EPA ag pesticide rule criticized

摘要

THE U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized proposed changes to the agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS) Sept. 28. Agricultural groups, however, are concerned that the rule represents another case of EPA disregarding comments from theindustry and ongoing safety improvements.On a call following the announcement, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the rule raises the age of non-family members who may apply agricultural pesticides from 16 to 18, expands training to include topics such as how to not take pesticides home fromwork, mandates training annually instead of every five years, requires new recordkeeping to be held for two years and requires farms to follow Occupational Safety & Health Administration standards for testing the fit of masks and keeping medical records.