Chief Exec Viewpoint | PPC96 August 2019
‘May you live in interesting times’ is a phrase we often use and is translated from a Chinese curse.
Presumably, if times were less interesting, we would have fewer challenges and a more peaceful life.
Many of us thrive on the interesting things that life throws at us and as far as the world of pest management is concerned, I suspect that life will get even more interesting in the years ahead.
In many ways, the rate of change is ever accelerating and we need to keep up with that change.
As your trade association we have a role to play in helping you understand changes when they happen and ideally raise some awareness of stuff that might happen.
Having all the main manufacturers and distributors of pest management products in our membership should help us achieve that.
While not all change is welcome, it is just a fact of life.
Some of the big changes in recent times have been to those products which we have used in a certain way for certain jobs for a long period of time.
It is vital that you take the time to fully understand the implications of some new label changes.
Just because we have always done something in one particular way is no defence if the label requires you to do something different from now on.
For example, have you worked out yet what you are going to do with the empty wasps’ nest that you may now need to remove?
The same is true with rodenticides. The HSE decided to add a reference to a CRRU Guidance Document on new labels.
That has effectively turned a ‘should do’ to ‘must do’.
We held a workshop on these new rodenticide label changes on the afternoon of 12 June following the AGM and Regional Forum in Knaresborough which you can read about here.
Then, more recently, we have had the General Licence revocation by Natural England (NE) and the matter of new licenses being taken back off NE by Defra.
We did a formal response to Defra’s call for evidence on that matter which is available for you to see on our website.
The result of our work can be seen in the new licences that you can read about on page 19.
By the time this magazine reaches you, we will have been before the Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee, alongside the rest of the Pest Management Alliance, giving evidence on the need for glueboards to be retained for professional use in Scotland, where petitioners are seeking an outright ban.
These represent just some of the interesting stuff that we have been living with in the last few months.
One thing that I am certain of is that more interesting things will follow.
As your trade association we are here to drive professionalism across our membership and to be your voice in matters such as those mentioned above.
Through our special interest groups, workgroups, Servicing Committee, Manufacturers and Distributor Committee and our Executive Board there is plenty of opportunities for you to engage and have your voice heard.
BPCA is here for you, our members, through these interesting times.
IAN ANDREW
BPCA Chief Executive
ian@bpca.org.uk
Source: PPC96