As the Certified Pesticide Applicator working for the ‘landscape’ company that I wrote about earlier ( https://tonytomeo.wordpress.com/2018/03/18/shady/ ), I assumed several responsibilities pertaining to the pesticides and other chemicals that the ‘landscape’ company used. Among other things, I needed to inventory all the chemicals, monitor their use, submit use reports to the Department of Agriculture for each of the nine counties in which we used these chemicals, and provide MSDS binders for all of the ‘landscape’ company offices and vehicles within their fleet.
MSDS is for ‘Material Safety Data Sheet’. They are actually several pages each. Each MSDS binder contained two copies of the MSDS for every chemical the ‘landscape’ company used, or even had on site, whether it was actually used or not. One MSDS was in American English. The other was in Mexican Spanish.
So every office and every facility and every vehicle in the fleet of the ‘landscape’ company was equipped with an MSDS binder. Every binder was equipped with two copies of the MSDS for every chemical even remotely associated with the ‘landscape’ company. That is a whole lot of MSDS!
It’s the law.
I was required to provide all of this literature in languages spoken by anyone and everyone in the workplace, for all vehicles and facilities. Okay, so we’re clear on all that.
However . . .
There is no law requiring those using chemicals to be literate.
I certainly do not expect everyone to be literate in American English. They do not need to be able to read or write it. That is why there were copies of all the literature in Mexican Spanish. I could translate field notes from those who wrote them in Mexican Spanish. That would not have been a problem.
The problem was that many of those using the chemicals could neither read nor write in ANY language! At first, I though we could improvise. I instructed the accounts managers to inform their technicians to merely write down basic information, like the identification number of a chemical being used, the volume of the chemical used, and so on. Most of it involved copying information from the label, and the location from the work order provided to the accounts managers. It sounded simple enough. Sadly, it was not. Copying such information was too much to expect from those handling these potentially dangerous and polluting chemicals. The literature in the MSDS binders that I had so dutifully printed and provided was merely used as napkins and toilet paper.
By the time I could no longer be affiliated with this particular ‘landscape’ company, I had no idea where all of the inventoried chemicals ended up or how they were applied.
Tony Tomeo 
By some of the caregivers that have come here, I understand your frustration.
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Horrific
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Yes; hence I do not work for them. After I stopped working for them, they wanted me to become an employee ‘on paper’ just so they could continue to use chemicals on my credentials.
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How frustrating!
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Frustrating . . . risky . . . dangerous . . . yeah, the list goes on.
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As you must be well aware, when a company reaches a certain size it has to hire one or more people who do nothing but make sure the company is complying with all relevant federal, state, and local regulations. John Stossel used to appear on television with a flatbed cart stacked high with all the new regulations that had been added in just the previous year.
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I am also aware that I would have been responsible for any violation for those who would not conform. The blatant disregard is why I could not continue to do it.
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Infuriating! Pointing out the dangers to our neighbors’ association didn’t work for me. Residents want the greenest grass, no weeds, no insects, no small animals…. at any cost.
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Even if clients are aware of problems, none are aware of how bad some of the problems really are.
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That is a soul destroying job and I also imagine even if they could read and write so many people NEVER read or follow instructions and who can police that???
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The people who applied the chemicals actually did their job quite well; except that they had no business doing work that needed to be documented. There were others who should have done that work. The guys who could read and write where the ones who did not care. It was all so backward and dysfunctional. I should write about the good jobs I have had for a while.
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Yes best to remember the good times.
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Reblogged this on Tony Tomeo and commented:
This is not really a sequel to the recycled article that posted last Wednesday. It just happens to be of the same theme, which was prior to the development of Horridculture meme on Wednesdays.
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