The EPA announced Monday new protections for the nation’s two million farmworkers. The standards are designed to give farmworkers health protections from pesticide exposure. They include annual safety training, increased record keeping, changes in personal protective equipment and that children under the age of 18 are prohibited from handling pesticides. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy says the new standards were long overdue.
McCarthy says changes to the Agriculture Worker Protection Standard rules will also decrease the risk of illness and injury for farmworkers.
The regulations will be published in the Federal Register within the next 60 days.
The American Farm Bureau Federation has concerns over the regulations in that the agency is piling regulatory cost on farmers and rancher that bear little if any relation to actual safety issues.