On the same day that President Trump nominated Andrew Wheeler to be EPA administrator, the agency said it would withdraw a Trump-era proposal to set a minimum age of 16 for farmworkers to handle, mix, or apply pesticides, down from the age 18 limit specified in a 2015 regulation. There was no age limit at all before the Obama administration updated the EPA’s Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS) in 2015.
Wheeler, who has been acting EPA chief since the resignation of Scott Pruitt last July, disclosed the change in direction on the farmworker rule in a three-page summary of EPA activities to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. In December 2017, while Pruitt ran the EPA, the agency announced that it would consider revisions to the minimum-age standard. It also said it would review a pair of other provisions — one that creates exclusion zones intended to keep workers away from newly applied pesticides and another that names a “designated representative,” whose job it is to collect copies of the pesticide records kept by farmers.
“Although the subject matter associated with these potential changes has been subject to wide-ranging public stakeholder meetings and public comments, EPA will withdraw its OMB submission to propose revisions to these rules and will not make any changes to the designated representative and minimum-age provisions,” wrote Wheeler. “It may consider proposing revisions to the AEZ [agricultural exclusion zones] provision in the WPS rule, but no other substantive provisions in the WPS rule.”
“We’re stunned and relieved by this welcome reversal,” said Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group. “Dangerous pesticides that can cause cancer and brain damage should never be anywhere near children.” Cook said the Trump administration wanted to set a minimum age of 16 for handling or applying pesticides.
The Obama-era update was opposed by the agricultural industry, which tried to delay implementation of the regulation. Critics said they needed more time to adapt to a “a huge new rule.” They worried that the exclusion zones would interfere with the cultivation or harvesting of crops and that the designated representatives would turn out to be farm-labor activists who would misuse the information.
When the EPA unveiled the 2015 update, it said “thousands of potentially preventable pesticide exposure incidents” are reported each year, resulting in lost days, lost wages, and medical bills for farmworkers. The 2015 rule called for annual safety training for farmworkers. Members of farm families, extending as far as grandparents, cousins, and foster parents of farm operators, were exempted from the rule.
Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist and former Senate staff worker, joined the EPA as deputy administrator last April following a 53-45 confirmation vote in the Senate. His White House nomination for EPA chief on Wednesday was no surprise.
Neither was the response of green groups. “We urge the U.S. Senate to reject this nomination and instead investigate the sweetheart deals dirty energy companies are getting from Trump’s EPA,” said Earthjustice, an environmental law group.
The EPA homepage for the ag worker standard is available here.