The EPA is now taking comments (Through August 18, 2014) on its proposed rule Pesticides: Agricultural Worker Protection Standard. Though the proposed rule will strengthen safety standards for the millions of farmworkers who work with or near pesticides on farms, farmworker advocates like the Farmworker Association of Florida and CATA-the Farmworker Support Committee point out that it falls short in several areas. They stress the need for minimum ages for those allowed to handle pesticides of at least 18, closing of loopholes in the regulation which currently is written to allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon, the need for additional training for workers and better posted information, and well-trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors to ensure regulations are enforced. They have prepared a sample comment document outlining these concerns.
Read more about the proposed regulation and its shortcomings.
Review the sample comment template.
We appreciate comments below also and will summarize in our own comments but EPA needs to hear directly from as many people as possible.
Agricultural workers deserve to have their health protected from pesticides and other environmental factors.
please protect farmworkers from deadly pesticides
I support the strengthening of safety standards for ALL concerned. Your Comments
Protect workers better from pesticide and herbicide exposure.
I urge the EPA to strenghten regulations to protect farmworkers and agricultural communities.
Farmers should be protected from toxic pesticides!
We need to stop chemical companies from poisoning and murdering us for profit and greed.
The best method of risk reduction is to mitigate and eventually eliminate pesticide usage in agriculture. More support should be given to organic farming, Integrated Pest Management programs and other practices to facilitate the transition to toxic-free agriculture. Phasing out the use of pesticides will not only benefit farmworkers, but will improve the health of farmers, consumers, and the natural environment as well.
Protection for those who pick our produce and work on the fields is important. We are concerned about human exposure from the consumer but have ignored the exposure to those who grow our food. There should be protection for these workers as well as to the consumer. Stricter limits on pesticides and chemical fertilizers need to be in place and better protection from exposure to those working the fields.
Thank you.
If we are to consider ourselves a fair and civilized country, we need to protect our farm workers.
It is criminal to require exposure to toxic chemicals of those whose job it is to grow our food. Just as it is criminal to require people who cannot afford to buy organic to eat food sprayed with those same toxic chemicals.
Awsome.
I absolutely endorse and agree with the template provided by the Fair World Project. It is unbelievable that this nation would willingly and knowingly put millions of people in harm’s way as a condition of employment. As more and more information comes to light about the significant long-term ill effects of these chemicals, we should be moving strongly away from their use. In the meantime, definite measures need to be taken to protect the health of those workers who are required to handle them on a daily basis. We need strict controls, not a weakening of them.
Fair trade options make good politics!
There needs to be balance between the legitimate interests of having food be affordable and protecting the health and welfare of those who work to grow and harvest it.
Industry, including agriculture, has never regulated itself. There is an authentic need for government to assure this balance is established, maintained and, where necessary, enforced.
Farmworkers Need Better Protection from Pesticide Exposure – all of us do!
Strengthen regulations and protect the workers. It’s basic workplace safety!
Let’s take measures to support those who work hard to grow our food and feed our families.
Though the proposed rule will strengthen safety standards for farmworkers who work with or near pesticides on farms, it falls short in several areas! Minimum age of 16 years should be enforced to handle pesticides; loopholes in the regulation which currently is written to allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon; and the need for additional training for workers and better posted information should be required; and well-trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors need to ensure regulations are enforced.
We need to protect these workers as though they were our own family.
Protection of our farms and farmers is of upmost importance. Please make the standard of not touching chemicals/pesticides until the age of 18 a requirement. Close the loophole that allows workers into treated areas too soon. Provide more inspectors that are bilingual so that they may truly ask the workers what is going on and not just the operator of the farm. Furthermore, the definition of Organic needs to be assuredly 100% organic – No pesticides, no herbicides. Just straight soil, water, and no GMOs.
Please protect these workers and their families from these terrible chemicals. Exposure to even one worker effects the health of the community.
Please help these farmers and protect them from disease as they try to help feed others. They deserve a right to a full and healthy life.
