Section 7.154 - Incidental Use Situation Fact Sheet(a) The Incidental Use Fact Sheet must contain the following text: "This fact sheet must be distributed to all city, county, and state employees who apply general use pesticides and are not licensed by the Texas Department of Agriculture. The fact sheet and instruction must be provided upon initial employment and thereafter must be available as needed. These general use pesticides include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and rodenticides and involve applications made both inside and outside of structures. Incidental Use is not intended for long term or extensive pest control measures. Where long term pest control is required, a trained, licensed person is to make the applications. Incidental Use is defined as "A pesticide application on an occasional, isolated, site-specific basis that is incidental to the primary duties of an employee and involves the use of general use pesticides after instruction as provided by rules adopted by the department. Examples of Incidental Use Situations are treating fire ants in a transformer box, or treating of ants by a janitor or clerical employee in a break area. Incidental is defined as site-specific and incidental to the employee's primary duties. If it is a part of the employee's primary duty to make applications of pesticides, that employee is required, by law, to obtain a license, depending on the location and type of application. In all cases of incidental use, the employee should use the least hazardous, effective method of controlling pests. If chemicals are to be utilized, they must be applied in strict accordance with manufacturer labels of "General Use" products being used. Applications made inconsistent with the label requirements of the general use product may result in penalties being assessed against the individual and/or the certified noncommercial applicator or technician responsible. "Incidental Use Situation" applications of pesticides are regulated by the department. If you have any questions or comments, contact the department at 866-918-4481; written inquiries may be addressed to the Texas Department of Agriculture, P.O. Box 12847, Austin, Texas 78711-2847.(b) The incidental use fact sheet must be provided during pesticide instruction to each employee of the state, a political subdivision of the state, or a non-commercial entity other than a school district whose primary duty is not pest control, and whose work may include tasks subject to the incidental use exception.(c) Each governmental unit is responsible for distributing the fact sheet to the designated employees.(d) Primary duty is defined as a job duty that is part of a written job description or is a regularly assigned task of the employee.4 Tex. Admin. Code § 7.154
The provisions of this §7.154 adopted to be effective December 29, 1994, 19 TexReg 9998; amended to be effective October 24, 1996, 21 TexReg 10179; amended to be effective September 1, 2000, 25 TexReg 5632; amended to be effective June 5, 2003, 28 TexReg 4280; amended to be effective May 5, 2005, 30 TexReg 2520; transferred effective September 1, 2007, as published in the Texas Register August 17, 2007, 32 TexReg 5189; amended to be effective December 11, 2008, 33 TexReg 9982; Amended by Texas Register, Volume 48, Number 02, January 13, 2023, TexReg 0131, eff. 1/16/2023