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Restricted Entry Intervals

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Restricted Entry Interval (REI) is the period of time after a pesticide has been applied that agricultural workers or anyone else must not do hand labour tasks in treated areas.  The REI allows the pesticide residues and vapours to dissipate to safe levels for work to be done.
Hand labour tasks involve substantial worker contact with treated surfaces such as plants, plant parts or soil.  Examples of these activities include:
·  harvesting, detasseling, thinning, weeding, scouting, planting, mowing, roguing, and packing produce into containers in the field or greenhouse.
You can only do these tasks after the Restricted Entry Interval has ended.
An REI can range from 0 hours to several days.  A pesticide label may state different REIs that are specific to a crop and post application task (e.g. thinning, scouting, harvesting).  If the REI is not stated on a label, use a 12 hour REI.
Here are examples of REIs stated on pesticide labels:

Pesticide

Restricted Entry Interval
Stratego Pro Fungicide:
12 days to perform detasseling in corn
24 hours (all crops)
Scala SC
Fungicide:
12 hours except for activities for the following:
  • pome fruits and bulb vegetables: 24 hours for hand-thinning 
  • grapes: 24 hours fore can truning,l girdling, training, tying, pruning, thinning, and leaf pulling 
Switch
62.5 WG:
12 hours except for activities for the following:
  • Saskatoon berries: 10 days for hand harvest, pruning and thinning
  • spinach: 3 days for harvesting
  • small fruit, vine climbing: 7 days for cane truning and girdling; 2 days for training, tying, and leaf pulling

Tell Farm Workers and Others of the REIs

Notify your farm manager, farm workers, scouts and others of the Restricted Entry Intervals.  Everyone needs to know.  One way to notify is to post signs, such as the example shown, at any main access points into the treated area.  In addition to posting signs, keep spray records and REIs in a main location where they can be readily seen and read by farm workers or anyone else on the farm.

Early Entry

Everyone is restricted from entering between 0-4 hours.

A Certified Farmer may need to enter a treated area early to do short-term tasks before the end of a Restricted Entry Interval. 

Early Entry is allowed under the following precautions.
Between 4-12 hours, a Certified Farmer may enter the area if she: 
  • →wears a NIOSH-approved respirator and any other protective clothing and personal protective equipment stated on the label for mixing and loading and 
  • →does not touch any treated surfaces, and 
  • →does not stay in the area for more than a total of 1 hour in any 24-hour period.
After 12 hours (if the REI hasn’t yet ended), a worker may enter the area if she:  
  • →does not do hand labour tasks and does not touch surfaces that could have pesticide residues on them.
When the REI has ended, anyone may enter.  Certified Farmers should plan pesticide applications around work tasks so that no one needs to enter treated areas early.

This is an example of an Early Entry for a pesticide with a 24-hour REI:


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