Washington, D.C. – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva sent a letter signed by 51 of his colleagues today to Gina McCarthy, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), calling on her to finalize updates to agricultural worker safety and training standards. The EPA has been developing a rule to mandate better signage and more frequent awareness training for agricultural workers to bring the industry into line with other economic sectors.

As the letter reads, “The current regulations are not effective in preventing workers’ exposures to toxic chemicals in the fields. Over a decade ago, the EPA stated that even when there is full compliance with the WPS, ‘risks to workers still exceed EPA’s level of concern.’ [. . .] According to the EPA, ten to twenty thousand farmworkers suffer pesticide poisoning annually. Exposure to pesticides increases the risk of chronic health problems among adult and child farmworkers, such as cancer, infertility, neurological disorders, and respiratory conditions.”

The effort is also being led by Rep. Linda Sánchez of California.

“There’s no reason agricultural employers can’t properly inform their employees of the risks they face,” Rep. Grijalva said. “Ignorance is not bliss, especially when you’re inhaling potentially toxic chemicals every day during picking season. It’s time to modernize our workforce protection standards and stop looking the other way while thousands of Americans get sick each year from preventable chemical exposures.”

“It is appalling that 22 years after the agricultural Worker Protection Standard was implemented, farmworkers still lack basic protections from the 1.1. billion pounds of pesticides applied to agricultural crops every year,” Rep. Sánchez said. “These workers risk their lives to harvest the food we enjoy on our dinner tables. It is our moral responsibility to finalize long-overdue revisions to the Worker Protection Standard to protect the farmworkers that help feed our country every day.”

The EPA rule currently in development – expected to be released in draft form this month – does not address pesticide exposure limits. The full text of today’s letter is below, and a PDF is available at http://1.usa.gov/1jtucz9.

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Dear Administrator McCarthy,

The Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS) is the primary set of federal regulations that seeks to protect farmworkers from the hazards of working with pesticides. The current regulations are not effective in preventing workers’ exposures to toxic chemicals in the fields. Over a decade ago, the EPA stated that even when there is full compliance with the WPS, “risks to workers still exceed EPA’s level of concern.”[i] Although the EPA has not made meaningful updates to the WPS in over 20 years, now that the Agency has finally taken steps to improve protections for farmworkers, we urge you to expeditiously finalize these long overdue changes to the WPS (RIN 2070-AJ22) and to reject any efforts to undermine or further delay the process.

Every year, an estimated 1.1 billion pounds of pesticides are applied to agricultural crops in the United States.[ii] According to the EPA, ten to twenty thousand farmworkers suffer pesticide poisoning annually.[iii] Exposure to pesticides increases the risk of chronic health problems among adult and child farmworkers, such as cancer, infertility, neurological disorders, and respiratory conditions.[iv] Recognizing that there are approximately 500,000 child farmworkers in the U.S.,[v] farmworker children face increased risks of cancer and birth defects.[vi] Research also shows that both farmworkers and their children may suffer decreased intellectual functioning from even low levels of exposure to organophosphate insecticides, which are widely used in agriculture.[vii] To promote the health of rural communities and those who harvest the food for our constituents’ tables, strong protections from pesticide exposure are urgently needed.

The current version of WPS protections is limited and insufficient for workers. Serious flaws of the WPS include: