Posted February 26, 2014
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
announced proposed changes to the agricultural Worker
Protection Standard (WPS) which would increase protections from pesticide
exposure for the nation’s two million agricultural workers and their families,
according to the EPA announcement here. Hortidaily also reported on the story here.
Proposed changes to the WPS include: Increasing
mandatory trainings from once every five years to annually to inform workers
about specific protections under the law; expanding mandatory posting of
“no-entry” signs for the most hazardous pesticides; no-entry buffer areas; measures
to improve the ability of states’ to enforce compliance; and making information
specific to the pesticide application available to farm workers and their
medical personnel.
The proposal also includes a new minimum age
requirement – Children under 16 will be prohibited from handling pesticides.
An exemption for family farms applies to all provisions
of the proposal.
Gina McCarthy, EPA Administrator, said, “Today marks an
important milestone for the farm workers who plant, tend, and harvest the food
that we put on our tables each day,” according to an article by Southeast Ag
Net available here. “EPA’s revised Worker Protection Standard
will afford farm workers similar health protections to those already enjoyed by
workers in other jobs. Protecting our
nation’s farm workers from pesticide exposure is at the core of EPA’s work to
ensure environmental justice.”
Current Worker Protection Standard Regulations, 40
C.F.R. §§ 170.1-170.260 are available here.
For more information on the agricultural labor issues,
please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
