AGRICULTURAL PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

NEWSLETTER

On May 3, 1995, EPA amended the Worker Protection Standard (WPS), granting exemptions for certified or licensed crop advisors from the requirement of using personal protective equipment (PPE), knowledge of labeling and site specific information, decontamination, and emergency assistance requirements of the WPS during the restricted entry interval, and the 30 days following the REI.

"Crop advisor" means any person who is assessing pest numbers or damage, pesticide distribution, or the status or requirements of agricultural plants, and would include California's licensed pest control advisers. The term doesn't include those doing hand labor tasks.

The EPA expects that crop advisors, because of their knowledge and experience, would take protective steps, such as using suitable PPE or delaying entering treated areas, especially where fumigants and "double notification" pesticides have been used.

The crop advisor exemption applies only to persons performing crop advising tasks in the treated area -- and only after application is over. EPA also exempted employees of licensed crop advisors from WPS requirements, except for "handler" pesticide safety training.

Certified or licensed crop advisors may substitute pesticide safety training received during the certification or licensing program if such training is at least comparable to WPS pesticide handler training.

The crop advisor must make specific determinations regarding appropriate PPE, appropriate decontamination supplies, and how to safely conduct crop advisor tasks. The crop advisor must convey this information to each person under his or her direct supervision in a language the person understands. Direct supervision doesn't require that the crop advisor be physically present at all times, but the advisor must be readily accessible to the employees at all times.

Before entering a treated area, the crop advisor must inform, through established communication practices, each person he or she directly supervises of the pesticide product and active ingredient(s) applied, application method and time, and the REI. The crop advisor must instruct such employees regarding which tasks to accomplish, and how to reach the crop advisor. EPA believes these terms will significantly limit pesticide residue exposure.

On May 3, 1995, EPA amended the Worker Protection Standard, reducing the fieldworker pesticide safety training grace period from 15 to 5 days, effective January 1, 1996. EPA received 91 comments, on or before February 10, 1995, referring to the pesticide safety training proposal published January 11, 1995, in the Federal Register.

Although at least one Fresno commentor supported making fieldworker training available on a weekly basis to accommodate high seasonal turnover, and control training costs, the latest federal rules require that before a worker enters any areas on the agricultural establishment where, within the last 30 days a pesticide has been applied or an REI has been in effect, the agricultural employer must assure that the worker has been provided specified minimum pesticide safety information -- with the balance of required training given within 5 days.

EPA recommends a system which involves employee signature acknowledging receipt of the following minimum training:

(1) Pesticides may be on or in plants, soil, irrigation water, or drifting from nearby applications.

(2) Prevent pesticides from entering your body by: (i) following directions and/or signs about keeping out of treated or restricted areas; (ii) washing before eating, drinking, using chewing gum or tobacco, or using the toilet; (iii) wearing work clothing that protects the body from pesticide residues; (iv) washing/showering with soap and water, shampooing hair, and putting on clean clothes after work; (v) washing work clothes separately from other clothes before wearing them again; (vi) washing immediately in the nearest clean water if pesticides are sprayed or spilled on the body and, as soon as possible, showering, shampooing, and changing into clean clothes.

(3) Further training will be provided within 5 days.

The EPA decided on a 5-year fieldworker retraining interval, and will "allow States and growers the flexibility to tailor" retraining intervals to best fit their needs and capabilities.

In California, Cal/EPA's Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), in draft regulations, would require that employers ensure that fieldworkers have received the full amount of training, within the last 5 years, equivalent in content to that required by EPA, before they enter a "treated" field. The DPR will amend state regulations to define a treated field as one that has been treated with a pesticide or had an REI in effect within the last 30 days.

With no federal EPA proposals related to the WPS pending, DPR has initiated its rule making process (which allows for public comment) to adopt revised State pesticide safety standards. Due to California government code requirements, it takes 3 to 6 months to adopt regulation changes.

The EPA Worker Protection Standard (WPS) has an exception to the prohibition against worker early entry during a restricted entry interval (REI) for entry resulting in "no contact" with treated areas. Examples of no-contact early-entry workers include workers in an enclosed cab on a tractor, truck, or other vehicle, workers that are in an open-cab vehicle in a treated area where the plants cannot brush against the worker and cannot drip pesticides onto the worker, and after a pesticide application that is incorporated or injected into the soil, workers doing tasks "that do not involve touching or disrupting the soil subsurface."

No-contact early entry workers must, however, receive WPS protections involving information at a central location, worker pesticide safety training, notification, restrictions during applications and during REIs, and emergency assistance. Decontamination sites need not be provided to no-contact early-entry workers. The EPA does not consider irrigators to be no-contact early-entry workers that may enter a treated area immediately after the application.

In response to the agricultural community, EPA, on May 3, 1995, granted an "administrative exception" to the 1992 WPS allowing early entry into pesticide treated areas to irrigate, or do certain other "limited contact" work. The exemption allows workers to do tasks, which if delayed would result in meaningful economic loss, and result in "minimal" contact with pesticide-treated surfaces, for up to 8 hours per 24-hour period during a REI. No entry is allowed for the first 4 hours after an application.

