
awarded at $9,000. The grants start
October 1, 2007 and ends September 30, 2008.
·
Carolyn
Randall and Sue Risley of MSU PSEP and Larry Swain of MDA put together fifty
43-page workbooks for the Comprehensive Core Seminar held on June 13.
·
Carolyn
Randall from MSUE, Larry Swain from MDA, and Tim Gibb from Purdue Dept. of
Entomology prepared a proposal to EPA Region 5’s Urban IPM Project Grant
Request entitled Establishment of a
Region 5 IPM Academy. The total
grant request was for $142,000 over 2 years. The proposal did not receive
funding. However, it was ranked as
number 2 out of 9 proposals submitted.
·
Pesticide Emergency Information, Extension Bulletin AM037, was revised
(November, 2007). Five-hundred copies were printed and placed into the bulletin
system.
·
The
Spanish version of Pesticide Emergency
Information, Extension Bulletin AM037SP, was updated with the help of Luis
Donado from MSU. Two-hundred and fifty
copies were printed and placed into the bulletin system.
· Website: New training seminars and publications are continually being posted on the website, www.pested.msu.edu.
Host in-service programs and participate in other programs and events as needed.
·
The 2006
Michigan Agricultural Aviation Association (MAAA) Conference was held October
18-19 at the University Club in
On October 18, Polly Kapala from MDA gave the
enforcement update. FAA representatives
were also present at the meeting to give their updates—Tim Phillips and Dan Allison
from Grand Rapids FSDO, and Carol Callan, Glen Shaw, and Norm Moore from the
Detroit FSDO. Dr. Brian Hughes from MDA
presented the label review exercise. The
featured speaker this year was Dr. Dan Martin, research engineer from the
USDA’s Aerial Application Technology Research Project in
On October 19, Robert Feerst from
Utility/Aviation Specialist gave a 3-hour program entitled “Flying in a Wire
Environment” which was followed by the 4-hour PAASS (Professional Aerial
Applicators Support System) program.
This year’s PAASS program presenters were Harley Curless and Jeff
Tidwell. Participants were very pleased
with the program on both days as indicated by the returned evaluation forms. A program agenda is attached (see Attachment
1).
·
MSU PSEP
sponsored “The Core and Common Sense” on December 11 in
·
“Turfgrass
and Ornamental Update,” was held December 12 in Big Rapids and was set up with
the help of Mecosta County Agent, Tom Rorabaugh. John Stone taught the 4-hour course. The $30 registration fee was received by MSU
PSEP. Twelve (12) people attended.
·
John
Stone was the trainer for the Core category training at the Great Lakes Trade
Exposition on January 9-10. Carolyn also
attended the Great Lakes Trade Exposition and assisted MDA with recertification
bubble sheets.
·
John
Stone and Carolyn Randall planned 10 pesticide applicator training
seminars. Five sessions were Core and
the other five were combined 3A turfgrass/3B ornamental training. The sessions were 4-hours long with a break
for lunch. The first Core and 3A/3B
classes were offered in Traverse City on February 1 and 2 with 17 people in
attendance, followed by Flint (February 20 and 21; ~40 attendees), Novi
(February 28 and March 1; 11 attendees); East Lansing (March 8 and 9; 36
attendees); and Grand Rapids (March 13 and 14; 17 attendees). The
·
The
Pesticide Education and Regulatory Update In-service was offered during ANR
week at the
·
A
day-long “Comprehensive Core Training” seminar was presented at the MSU
Pavilion on June 13. Larry Swain of MDA,
John Stone from MSU PSEP, and Fred Whitford from Purdue Pesticide Programs were
the instructors. The program was
designed for already certified applicators wanting to renew all of their core
credits in one day. At the end of the
seminar a 20-question exam was given.
Forty-one applicators took the exam with a mean score of 83 percent. Out of the 41, there were five non-passing
scores (below 70 percent). The program
was well received by the participants as indicated by the evaluation forms. An
agenda and budget analysis of the seminar is attached (see Attachments 4 and 5).
·
Carolyn
Randall assisted MDA with acquiring materials to distribute at the Earth Day
event at Constitution Hall including the printing of 2,000 copies of the EPA
publication Dusty the Asthma Goldfish. She also escorted 1st graders from
·
Two
day-long “Comprehensive Core Training” seminars were presented in the
Serve on university, state, and national
committees, and attend conferences, related to pesticide issues.
·
The Michigan Core Manual Committee met on
November 17 at the
·
The MAAA Planning Committee met March 22 to plan
the annual MAAA Educational Session to be held at the University Club in
· Carolyn attended the EPA Region 5 Pre-SFIREG meeting on May 14 and 15. Topics included EPA’s new container and containment rule, budget and discretionary proposals, Enforcement Updates, etc.
·
Carolyn Randall attended the North American
Pesticide Applicator Certification and Safety Education Workshop in
Website (www.pested.msu.edu)
There was a total of 25,862 requests to the PSEP website in FY 2006-2007. Most of the requests were from commercial (13,192; 52%), followed by network (8,612; 33%), unresolved (2,097; 8%), International (1,634; 6%) and other (327; 1%). (See Figure 1)
During the fiscal year there were 6,239 requests the first quarter (October to December 2006); 4,099 requests in the second quarter (January to March, 2007), 5,488 requests the third quarter, and 10,036 requests the fourth quarter (July to September, 2007). (See Figure 2).
The top ten download pdf’s are presented to determine which documents clients find the most useful. The ten most popular downloaded items were all or a part of:
E2048, General Pest Management (3,390).
E2047 Wood-destroying Pests (768).
E2195SP, Spanish version Pesticide Applicator Core Training Manual, (488).
E2050, Vertebrate
E2621, Swimming Pool
E2195, Pesticide Applicator Core Training Manual, (241).
E2055, Regulatory
E2601, Livestock
E2492, Small Animal
E2891, Fruit Crops
(See Figure 3.)
There were
1,634 (6%) international requests from 51 countries. Most international hits came from
Figure 1. Requests by client
Domain
Figure 2. Requests by quarter
for Fiscal Year 2006-2007.
Figure 3. Top ten pdf downloads.
Figure 4. International requests
by country.