Chemical Hygiene Plan - Queensborough Community College ...

XV. PESTICIDES
A pesticide is defined as a substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing,
destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest or intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or
desiccant. Two categories of pesticides are:
1) EPA Registered Pesticides (the EPA registration number can be found on the
manufacturer's label).
2) Those experimental chemicals for which a pesticidal effect has been determined.
All CUNY personnel (including faculty members, staff members, students, and any other
university-affiliated individuals) who label, store, use, transport, dispose of, or clean up spills of
pesticides are responsible for adhering to federal, state and NYC regulations.
It is essential that teaching, research, extension, and ground maintenance involving pesticide use
be conducted properly and legally for the protection of the pesticide applicator, other employees,
staff, students, public health, and the environment.
The responsibility for ensuring that all work with pesticides at CUNY is conducted
properly and legally rests on the individual user.
15.1 Pesticide Certification
CUNY requires that all individuals handling pesticides as a part of university programs must be
NYS certified pesticide applicators.
15.2 Exemptions from Pesticide Certification
As per state and federal regulations, a number of exemptions exist from pesticide certification
requirements. These exemptions include:
1) Licensed veterinarians, as well as licensed veterinary technicians, interns, residents,
and veterinary students working under the direct supervision of a veterinarian in a
veterinary facility (any building operated by the College of Veterinary Medicine) are
exempt from the certification requirement when engaged in the use of general-use
pesticides.
2) Small laboratory quantities of pesticides used for analysis and treatment of samples in
a laboratory and in an environmentally non-dispersive manner (e.g., microgram or
gram quantities used inside a fume hood, mixed into media, etc.) are exempt from
policy requirements. As with all other chemical use in the laboratory, use of
laboratory quantity pesticides is regulated by the OSHA Laboratory Standard and
other appropriate rules and regulations.
3) Testing of materials for pesticide efficacy, toxicity, or other properties could also be
exempted - for clarification, refer to the federal regulation: 40 CFR part 172.3.
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