Farmworkers under age 18 will be prohibited from applying pesticides and workers will get annual training on how to protect themselves when spraying pesticides under rules announced by the Obama administration. The regulations, the first update in two decades of EPA’s Worker Protection Standard, will take effect approximately 14 months after they are published formally, which is expected in the next 60 days. They cover agricultural workers performing hand labor in crops and pesticide handlers and applicators, but not livestock workers.
There are roughly 2 million agricultural workers in the country. The EPA says “thousands of potentially preventable pesticide exposure incidents” are reported each year that result in lost days, lost wages and medical bills for farmworkers.
“This is really an important step forward,” EPA administrator Gina McCarthy told reporters. “What we are announcing today has been a long time coming.” The president of the United Farm Workers union, Arturo Rodriguez, said the revisions were “a dream come true” for the UFW, which worked for decades to limit worker exposure to dangerous farm chemicals.
Members of the immediate family of farm owners are exempt from most of the protection standard, including the minimum-age rule. The definition of immediate family was expanded to include grandparents, grandchildren, in-laws, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and first cousins as well as spouses, parents, brothers, sisters, children, step-parents, foster parents, stepchildren and foster children.
The six million-member American Farm Bureau Federation said it feared the EPA “is piling regulatory costs on farmers and ranchers that bear little if any relation to actual safety issues.”
Besides setting a minimum age for handling, mixing or applying pesticides and a requirement for annual training, the updated standard bars application of pesticides if farmworkers are nearby and requires farms to provide specified amounts of water for workers to use for washing and decontamination, and additional training of workers on how to avoid “take-home exposure” to pesticides from work clothes. Farm owners also will be required to keep records for up to two years on pesticide use, and the rules on when “No Entry” signs must be posted on treated fields will be be broadened.
The new regulations are a significant upgrade. “Currently, companies can simply screen a 10-minute safety DVD to comply with regulations. Record-keeping of training is voluntary. Advice for preventing the spread of chemicals into a worker’s home is also vague,” said E&E News. It said the new rules would cost from $62-$73 million annually, with employers footing most of it. The benefit to workers, in fewer missed days and wages lost, is estimated at $14 million a year. The EPA says only a fraction of pesticide exposures are reported, so the estimate of benefits is understated.