It's no secret that golf courses must use a variety of fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and fertilizers to meet the expectation of the membership. You are entitled to the specific information if you so desire, by law. A member recently asked me for such info and I promptly provided them with examples of the products we use. A Safety Data Sheet, formally known as a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is a universal document that every chemical on the market has. Anyone who purchases the product has the right to this information.
These sheets give you the chemical makeup of the product and how an individual should be treated if it is ingested. All of these products have the signal word: ‘Caution’ which means it has a very high LD50 value. The higher the value, the lesser the toxicity. A product with a very low LD50, meaning it’s very toxic, may have a signal word such as: Danger, accompanied with the skull and cross bones graphic. LD50 refers to the amount of a particular chemical required to kill 50% of the population of mice in a lab. If it takes only a little amount of the substance, you can imagine how toxic it is. Liquid Bleach is an example and a very toxic chemical. Many people think that just because it’s available to anyone at a variety of stores, it is somehow safe to the consumer. SDS’s are required to be available to anyone interested, by law.
We take great caution at HCC to apply these plant protectants in a safe manner when the conditions are ideal for turf uptake. Greens are treated every Thursday with very low rates of liquid fertilize in order to eliminate runoff issues. Fairways are treated every 21 days with a fungicide and liquid fertilizer. The extremely low toxicity of these products enable golfers and staff to enter these areas immediately behind the application.
The EPA has tremendous oversight on the labeling and application guidelines of these products. At HCC, three staff members are licensed by the State of NC to apply these products after rigorous exams and continuing education to maintain the license. For example, I hold a North Carolina license in several categories: Lawn and Turf, Ornamentals, Aquatics and Core safety. In addition, I hold a category 7 license in Pennsylvania.
Please don’t hesitate to call me if you have any questions. There is nothing to worry about regarding these products…at least no more than the toxicity found in dish soap.
On a fun note, you can use this to your advantage. Companies like Terminex, don't usually want to tell you the chemicals they use- for business reasons. Essentially, they are inexpensive and you are paying a lot for the service. At my home, I called them out once and asked to see the SDS sheets for what they planned to apply for termites and also for spiders as well as the formulations. Again, by law, they provided that info. I was able to purchase a lifetime supply of these insecticides at a local farm supply store for less than the cost they charged to make one application. I have no shame.
On a fun note, you can use this to your advantage. Companies like Terminex, don't usually want to tell you the chemicals they use- for business reasons. Essentially, they are inexpensive and you are paying a lot for the service. At my home, I called them out once and asked to see the SDS sheets for what they planned to apply for termites and also for spiders as well as the formulations. Again, by law, they provided that info. I was able to purchase a lifetime supply of these insecticides at a local farm supply store for less than the cost they charged to make one application. I have no shame.