The Ohio Department of Agriculture is announcing updates to Ohio’s rules regarding insurance requirements for pesticide businesses. These updates are scheduled to become effective on May 5. As businesses renew their insurance policies it is important they ensure their policies reflect these updates so as to avoid any potential interruptions in the status of their pesticide business license.
As part of Ohio law, businesses are required to maintain liability insurance policies or other evidence of financial responsibility if they are applying pesticides for hire.
Insurance policies that do not reflect the requirements detailed in the law can potentially result in the business having their pesticide business license suspended. Some of the changes in the rules for businesses include:
Updates that a business needs to have a commercial general liability policy and either a separate professional liability policy or endorsement covering the properties under the care, custody and control of a pesticide application. This also includes aerial pest control applications.
To obtain a pesticide business license either a certificate of insurance or binder must be provided to ODA that includes a statement that the policy provides the required coverage.
“We had many meetings with pesticide application associations, insurance associations and insurance companies to figure out what improvements were needed,” said Matt Beal, Chief of ODA’s Division of Plant Health. “We are confident these updates will further benefit and protect both businesses and consumers moving forward.”
Any persons with questions regarding insurances requirements should contact ODA by calling 614-728-6987 or email pesticides@agri.ohio.gov.