The EPA is considering changes to a 2015 rule that requires pesticide handlers to be at least 18 years old and bars the application of pesticides if farmworkers are nearby, said Bloomberg. An EPA spokesman confirmed the farmworker pesticide rule was under review, and an Oregon ag coalition said it was told that three of the rule’s provisions were being revisited: the age requirement, exclusion zones around newly sprayed fields and groves, and the right of workers to get copies of pesticide application records.
“They told us they were working on those three issues generally,” said Scott Dahlman of Oregonians for Food and Shelter. Dahlman told Bloomberg the review was mentioned briefly during a meeting with the EPA devoted to a proposed worker protection rule in Oregon. He said his group, which includes farmers, forest companies, and pesticide makers, supported a review. “When you issue a huge new rule, you get everything out there and you realize there are some unintended consequences.”
The pesticide rule was issued in fall 2015 by the Obama administration and was the first update of the EPA’s Worker Protection Standard in two decades. The rule covers manual laborers on farms as well as pesticide handlers and applicators, but not livestock workers. There are around 2 million U.S. farmworkers. The EPA said the new guidelines, which include a requirement for annual training in pesticide use, would prevent thousands of potentially preventable exposures to pesticides. Members of farm families were exempt from most of the 2015 update, including the minimum-age rule.
Bloomberg said one of the most-discussed parts of the rule was the language that allows workers to name a “designated representative” to collect pesticide application records. Producers worry that farm-labor activists would become the representatives and misuse the information, said the news agency. “The federal application exclusion zone provisions can raise issues balancing worker safety with the revenue stream of a farming operation, particularly in places where farm laborers’ housing is on or near the fields where they work.”