Please vote for protecting farmers from harmful pesticides! Thank you!!
Certainly we are better than China in how we treat our workers. Pesticides are poison you wouldn’t want to work around them.
Please strengthen these regulations to protect farmworkers and agricultural communities!
Pesticides such as agent orange are in the pipeline for our fields, crops, families and workers. Can you help stop this?
y
Please strengthen safety standards to protect farm workers. We depend on farm workers for our own survival and they have every right to protections for their long-term health and welfare.
We ALL better earnestly start helping this Planet in EVERY WAY POSSIBLE or it’s all over!
Your CommentsStop Monsanto from poisoning everything!!!!
As someone who grew up on a family farm, I really understand the importance of protecting all farm workers who work with or around pesticides and favor strengthening of regulations that better protect workers and the environment.
Your ComAs someone who grew up on a family farm, I really understand the importance of protecting all farm workers who work with or around pesticides and favor strengthening of regulations that better protect workers and the environment.ments
Farmworkers deserve a safe working environment!
I want neither my produce, livestock, land nor workers subjected to poisonous toxins. Without workers, there is no food. They are my brothers and sisters, and we need to respect the chain of connectivity. The poisons we spray lodge in our bodies. Why is cancer so prevalent? Please protect the workers who make our food supply possible. Protect the bees. Respect the land and the animals. What we do to them, we do to ourselves. It’s is imperative we green and clean our practices, and go organic. Nature does know best. Thank you
People who work to provide us with food for life should work in a safe and healthy environment. Pesticides can be dangerous when misused or over used.
Other workers are protected. Why not farmworkers?
Please use your moral obligation to stop these horrible pesticides that are killing our people, land and water systems. What will you and your family eat when all the food and earth are poisoned? Do you think you are above your obligation to protect the land and the people? How can you live with yourselves knowing what you are not doing to uphold your position to protect the land, people and environment?
Not only do we need to stop poisoning our farmers we need to stop poisoning our planet.
I already am against the use of pesticides but for the farmworkers that are working in areas where they are used I feel it is extremely important to keep them as safe as possible.
The only humane thing to do. PROTECT!
EPA! Demonstrate fidelity to the agency name and protect the environment for humans and other environmental residents.
Act Responsibly.
The world depends on the strength and health of agricultural and all other workers. Agricultural workers need to be protected against toxic and polluting chemicals.
Farmers should be banned from using pesticides.
Just here for support the farmers and workers own right to do farming and great community.
go organic and save lives!
As someone who lives in a rural county, I know that even country residents occasionally get sprayed with pesticides from crop dusters. This must happen even more often to farm workers, but should not happen to anyone. Stronger regulations and penalties are needed.
First of all , ALL CHEMICALS should be BANNED and farming in all its co- growers should be done the way it was meant to be ALL NATURAL, and I do not mean a play on the word natural, It goes for all ages, all sexes, the Human race was not meant to be around poison, all poisons should be BANNED and DESTROYED And the people that make them should be made to take their responsibilities.
Your Let’s make this a better world for everyone.
If we don’t protect the workers and farms we won’t have the food we need
The worker is worthy of his/her hire – and should not have to sacrifice health for wages.
the only people that should be exposed to pesticide are the corporation leaders who order it’s use!
I urge you to strengthen protections for farm workers and agricultural communities.
Pesticides not only kill pests. It also kill people and our planet.
Please issue STRICT restrictions for herbicides and pesticides. These chemicals make the people who help feed us sick, they kill the bees and they will kill us all slowly.
I grew up in an entirely organic environment in France and I still only shop at purely organic locales.
I want to limit pesticides in my food as well as the environment as a whole.
This is why I do not understand the EPA’s lax policy of allowing agricultural workers and the communities that they live into be exposed to so many pesticides.
The data is not in on many of the newer and older pesticides and their effect on human health. Letting agricultural workers be the guinea pigs in the coal mine is wrong.
