EPA’s revised standards to protect agricultural workers from exposure to pesticides are intended to provide workers with the same level of protections afforded by law to workers in other industries. According to Arturo S. Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers of America, the final revisions for the standards meet that expectation.
 |
The EPA released a fact sheet that compares 32 specific requirements under the new Worker Protection Standard (WPS) to the requirements they replace. According to the Agency, each new or revised risk reduction measure may be characterized as one of three types: information, protection, or mitigation.
The WPS was promulgated in 1992 and took effect in 1995. According to the EPA, the intent of the standard was to provide agricultural workers the same level of protections from pesticide exposure that OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard provides to workers with potential exposure to hazardous chemicals in industrial workplaces.
Read more here.