The Pesticide Stewardship Alliance Presents 2017 Awards

For Immediate Release

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Contact:

Jeff Rogers, TPSA Immediate Past President

Phone:  804-371-6561

E-mail: Jeffrey.rogers@vdacs.virginia.gov          

 

The Pesticide Stewardship Alliance (TPSA) held its annual conference in San Diego, California earlier this month where three awards were presented.

Program Excellence:  Garnet Cooke, Pesticide Coordinator, OSHA, Oregon Department of Consumer & Business Services

Garnet Cooke is one of the national leaders in educating regulators, pesticide users and others about the correct respirators to wear when mixing, loading or applying pesticides. In the past few years, Garnet has been the driving force in moving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to revise the respirator statements on pesticide labels.  This includes educating EPA on the current respirator terminology and standards as well as working with state agency organizations to raise awareness with other states and to request action by EPA.

Cooke has developed a respirator outreach document “Respirators 101” for the Pesticide Educational Resources Collaborative (PERC), a cooperative agreement between EPA and the University of California Davis in cooperation with Oregon State University.  The purpose of the document is to help people understand the respirator terminology so they can select the correct respiratory protection for pesticide applications.

In addition, Cooke has conducted regular training on selecting the correct respirator for pesticide applications – for pesticide applicators, state regulators and federal regulators.

 

Leadership in Product Stewardship – Private Industry (the Pizzy Award):   Meister Media, Willoughby, Ohio.

With a $5,000.00 budget from TPSA for FY2015-2016, Meister Media Worldwide exceeded that amount many times over by donated space within their publications; CropLife, American Fruit Grower and American Vegetable Grower.

Meister Media has continued to place pro bono ads for TPSA beyond the specified period with no further budgetary commitment. This has allowed continued wide distribution of the TPSA web site with information regarding state-specific companies that recycle intermediate bulk containers (IBCs), as well as fact sheets and videos on how to rinse IBCs and prepare them for recycling.

 

Outstanding Member ContributionWendy Sue Wheeler, Washington State University

Wendy Sue has been a supportive and enthusiastic member of TPSA.  She was selected to serve on the Board of Directors and has served leadership roles for the 2016 and 2017 Annual Conference.  Wendy is a person that gets things done and always with an engaging smile.  It takes teamwork to achieve success as an organization and being a team player is one of her best attributes. Her organizational skills have served her and TPSA well.

 

There are many unseen efforts provided by Wendy Sue throughout the year.  TPSA is fortunate to have a relatively new member to take on such responsibilities.  Wendy currently serves as the Extension Coordinator for Washington State University located in Pullman, Washington.

 

The Pesticide Stewardship Alliance (TPSA), founded in 2000, is an organization of federal, state and local governmental agencies, educational and research institutions, public organizations, private corporations and individuals that are actively involved in different aspects of pesticide stewardship.  The goals of TPSA are to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and longevity of various pesticide stewardship efforts.  Please go to the TPSA web site for more information.

The 2018 Pesticide Stewardship Conference is scheduled for February 6-8 in Memphis, Tennessee.