Letting pesticide companies continue to use the environment and all of us as one large, unregulated lab experiment is morally wrong.
No data proving safety and no data proving minor effects on the environment should mean the pesticide in question should be kept off the market. No strict enforcement of safety regulations concerning pesticides should mean no use of said pesticide until strict regulations protecting human health are in place.
I hope you, the EPA, will take the input of farmworker advocate organizations seriously as you consider amending your proposed rule concerning the use of pesticides in agriculture and farmworker safety. I was a part of the national grape and lettuce boycott back in the early 1970’s, and this concern was one of the main issues farmworkers and their allies had back then. It’s high time to provide adequate health protection for the people who bring food to our tables.
it’s time to start protecting the people.
Stop these dangerous pesticides
Follow through with what is said above.
Please do the right thing. Do what is stated above.
Your Commentsprotect the workers who handel your food
Please create high standards for protecting farmworkers from pesticide use.
I am concerned that the proposed rules fall short in several key areas:
Minimum Age: Children should not be working with pesticides. The proposed rule allows children as young as 16 to handle hazardous pesticides. Studies have proven that during adolescence our developing bodies are more vulnerable to toxic pesticides in comparison to adulthood. No child under the age of 18 should be allowed to handle pesticides.
Central Posting of Information: Farmworkers have the Right-to-Know which chemical they are exposed to on a daily basis. The central location that details information about where pesticides have recently been applied should not be eliminated. In addition, the requirement for pesticide hazard information should not be eliminated. Farmworkers should know where to find the information and be able to understand it. The information should be available and accessible to them without having to request it from their employer, as currently proposed. Due to language barriers, immigration status and/or fear of retaliation, workers will be reluctant to ask their employer for the information.
Mandatory Field Signs: The posting of field warning signs, rather than verbal notice, notifying workers about not reentering fields where pesticides been applied should be mandatory regardless of the restricted-entry interval (REI). This guarantees that workers know when a field has been sprayed and not to enter before the time has passed.
Drift Protections: We support the EPA proposal to establish buffer zones around sprayed fields. Pesticide applicators must stop spraying if anyone enters the treated area
No one, from field to table, should be put at risk for their health from pesticides.
Please consider adding the following to the proposed rule Pesticides: Agricultural Worker Protection Standard:
1. The need for minimum ages for those allowed to handle pesticides of at least 16.
2. Closing of loopholes in the regulation which currently is written to allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon.
3. The need for additional training for workers and better posted information, and well trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors to ensure regulations are
enforced.
Thank you.
Farming is already a dangerous occupation. Harmful chemical exposure does not need to further the risk of injury to those helping to feed the masses!
All workers deserve safe working conditions
Nobody should be allowed to be exposed to hazardous pesticides on the job or in their home. I once got very sick immediately after pesticides were sprayed near my home.
Pesticides are known carcinogens therefore there is no reason to use them and especially not to protect the people who are working in the fields.
In order for the proposed changes to be effective, responsible government agencies must have the capacity to enforce meaningful regulations and employers must also be held accountable for their actions. Funds must be channeled to the enforcement agencies so that a sufficient number of inspectors can be hired and inspectors must be bilingual and be able to speak Spanish and Creole. There should also be an increase in the number of surprise and random inspections at the farms and fines should be raised in order to discourage incompliance. Also, enforcement agencies should work closely with community-based farmworker organizations in ensuring farmworker safety.
please protect workers working with pesticides. you are protecting them, their families and potential future generations.
The only way to a prosperous world (for anyone) is through Sustainable, Renewable — Organic Fair Trade Agriculture that doesn’t poison the consumers or workers who use and create it. By allowing corporations to put their meaningless pursuit of a value-less currency before life itself you have single handedly poisoned the entire world with engineered organisms that are ruining everything. Using Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals on your own civilians is considered an Act of War and will be dealt with as such.
Create a safer environment for all or watch the world descend into eternal anguish for all, rich and poor. Nobody will escape and no, mars nor space will accept you.
