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EPA Announces Children Under 18 Can No Longer Handle Pesticides

Christina Herrick Posted by Christina Herrick|September 29, 2015
This backpack sprayer is being used to dispense an herbicide for weed control. (Photo credit: Andrew Landers, Cornell University)

This backpack sprayer is being used to dispense an herbicide for weed control. (Photo credit: Andrew Landers, Cornell University)

EPA is announcing stronger protections for the nation’s 2 million agricultural workers and their families working on farms, forests, nurseries, and greenhouses.

The revisions to the 1992 Agricultural Worker Protection Standard will afford farmworkers similar health protections that are already afforded to workers in other industries, according to the agency.

“President Obama has called closing gaps of opportunity a defining challenge of our time. Meeting that challenge means ensuring healthy work environments for all Americans, especially those in our nation’s vulnerable communities,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “We depend on farmworkers every day to help put the food we eat on America’s dinner tables — and they deserve fair, equitable working standards with strong health and safety protections. With these updates we can protect workers, while at the same time preserve the strong traditions of our family farms and ensure the continued the growth of our agricultural economy.”

“No one should ever have to risk their lives for their livelihoods, but far too many workers, especially those who work in agriculture, face conditions that challenge their health and safety every day,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez. “Workplace illness and injury contribute greatly to economic inequality, and can have a devastating impact on workers and their families. By promoting workplace safety, these provisions will enhance economic security for people struggling to make ends meet and keep more Americans on the job raising the crops that feed the world, and we are proud to support the EPA in this effort.”

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EPA’s updates reflect extensive stakeholder involvement from federal and state partners and the agricultural community including farmworkers, farmers and industry. These provisions will help ensure farmworkers nationwide receive annual safety training; that children under the age of 18 are prohibited from handling pesticides; and that workers are aware of the protections they are afforded under the new action and have the tools needed to protect themselves and their families from pesticide exposure.

The revisions to the Worker Protection Standard cover many different areas. According to EPA, the major revisions include:

  • Annual mandatory training to inform farmworkers on the required protections afforded to them. Currently, training is only once every 5 years.
  • Expanded training includes instructions to reduce take-home exposure from pesticides on work clothing and other safety topics.
  • First-time ever minimum age requirement: Children under 18 are prohibited from handling pesticides.
  • 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.
  • New no-entry application-exclusion zones up to 100 feet surrounding pesticide application equipment will protect workers and others from exposure to pesticide overspray.
  • 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.
  • Anti-retaliation provisions are comparable to Department of Labor’s (DOL).
  • Changes in personal protective equipment will be consistent with DOL’s standards for ensuring respirators are effective, including fit test, medical evaluation, and training.
  • Specific amounts of water to be used for routine washing, emergency eye flushing and other decontamination, including eye wash systems for handlers at pesticide mixing/loading sites.
  • Continue the exemption for farm owners and their immediate families with an expanded definition of immediate family.

Source: EPA

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Christina Herrick is former Editor of American Fruit Grower magazine and Western Fruit Grower magazine, published by Meister Media Worldwide. See all author stories here.

Leave a Reply

Avatar for Matt Matt says:
September 29, 2015 at 1:24 pm

My 16 year old is more responsible than the co-op when applying pesticides and other crop protectants. This is more nanny state crap designed to push food production south of the border where these rules and other red tape don’t apply.

100ft exclusion zone around sprayed field? Are these people crazy? Houses don’t have set back requirements of 100 feet from the highway, yet I bet a child is much more likely to get run over by following a ball into the road than he will be by “overspray.” How many are actually going to follow this rule? I doubt it will even cross their minds.

Children under 18 banned from handling pesticides? They better let Wal-Mart and other the other big box stores know that the stock boys can no long “handle” the bottles of Roundup, Ortho, etc. The homeowner better make damn sure his 17 year old is NOT spraying weeds in the yard. If the homeowner sprays his yard, he better make sure NO ONE drives down the road in front of his house as it is sure to be within 100 feet for the sprayed area. He better make sure he posts the MSDS sheets on the edge of his lawn so everyone knows what he sprayed on it before they walk across the lawn. In addition he needs to put up large signs that say “Warning-Pesticide Applied” when he applied weed and feed or Ortho-Bug-B-Gone.

We also better make sure Home Depot and Wal-Mart provide mandatory training to EVERYONE who might buy a bottle of ANY pesticide before the customer is allowed to purchase it. We also need to make sure that those same homeowners return to the store once a year for remedial training if they have any left over product.

See how stupid all of this sounds when you apply it to homeowners? The feds think people have NO BRAIN when in reality the people with no brains are the ones dreaming this stuff up. This is an agency run amok. The next administration needs to get rid of the EPA for good. It’s duties would be better handled by the departments that regulate the specific industry.

“Mandatory record-keeping to improve states’ ability to follow up on pesticide violations and enforce compliance.” Last time I checked the 10th amendment gives the states the rights to decide what records the states need.

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Avatar for David David says:
September 30, 2015 at 8:32 am

Agreed! Most of my “farming” is now done from behind a desk. Everyday day is a battle with record keeping and new regulations that have to be followed. We now pay someone to drive around our property taking notes on what kind and how many wild animals they see. Matt you are correct, the Federal Govt. wants no one in the US to farm any more, they would much rather rely on another country to produce our food, oil, and security(Putin in Syria). We should be left to do the important things here like….well give me a minute I will think of something.

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