farmworker safety
EPA proposal would shrink buffer zones around farm pesticides
In the name of making safety regulations easier to implement, the EPA proposed on Thursday to reduce the size of buffer zones intended to protect people from exposure to pesticides during their application on the farm. Environmental and farmworker groups said the proposal would increase the risk of pesticides being sprayed on or drifting onto workers, neighbors, and passersby.
EPA to drop proposal for younger pesticide applicators
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.
U.S. judge rules EPA pesticide applicator regulation is in effect
The Trump administration improperly and repeatedly delayed the pesticide applicator rule issued by the EPA in early 2017, decided U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White, who declared the rule to be in effect.
Farm labor contractor fined for ‘squalid conditions’
Future Ag Management, a farm labor contractor in Soledad, California, will be fined over $168,000 for failing to provide farmworkers with appropriate housing conditions. The fine will be levied by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.
EPA will review minimum-age rule on handling pesticides
A 2015 update of the EPA’s Agricultural Worker Protection Standard required that farmworkers who handle or apply pesticides be at least 18 years old. The EPA now says it “has initiated a process to revise certain requirements in the WPS.”
EPA may revise rule protecting farmworkers from pesticides
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.
Hawaii targets Monsanto and Terminix in pesticide investigations
With Syngenta already under investigation for the alleged misuse of pesticides in Hawaii, the EPA is now looking into Monsanto, Terminix, and Wonder Farm [a Hawaiian agricultural operation] for allegedly ignoring pesticide laws in Hawaii, says Civil Beat.
‘Dangerous jobs, cheap meat’ at U.S. packing plants
Some workers at U.S. packing plants pay a high price for their jobs, says Harvest Public Media in a three-part series that starts today with new installments through Thursday. "Employees aren't cattle going through the chutes," the widow of one worker tells HPM. "They're people with families."
Limited inspection effort leaves farmworkers in the lurch
An investigation by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper says that, despite a Texas state law intended to assure migrant farmworkers have clean and safe housing, "many housing facilities elude the reach of the state's limited inspection effort."
FERN story on pesticides wins health-reporting award
"Fields of toxic pesticides surround the schools of Ventura County," by Liza Gross, won third place in the investigative category for smaller circulation news organizations in the Association of Health Care Journalists' annual Awards of Excellence contest.
EPA strengthens protection of farmworkers against pesticides
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.
EPA sets restrictions on use of chlorpyrifos
Makers of the insecticide chlorpyrifos will modify their product labels to reduce runoff and spray drift of the pesticide into the habitat of endangered species and to limit the areas of the country where the chemical is used, said the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday. The EPA also said it would propose a regulation limiting the use of chlorpyrifos to 11 crops.