With spring fieldwork underway, producers and those applying agricultural pesticides must be aware of, and follow, a new federal safety protocol concerning the Application Exclusion Zone (AEZ). The protocol was initiated by the Environmental Protection Agency to protect people from pesticides being applied either on the ground or aerially, either alone or with another product such as fertilizer.

The AEZ is an area surrounding application equipment that during a pesticide application must be free of all people other than trained and equipped individuals; this imaginary halo moves with the equipment. The AEZ extends from 25 to 100 feet from the application equipment. The intent is to prevent people from coming into contact with pesticides such as herbicides, insecticides, or fungicides. An AEZ video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOMmDxU1FsY.

No application is allowed if workers or other persons are in the AEZ that is within the boundary of the farm property. In this case, if someone enters the AEZ or treated area, you must stop the application. If you are applying a pesticide and someone enters the AEZ in a neighboring field, road, forest, or whatever is outside of the farm boundary, you must suspend the application, according to EPA. You may resume the application if the person leaves the AEZ or if you are certain the person will not be contacted by spray. An example is if the wind is blowing away from, not toward, that person.

• The AEZ is 100 feet from the outermost nozzle for aerial, air blast, fumigant, smoke, mist, and fog pesticide applications. It also is 100 feet for spray applications using extremely fine, very fine, or fine droplet sizes.
• The AEZ is 25 feet from the outermost nozzle when spraying medium or larger droplets, and the product is sprayed from more than 12 inches above the planting medium (soil).
• No AEZ is required in applications of granular pesticides, soil-incorporated pesticides (not fumigants); and pre-plant, at-plant, and spot-spray pesticide applications, as long as they are less than 12 inches from the soil or planting medium and use a medium or larger spray droplet size. These conditions are more likely to be met in plant nursery settings than in the field.