EPA Revises Worker Protection Standard
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has revised its worker protection standard to increase safety and protect the agricultural workers including greenhouse and nursery employees.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has revised its worker protection standard to i ncrease safety and protect agricultural workers including greenhouse and nursery employees.
Among the changes are:
- First-time ever minimum age requirement: Children under 18 are prohibited from handling pesticides.
- Expanded training includes instructions to reduce take-home exposure from pesticides on work clothing and other safety topics.
- Annual mandatory training to inform farmworkers on the required protections afforded to them.
- Expanded mandatory posting of no-entry signs for the most hazardous pesticides. The signs prohibit entry into pesticide-treated fields until residues decline to a safe level.
- Requirement to provide more than one way for farmworkers and their representatives to gain access to pesticide application information and safety data sheets centrally-posted, or by requesting records.
- Mandatory record-keeping to improve states ability to follow up on pesticide violations and enforce compliance. Records of application-specific pesticide information, as well as farmworker training, must be kept for two years.
For more detail information on the standard and the new revisions, please visit http://www2.epa.gov/pesticide-worker-safety/revisions-worker-protection-standard.
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