Agriculture workers are today’s “canary in a coal mine”.
The proposed rule falls short in several areas. We need minimum ages for those allowed to handle pesticides to be at least 18, close loopholes in the regulation (which currently is written to allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon), need additional training for workers and better posted information, and well-trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors to ensure regulations are enforced.
Use your Common Sense to protect all agriculture workers and respect their rights and safety
people before profits
I believe that the minimum age to handle pesticides should be 18, closing the loopholes in the regulations. and additional training for workers is needed.
We need to ensure that large-scale farms are held to the same standards that other industries are.
seriously Comments
Protect these workers.
Seriously!
Protect the workers from illness.
Please go the WHOLE WAY to protect our farmers. Pesticides are dangerous; no one should have to be exposed to them. It’s the only right way! Thank you!
It is the children who live in these communities who suffer the brain damage resulting from pesticide exposure. It is immoral of us not to protect the innocent bystanders to a job we won’t even do.
Please enact the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard. Farmworkers deserve these reasonable regulations.
Please strengthen the regulations and protect farmworkers and agricultural communities!
Agricultural workers do laborious, thankless and sometimes dangerous, but very important jobs and deserve the same rights and protections as all other workers. Thank you!
All workers deserve protection from toxic chemicals in their work environment. Please establish and maintain standards to keep agricultural workers healthy.
TRUE agriculture does not require ANY synthetic chemistry! Protect farm workers and the environment NOW!
Pesticides are not only harming the workers but the consumer – you and me!! The United States MUST curb their use.
Pesticides are poison, and people who work with poison should be protected!
Farm workers should not be exposed to chemical fertilizers or pesicieds. They should not be exposed to slaughterhouse conditions involving abuse of animals, which in turn affects the mental health of the workers. Farm workers should be paid a higher minimum wage for what they do because the work is hard and our nation depends on them.
The people who produce our food need to be protected. While the proposed guidelines are an excellent start, there are additional areas that need to be addressed:
—minimum ages of at least 18 for those allowed to handle pesticides
-close loopholes in the regulation which currently allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon
–require additional training for workers and better posted information
— well-trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors to ensure regulations are enforced
No worker should be at risk because of pesticides. No child labor, workers have a right to know the conditions they are working in and be protected from ‘drift.’
Pesticides are harming not only workers but consumers – you and me!! The United States MUST curtail their use.Your Comments
The health of farmworkers must be protected in every way!
Pesticides lead to birth defects, autism, etc. Do the right thing!
Not only the workers in the fields, but all of our fellow people on this planet deserve to have the opportunity to consume wholesome food free from poisons. For those tending and harvesting these food s for the rest of us, it is paramount that they are protected from undue exposure to these man made chemicals whose sole purpose is to kill other life forms.
The Environmental Protection Agency should do as the name suggests, that is protect the environment. This includes people.
Common sense tells us all that being exposed to these pesticides can do significant damage to the human body. It’s time the government stops protecting the companies that are slowly killing us all.
Protect the people who help bring food to our table.
Agricultural workers who bring food to our table need to be protected.
We can see all around us that pesticides are causing much harm, including resistance; please help us all by strengthening your rules.
Let’s go local and Organic and share this world with all species and humans. Chemists need to take a toxicology course and environmental mechanisms.
Please protect farm workers, make the minimum age of handling pesticides 18, provide additional training and ensure regulations are enforced.
Agricultural workers deserve protection along with the rest of us. Underpaid and overworked they should not have this additional burden.
Many of the pesticides currently being used are unsafe for people and the environment. It’s your job to protect them, EPA. Please do your job.
The EPA won’t regulate deadly pesticides. The birds bees, and butterflies are dying and the workers are getting sick. The EPA is doing a good job for their corporate masters. shame
Farmworkers have a much shorter life expectancy than people in other industries. It’s only right that we should protect the lives of people who bring food to our tables.
why not stop the use of all these nasty toxic pesticides.
