Understanding chemical colour codes is important for livestock farmers

10 May, 2020 - 00:05 0 Views
Understanding chemical colour codes is important for livestock farmers Accaricides

The Sunday News

Mhlupheki Dube 

MOST farmers employ illiterate to semi-literate personnel to look after their animals. These are usually young boys from Lupane, Nkayi or Binga and any such districts of Matabeleland North. My province of birth.

Naturally the boys would not be formally trained in agriculture or animal husbandry but their claim to fame is that they tend to have the endurance to withstand difficult farm conditions that we subject them to, as farmers. The aim of this article is not to zoom my lens on the ill treatment that farm helpers tend to be subjected to by some farmers but to discuss an important subject of personal protective equipment (PPE) or clothing.

This is obviously inspired by the coronavirus pandemic which has seen everyone put on a mask for personal protection against possible infection. Livestock farmers use a lot of chemicals for treating their animals and these tend to come in varying levels of toxicity yet the farm helpers are sometimes not given personal protective clothing to protect them from these chemicals.

Accaricides (dipping chemicals) are mostly the ones that tend to be toxic and your farm helpers get exposed when they are spraying animals for the ticks. It is important for me to walk readers on the insignia that are used to communicate the toxicity of chemicals to the user.

Agricultural chemicals in Zimbabwe have triangles on the containers which are of different colours depending of the toxicity of the chemical in that container. A green triangle is the least toxicity, only poisonous when consumed, while a purple coloured triangle signifies that the chemical is very poisonous. One common misconception among users of chemicals, is that the colour of triangles of chemical containers indicate the potency of the chemical in destroying the pest it was designed for.

In other words some farmers believe that because the chemical is of a purple triangle label, it means it is extremely effective in controlling whatever pests is manufactured for. This is not correct as the colour codes of chemical containers are meant to indicate the level of toxicity of that chemical to the user.

In other words the colour code is telling you the user the level of danger that you expose yourself to if you don’t protect yourself when using that chemical. The colour code is communicating to you what level of protection you should adopt when using the chemical. When you are using a purple coded chemical for example, you have to put on a respirator, gloves and a work suit that covers all of your body.

Such chemicals do not only enter your body through openings such as your mouth or nose but some may actually penetrate through the skin. So next time you see a purple labelled chemical do not read into its efficacy but its toxicity. Actually some green labelled accaricides have proven to be more effective than purple labelled ones, from my experience. It is my plea to farmers to at least provide protective clothing for their employees if they are to be exposed to such chemicals.

At times exposure to such chemicals may not have an immediate negative effect but will manifest later in life of the user as one form of cancer or another. Farmers can also provide short lessons on the colour codes on the chemical containers so that they know, in case you have to send down a dipping chemical and you are not available to explain the level of toxicity to them.

It is extremely unfair and heartless to let your farm helper spray your animals using a very poisonous dipping chemical which is colour coded purple, without any form of protective clothing.

More often than not knapsack sprayers that we use tend to leak around the point where one presses to discharge the sprayer. Therefore, it is very common to see a guy who is spraying his animals with a knapsack sprayer, himself wet the whole arm and the leg on the leaking side.

So by the time the guy finishes spraying, he has half his hand soaked in a very poisonous chemical! Let us be considerate of our helpers and teach them the basics of safety precautions when dealing with chemicals so that we do not destroy the lives of unsuspecting farm employees.

Knowledge is only useful when shared especially at farm level, where you may not always be available to take charge or explain everything.

Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.

Feedback [email protected]/ cell 0772851275

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