WASHINGTON, Aug. 24,
2016 - Come the new year, U.S. farmers will have to begin complying with a host
of new EPA regulations designed to protect farm workers from any ill effects
associated with handling or working near pesticides.
And Kim Pope,
pesticide safety education coordinator with the Louisiana State AgCenter, wants
to make sure farm operators are prepared. The new rules, revisions to the 1992
Agricultural Worker Protection Standard, will afford farmworkers similar health
protections that are already afforded to workers in other industries. Full
compliance is not required until 2018.
Pope
says EPA has indicated it will work with farmers initially to help them comply
with the new Worker Protection Standards (WPS), which will be enforced
primarily by state agriculture departments.
“It is a
high priority,” Pope said in an interview, adding that those departments, plus
Extension Services, “will be working to help farmers understand the rules as
completely as possible.”
There is a clear
need for better protection for farmworkers, EPA says. Each year, between 1,800
and 3,000 occupational incidents involving pesticide exposure are reported from
the farms, forests, nurseries and greenhouses covered by the WPS. Those figures
may not reflect the magnitude of the problem as the agency believes there is
widespread underreporting.
Pope
outlined the new regulations during a session on environmental and labor issues
at the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation’s annual convention earlier this summer
in New Orleans. The new rules apply to ag workers who perform hand-labor tasks in pesticide-treated crops,
such as harvesting, thinning and pruning, and pesticide handlers – those who
mix, load and apply pesticides.
The new rules:
- Require farm operators to train workers
annually. Federal regulations had required training every five years while
some states had more stringent commitments. In addition, Pope said, there
will no longer be a grace period for new workers. Previously, someone
could be put to work and then trained within five days. “Now they will have
to receive training before they perform worker or handler tasks.”
- Preclude the hiring of
pesticide-handling workers under the age of 18 unless they are
“immediate-family” members. Pope noted that the immediate-family exemption
has been expanded to include aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and first
cousins.
- Require growers to take a “Train the
Trainer” course to make sure they’re covering all of the information
needed to adequately prepare employees for handling, applying or being
exposed to pesticide residues.
- Mandate that growers keep copies of the
label from the pesticide container on hand to make sure medical personnel
know what they are dealing with, in the case of an exposure incident.