It’s embarrassing for this country to allow exposure to any chemicals for the sake of Big Ag profits. Especially for any children.
No child under the age of 18 should be allowed to handle pesticides. Farmworkers have the Right-to-Know which chemical they are exposed to on a daily basis. The central location that details information about where pesticides have recently been applied should not be eliminated. In addition, the requirement for pesticide hazard information should not be eliminated. Farmworkers should know where to find the information and be able to understand it. The information should be available and accessible to them without having to request it from their employer, as currently proposed. The posting of field warning signs, rather than verbal notice, notifying workers about not reentering fields where pesticides been applied should be mandatory regardless of the restricted-entry interval (REI). We support the EPA proposal to establish buffer zones around sprayed fields. Pesticide applicators must stop spraying if anyone enters the treated area or the buffer zone. Workers in other industries receive annual safety training and farmworkers deserve the same protection. The content of the training should be interactive and presented in a manner that is understood by farmworkers. Based on our experiences a wallet-sized verification card works best in the field, which is similar to the current voluntary verification card system.
Though the proposed rule will strengthen safety standards for the millions of farmworkers who work with or near pesticides on farms, farmworker advocates like the Farmworker Association of Florida and CATA-the Farmworker Support Committee point out that it falls short in several areas. They stress the need for minimum ages for those allowed to handle pesticides of at least 18, closing of loopholes in the regulation which currently is written to allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon, the need for additional training for workers and better posted information, and well-trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors to ensure regulations are enforced.
Thank you for proposing safety standards for Ag workers.
Please include protection of children from exposure to pesticides.
Please take into account our farmworkers and the agricultural communities they serve when making regulations. The present regulations need to be strengthened and I ask you to do all you can in order to protect these people. Thank you.
Please protect our farmers by installing a high-standard of safety pro-cautions in the use of pesticides.
These plutocrats are trying to return us to the guilded age. What we do to others, we do to ourselves.
Your death to monsatan and all that are in their pockets
Conglomerates feel no remorse in contaminating our environment with pesticides. It is the responsibility of the EPA to honor its commitment to put people’s safety before profit motives rampant in our culture. Therefore strengthening safety standards for farmworkers is imperative and the only ethical response to a critical situation.
The EPA must do more to protect farm workers and their families against chemicals and pesticides. These have caused health issues and death! These chemicals are the cause of the reduction of bee population too.
Need for much stricter requirements than is proposed plus penalties for violations.
These changes need to be made – minimum ages for those allowed to handle pesticides of at least 18, closing of loopholes in the regulation which currently is written to allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon, the need for additional training for workers and better posted information, and well-trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors to ensure regulations are enforced
Every one deserves clean air, water, a safe work environment and a living wage. Children need protection whether they were born in the U.S. or elsewhere – they are children!
Please make the rule on Pesticides and agricultural workers stronger by requiring multilingual inspectors , more training for the workers, and more time elapsed before workers enter a treated area. These products are toxic and our workers need more protection , including posting information they can understand about the risks .
We need to protect farm workers from dangerous chemical pisticides. Anybody working with these chemicals should be at least 18. More training and bilingual management and regulation is needed to ensure the safetly of the workers.
Protect people FIRST AND FOREMOST AND ALWAYS!
Keep us safe
PROTECT PEOPLE FIRST AND FOREMOST!
Your Comments
Please protect the people who grow our food!
On the proposed rule “Pesticides: Agricultural Worker Protection Standard”-
Though the proposed rule will strengthen safety standards for the millions of farmworkers who work with or near pesticides on farms, farmworker advocates like the Farmworker Association of Florida and CATA-the Farmworker Support Committee point out that it falls short in several areas. They stress the need for minimum ages for those allowed to handle pesticides of at least 18, closing of loopholes in the regulation which currently is written to allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon, the need for additional training for workers and better posted information, and well-trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors to ensure regulations are enforced.
Thank you.
