This Code has been developed by manufacturers and contractors as part of the Voluntary Initiative to promote best practice for the use of sulphuric acid as a desiccant of approved agricultural crops.
Areas Covered by the Code
- Health and Safety: To minimise the risk to operators and handlers
by improving the standards of handling/transport/application often exceeding the
standards and regulations set by the PSD and the HSE.
-
Environment and Wildlife: To minimise any adverse impact of sulphuric acid
on water and non-target species by reviewing crop management techniques and optimising
application rates.
-
Communication: To reduce public concerns regarding the use of sulphuric acid
by providing improvements in practice that will minimise any adverse environmental
impact, by providing adequate information to residents adjacent to treated land,
and supply other public interest groups on request.
The standards set in this Code of Best Practice have been agreed with the NAAC, NSAA and Crop Protection Association (CPA), following consultation with the PSD and HSE and other industry bodies.
- Everyone using sulphuric acid must have achieved full certification
in appropriate regulations and codes of practice. Regular updates will take place
including an annual review of procedures and practices.
- All equipment will have up-to-date written maintenance records. These should
include a record of all work completed, by whom and on which dates servicing/sprayer
testing has taken place.
- The contractor should also confirm that the grower has carried out a risk assessment
to confirm that acid is the most suitable product to apply.
- A suitable contingency plan must be in place to deal with all emergencies,
including spillage, loss of containment, failure of equipment and accidental handling
of acid by operators. This contingency plan must include measures to protect the
operator, public, wildlife and environment.
- Protecting the Public and the Environment
Approval for the use of sulphuric acid has specific restrictions to ensure the protection of the public and the environment. This Code of Best Practice improves still further the levels of protection by consolidating existing legal requirements and formalising additional criteria including making every effort to ensure that all persons, domestic animals and wildlife are clear of the field before application begins.
5.1 Notification
- Notification to adjacent property must take place in line with notice of approval
for use.
- Signatories will undertake to give a minimum of 24 hours notice and declare a window
of no more than 3 days in which the application can take place.
- Re-notification will take place if application is to take place outside this window.
- Notices are to be kept in place for 96 hours following treatment. Notices to be
removed promptly after the restriction zone has passed.
5.2 Application
- The maximum quantity of acid to be used on potatoes per hectare will be reduced
to 700 litres/ha per crop, with the maximum individual dose reduced from 800 litres/ha
to 400 litres/ha.
- Measures to minimise drift will be deployed
- All spray operators will be required to be in possession of a suitable map, which
clearly shows the position of all watercourses, current footpaths, and property
boundaries The grower should provide this. Where only a proportion of the field/crop
is to be sprayed; the area to be treated must be clearly identified before spraying
commences.
- Extra care will be taken to prevent sulphuric acid contamination of public highways
5.3 Buffer Zones
-
This Code of Best Practice encourages up to a 6 metre untreated zone on public rights
of way and around buildings. (currently 1m on public rights of way and no specific
restriction on edges of field.)
- Where watercourses exist, sulphuric acid will be treated in the same way as a Category B LERAP.
-
Growers will be discouraged from planting potatoes on areas that are likely to result
in justifiable public objections to the use of sulphuric acid - for example, by
leaving false headlands, planting alternative crops or establishing grass or non-crop
strips adjacent to residential property, public rights of way and field margins.
- Where field size or footpath position prevents this from occurring then growers will be advised to grow a variety, which should be suitable for an alternative haulm destruction technique.
The full code can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf) by clicking here