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The Utah Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP) for 2011-2012 will be operated in conjunction with the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) which is the State Lead Agency for Utah. The purpose of the Utah PSEP is to provide education and training that (1) assists individuals in becoming certified to apply restricted use pesticides (licensed through the SLA) and (2) assists currently licensed applicators to recertify for restricted use pesticide applications. At present, UDAF has almost 7000 certified individuals with pesticide applicator licenses.
Non-Technical Summary: <BR>Pesticides are substances designed and utilized for the destruction, prevention, and/or mitigation of pests. The majority of pesticides are designed to kill or harm pests. People are biologically similar to some pests and because of this some pesticides can adversely affect humans. The risk of harmful effects depends on a pesticide's toxicity and exposure conditions. Education has proven to be the most effective deterrent to pesticide exposures. The education, training, and testing of pesticide applicators are integral components in the licensing of Utah's commercial, noncommercial, and private pesticide applicators. <P> Approach: <BR> Utah PSEP educational activities include pesticide labeling, safety, environmental protection, formulations, application, equipment, calibration, regulations, and/or pest recognition. Other activities include developing and updating manuals and other training materials, developing and coordinating recertification programs, informing pesticide applicators of scheduled education programs, providing materials though correspondence and the Internet, and the participation in other pesticide related presentations and training as requested or needed to satisfy the needs of Utah. The Utah PSEP has 16 instructional programs currently scheduled for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. The majority of these scheduled programs will provide six or more hours of recertification credits (1 hour = 1 credit) and two of the programs offer 16 or more hours of credit. In addition to the 16 scheduled programs there will be 12 or more other pesticide related presentations during the year that offer one to three hours of recertification credit.