When people hear the term personal protective equipment, or PPE, they often think of hardhats, steel-toed work boots and safety goggles.
However, PPE can include anything that reduces exposure to a hazard.
Even clean coveralls, work gloves and well laundered clothing can be categorized as PPE because they can limit a worker’s exposure to chemicals and other toxic residues.
This is especially true for farm workers who handle chemicals and fertilizers during the busy spring season.
Handling and applying pesticides is a common practice in agriculture.
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Knowing how to minimize agricultural pesticide exposures can reduce health problems for farmers and their families.
Ideally, farmers and chemical handlers should use a separate set of work clothes when handling pesticides.
Protective clothing should cover all the areas of the body that are likely to come into contact with the pesticide.
Clothing should always be washed immediately after using a pesticide to minimize exposure to the chemical and any fumes it may emit.
To minimize exposure, follow these laundering rules:
- Remove soiled clothing – Promptly remove all clothing worn during pesticide handling or application. Never wear soiled clothing in living or food preparation areas. If you can’t wash your clothes immediately, store them in a closed plastic bag, away from family and pets. Always wash them before wearing them again.
- Pre-rinse soiled clothing – Rinse clothes in a basin or the washing machine in a pre-rinse solution, or on a clothesline outdoors where they can be rinsed with a hose. Always wash pesticide application clothing separately from other laundry.
- Launder work clothes frequently – For the best results, wash work clothes with the washing machine set on the highest water level. Choose the hottest water temperature setting, select the longest agitation time and use the full recommended amount of detergent.
- Clean the washing machine – After clean, wet laundry has been removed from the machine, add more detergent and run the washing machine through the complete wash and rinse cycles again with no clothes in it.
This will clean the washer and prevent contamination of future loads of laundry.
- Hang work clothes to dry – Hang protective work clothes outside to dry, because exposure to sunlight will help break down any lingering chemicals that may remain in the clothes. If the clothes cannot be dried outside, then place them on an inside clotheshorse. Never place contaminated clothing in the dryer because this increases the risk of contaminating other articles of clothing.
- Store laundered clothes separately – Even after they have been laundered, clothes used for pesticide handling should always be stored separately from other clothes.
- Consider a remote washing site – To eliminate chemical fumes and residues in the house, consider setting up a temporary laundering station in the workshop or another remote location. If possible, make a habit of washing work clothes each day after use.
This would require using a second set of pesticides handling clothes that could be worn on alternating days.
Farmers who establish a laundering system well in advance of pesticide application season will minimize their risk of exposure and downtime.
“Farm safety doesn’t just happen in the barn or on a tractor,” says Marcel Hacault, executive director of the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association.
“Most agricultural producers both work and live on their farms. So care must be given to ensure that hazards from the work environment are not brought into the home environment.”
