Timber Treatment Plants Require PCO Certicifation
Timber Treatment Plants Require PCO Certicifation
We wish to bring our industry’s attention to the need for all timber treatment operations to register as Pest Control Operators (PCOs) and obtain a PCO certificate from the Department of Agriculture.
However, there is still uncertainty for our industry, as the process for registering a timber treatment plant has not yet been finalised, as we will discuss later in this story.
The need for PCO registration is outlined in regulations published by the Minster for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Government Gazette No 34020, which apply to timber treatment plants as well as businesses that work in crop spray, fumigation and other forms of pest control.
If you access that Government Gazette online, you’ll notice that it was published in February 2011. “These regulations have been in the background for a long time. However, the Department has recently started clamping down on the requirements,” said Bertus.
This is because the South African government has implemented the GHS (Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals), which is outlined in the United Nations’ GHS Purple Book on chemical classification.
Chemical manufacturers are now obliged to reclassify their products and submit the new classifications to the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, as Dolphin Bay has done for all its products.
The structure of the application form for a PCO certificate makes no provision for treatment plants. This has created an administrative knot that needs to be untangled.
Treatment plants need to be registered and certified as PCOs because their products such as CCA, creosote and most other wood preservatives have been classified as restricted products under the new GHS framework, explained Bertus.
Such wood preservatives require a “restricted use agricultural remedy” label and may only be sold to registered PCOs.
No provision for treatment plants – yet
The department has only issued certificates to individuals in the past, and the structure of the application form for a PCO certificate makes no provision for treatment plants. This has created an administrative knot that needs to be untangled.
“As things stands, it is only an individual who needs to comply with certain requirements to prove their competence,” said Bertus. “This is different from the case of our industry, where the application of the chemical is controlled within the infrastructure of a timber treatment plant and a regulatory framework that is well established.
“Timber treaters have plant installations with fixed equipment, and our products are applied in a vacuum pressure treatment chamber according to SANS specifications − which also make provision for how treatment plants are governed.
“Within this structure, operators need to be trained to run the treatment plant competently. Dolphin Bay provides this training to our customers, issuing a certificate of competence to operators which must be reevaluated and reissued from time to time.”
An overregulated industry?
The timber preservative industry is already highly regulated. Timber treaters need to comply with a host of requirements, including certification from a SANS inspection body; certification from the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS); various other regulations including health and safety and environmental regulations, and the PCO registration.
The establish standards are regularly monitored for compliance by the authorities. We understand it might seem that the PCO brings in over-regulation of our industry, but we believe there is a place for it.
“It creates another level of compliance, regardless of any overlapping areas, and shows our industry to be even more responsible, which will elevate its reputation even further and provide more assurance to the regulatory bodies,” said Bertus.
How do we comply?
An official from the department approached the industry at a recent conference where we raised the issue of the administrative hurdle, and he acknowledged that it needs to be overcome. The official said a meeting needs to be convened soon with our industry to determine the way forward.
Meanwhile, there is not much that treatment operations can do. Any application now submitted will be rejected, as we were led to understand during our early engagements with the department.
If an inspector visits your plant and asks for your PCO certificate, please contact us, as we are engaged with the department on ironing out this process.
We believe this will be resolved soon and there is still a little time, as our labels were only submitted recently to the department and are awaiting approval. “Nevertheless, we are keen to get this process resolved as soon as possible to ensure our customers’ and industry’s full compliance,” said Bertus.
Meanwhile, if an inspector visits your plant and asks for your PCO certificate, please contact us, as we are engaged with the department on ironing out this process.
Source: Dolphin Bay