The Environmental Protection Agency teamed up with the Labor Department Monday to protect farm workers from the problems that stem from pesticide-borne illness.
“We depend on farmworkers every day to help put the food we eat on America’s dinner tables — and they deserve fair, equitable working standards with strong health and safety protections,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said.
EPA says the update to the Agricultural Worker Protection Standards it announced Monday would cover the two million farm workers and their families who are stricken by thousands of cases of pesticide exposure each year.
“With these updates we can protect workers, while at the same time preserve the strong traditions of our family farms and ensure the continued the growth of our agricultural economy,” McCarthy said.
Labor Secretary Tom Perez said pesticide exposure creates a form of workplace “illness and injury” that can “contribute greatly to economic inequality, and can have a devastating impact on workers and their families.”
“By promoting workplace safety, these provisions will enhance economic security for people struggling to make ends meet and keep more Americans on the job raising the crops that feed the world, and we are proud to support the EPA in this effort,” Perez said.
