University of California, Davis
Impact of the federal worker protection standard on pesticide illnesses and injuries
Richard Fenske, Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Promulgation of the Worker Protection Standard (WPS) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1992 was an important step toward prevention of pesticide illness and injury among pesticide handlers and agricultural field workers. The absence of a federal standard prior to this time can be attributed to disputes over federal jurisdiction, lack of a sustained effort to evaluate occupational pesticide exposures and risks, and the science policy approaches followed by the lead federal agency. The development and current status of WPS are examined for the case of organophosphorus (OP) pesticides. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began to issue federal occupational health standards soon after its establishment in the early 1970’s.
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Many of these standards included key elements such as exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, and engineering controls to reduce exposures. Jurisdiction for protection of pesticide handlers and agricultural field workers was shifted from OSHA to EPA in the late 1970’s. At that time EPA issued a temporary standard that was limited in scope, and this standard was not revised until 1992. The current standard is generic in its approach to such issues as restricted-entry intervals and personal protective equipment, and does not include exposure monitoring or medical surveillance requirements. EPA has since conducted detailed risk assessments of the OP pesticides, and has made exposure mitigation recommendations on a crop-specific and compound-specific basis. These recommendations rely heavily on personal protective equipment and worker education rather than engineering controls. No federal surveillance system has been established to evaluate the impact of WPS on pesticide illness and injury rates.
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