Pesticide Use & Record Keeping in New South Wales

The following information is available from the NSW EPA site.

A new law for keeping records on pesticide applications has been finalised after considering public comments. The new law called the Pesticides Amendment (Records) Regulation, is part of the Pesticides Act 1999 and begins on 31 July 2002.

Requirements of the Act

• If you use pesticides on your produce or farm, or in your business or occupation, then you must make a record of your pesticide use.
• The record needs to contain information about: who applied the pesticide; what was applied; when, how and where it was applied; what it was applied to, how much was applied, and, if the pesticide was applied outdoors by spray equipment, an estimate of wind speed and direction.
• The record must be made within 24 hours of use and kept for three years.
• EPA officers may check these records at any reasonable time and penalties may apply if the records have not been kept in accordance with the new law.

Do I have to record other weather details in addition to wind?

For some pesticides, the NRA has set directions on labels that restrict the use of the pesticide in certain weather conditions. If the label of the pesticide you are using talks about weather details such as rainfall, temperature and/or humidity then you will need to record these too. For example, if the label says, 'do not apply if rain is expected within 6 hours of application' then you should record whether rain is expected.  Similarly, if the label says, 'do not apply when temperatures are above 27°C' or 'avoid spraying when the relative humidity is less than 40%' then you should record temperature and humidity information.

If you need to record rainfall, temperature or humidity, then you also need to record any significant changes during the application, e.g. when a change in weather conditions increases the risk of off-target movement of the pesticide.

For further information visit http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/envirom/recordkeeping.htm