Posted May 19, 2014
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended the comment period for an additional 60 days for proposed revisions to the agricultural Worker Protection Standard, according to an article by The Grower available here. The Federal Register notice is available here. Feedstuffs also reported on the story here.
The EPA says that growers, industry, farm worker advocates and states requested additional time to provide input, according to a Central Valley Business Times article available here. “The opportunity to revise the rule may not come again for some time, so we are committed to getting it right,” says Jim Jones, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
“Updating the 20-year old regulation to provide more protections to the nation’s two million farm workers and their families from pesticide exposure is a priority for EPA,” he says.
The proposed rule would increase mandatory training for agricultural workers from once every five years to annually to inform workers about specific protections. The rule would also expand mandatory posting of “no-entry” signs and buffer areas; improve states’ ability to enforce compliance; and make specific pesticide information available to farm workers and medical personnel. In addition, the rule would prohibit children under age 16 from handling pesticides.
An exemption for small family farms applies. For more information on the proposed rule, a recent post from this blog is available here.
For more information on pesticides, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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