EPA wants to prevent use of the exception for routine irrigation. The exception states a trained worker may enter a treated area during a REI to perform irrigation tasks if the agricultural employer ensures that "the need for the task could not have been foreseen," and cannot be delayed until after the REI's expiration, and WPS decontamination facilities are provided.

Examples of limited tasks that "might" qualify for the exception include, but are not limited to: the repair of nonapplication field equipment; the repair of greenhouse heating, air conditioning, and ventilation equipment; the operation and repair of frost protection equipment; and certain time-sensitive irrigation activities.

For all limited-contact tasks the WPS requirements for decontamination facilities must be met. Draft proposed California regulations specify that early entry fieldworkers engaged in irrigation and limited contact tasks be provided, at the place where they remove PPE, sufficient water, soap and clean towels, "so that they may wash thoroughly at the end of the exposure period."

This exception does not apply where "double notification" pesticides have been applied. The WPS had formerly permitted a short-term (1 hour per worker per day) exception for irrigation and other limited-contact activities -- even in the case of double notification pesticides.

The "double notification" provision relates to pesticides that are highly toxic, dermally irritating, or "have other health effects that set them apart from other pesticides" and requires growers to both post the treated area and orally notify workers of the application.

Early-entry workers cannot engage in hand labor, and cannot enter a treated area in the first 4 hours after a pesticide application and until applicable ventilation criteria, and any label-specified inhalation exposure levels are met.

The WPS defines hand labor as a job done by hand or with hand tools causing a worker to have substantial contact with plant/soil surfaces that may embody pesticide residues. Harvesting, pruning, and field-packing of produce are hand labor examples. Hand labor excludes irrigation crop advisor tasks.

Employers must tell workers before they enter treated areas, either orally or in writing in a language they understand, that (1) the establishment is relying on this exception to allow workers to enter treated areas to do limited-contact tasks, (2) no entry is allowed the first 4 hours after an application, and (3) the time in a treated area under an REI for any worker cannot exceed 8 hours in any 24 hour period.

For irrigation tasks, the employer must assure that no worker is allowed or directed to do early-entry work without "implementing, when appropriate, measures to prevent heat-related illness."

Draft California regulations say the employer must inform early-entry workers of pesticide labeling requirements related to human hazards or precautions, first aid, poisoning symptoms, use and care of PPE required for early entry (which could include protective eyewear), importance of washing thoroughly at the end of the exposure period, and "the prevention, recognition, and first aid for heat related illness."

The EPA decided the generic set of PPE consisting of coveralls, chemical resistant gloves and footwear, and socks, OR the label-specified early entry PPE, must be provided and maintained by the employer for this exception. The WPS requires that PPE not be worn home.

EPA theorizes coveralls "could decrease exposure risk to residues from long-sleeved shirts and long pants which could be worn home." While the exception requires that contact be limited to feet, lower legs, hands, and forearms, EPA believes "incidental, unintended, or unanticipated exposure to other parts of the body may be possible" -- and so demands coveralls as part of the generic PPE "ensemble."

California's "coverall" definition is "a one- or two-piece garment of closely woven fabric or equivalent that covers the entire body except the head, hands and feet" and must be provided by the employer as PPE. (The WPS adds coveralls "shall be loose-fitting.")

At least one commentor (perhaps from California's Central Valley) asked that the requirement for coveralls for early-entry irrigators be dropped to escape the adverse effects of heat stress. And chemical resistant gloves could make some early-entry irrigators' work more difficult.

Coveralls and other PPE may contribute to heat stress at temperatures above 80_ F, even for young, well-rested, and fully-hydrated irrigators in top physical condition, depending on humidity, air movement, workload, and other factors. Supervisors should consider longer frequent rest breaks, and regular monitoring of early-entry irrigators, and expect task completion times to increase.

Supervisors should also consider, from the viewpoint of thermal comfort, coveralls made of light color, lightest weight cotton or cotton and polyester fabrics.

EPA's "Guidance Manual for Selecting Protective Clothing for Agricultural Pesticide Applications," suggests 6.7 ounces per square yard as a minimum weight for cotton coveralls in pesticide application. (Denim is about 7.1 ounces per square yard.) Shirt-weight chambray and broadcloth, both 100 percent cotton fabrics that could be worn by early-entry irrigators, are about 3.7 and 3.1 ounces per square yard, respectively.

EPA FINES DOWELANCO ... The EPA announced May 1, 1995, that the agency had assessed a $732,000 penalty against DowElanco for failing to report adverse health effects, mostly about chlorpyrifos (Dursban), an insecticide used by commercial applicators and homeowners for termite and other indoor pest control. Dursban is a Category 2 (Warning) pesticide. It is the largest penalty ever for failing to yield, in a timely manner, extra information on unreasonable adverse health effects of pesticide products.

Reported adverse effects, involving 249 cases over 10 years, included instances of numbness, burning and tingling, and muscle weakness or difficulty with coordinated arm and leg movement, and such chronic neurological effects as continual headaches, visual disturbances, problems with memory, concentration, confusion, and depression, and incidents involving asthma or birth defects. The settlement with DowElanco is subject to Environmental Appeals Board approval.