WE CAN’T KEEP DUMPING TONS AND TONS OF POISONS INTO THE ENVIRONMENT ALL DAY EVERY DAY! ALL FOOD AND ALL FARMS NEED TO BECOME ORGANIC ASAP!!
Farmworkers need more protection from pesticide exposure. Please give them more protection from pesticide exposure.
Your CommentsFarmworkers need more protection from pesticide exposure. Please give them more protection from pesticide exposure.
Farm workers should not endure health risks or problems due to pesticide use. Please keep them safe and our food healthy.
Aren’t we all farmers? If not, we should be. Stand in solidarity with those who grwo our food!
We need to stand in solidarity with those who grow our food!
Many people will not make things safer unless required by government. Please do what’s right.
yes, protect the workers!
We depend on farm workers to sustain us and we need to do all we can to protect them.
Farmworkers are in the front-lines of the assaults by these toxins and are in dire need of protection.
Though the proposed rule will strengthen safety standards for the millions of farmworkers who work with or near pesticides on farms, farmworker advocates like the Farmworker Association of Florida and CATA-the Farmworker Support Committee point out that it falls short in several areas. They stress the need for minimum ages for those allowed to handle pesticides of at least 18, closing of loopholes in the regulation which currently is written to allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon, the need for additional training for workers and better posted information, and well-trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors to ensure regulations are enforced.
Small scale, organic, multicultural farming is the best way to protect farm workers & the environment. Multicultural farming also produces healthier, more abundant yields than monocultural farming.
Protect the workers!!
As a two time survivor of Lymphoma, not only do I want food free from pesticides, I want farmers to be free from using and handling pesticides.
Please protect workers from pesticides and chemical exposure. They deserve better than that. Thank you.
All workers deserve a safe working environment and a living wage.
Help protect farm workers from pesticide exposure.
Protect people
Please keep farm workers safe from the atrocities of pesticides to prevent further birth defects, cancers and other associated diseases, and prevent ecological and environmental destruction by encouraging more regenerative practices.
The US needs to better protect farm workers and pay them better.
If that means I need to pay more for veggies I wouldn’t mind.
You need to step up inspections and regulations.
I am all for this.
Make my food safe and worker safety a priority.
Thank you.
The proposed rule falls short in several areas: the need for minimum ages for those allowed to handle pesticides of at least 18, closing of loopholes in the regulation which currently is written to allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon, the need for additional training for workers and better posted information, and well-trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors to ensure regulations are enforced.
We depend on Farm workers to do the back breaking work of harvesting and planting our nations food. It is completely unfair that they are exempted from the rights that all other workers are afforded. Not to mention that they are frequently exposed to harmful pesticides and not trained well enough on safety and safety measures are not enforced strongly enough. Please stress a MINIMUM age as many farm workers bring their underage children with them to the fields. Saftey information should be provided in the native language of the worker. To leave out that stipulation nullifies the whole program! Please make sure these workers have the protection the need and deserve! My daughter has several family members, including her father who are agricultural workers.
Please ensure farmworkers the protection and safety standards they deserve.
History has proven that when the majority of companies producing something can take shortcuts that decrease safety for its workers or pollute the local environment in order to make more money for themselves they will.
Safety for our farmers, workers and food is paramount.
We now know that the increased use of pesticides are harming bees and butterfles which we rely on for food. It has been dterimental to farm worker for years. Please work dilgently to remove harmful pestcides from our fields and remove all pesticide s that contain agent orange and roundup. Thanks for doing this for our health and the health of our planet.
Protect our farm workers from pesticides.
Please protect the workers
Please protect Agriculture Workers from harmful pesticides!
Farmworkers deserve to be protected
Regarding US farm workers, I would like to stress the need for minimum ages for those allowed to handle p1esticides of at least 18, closing of loopholes in the regulation which currently is written to allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon, the need for additional training for workers and better posted information, and well-trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors to ensure regulations are enforced.
Protect our ag workers.
Please do the right thing, EPA. Don’t jeopardize the future of our farm-workers by allowing poisons to destroy their health. Fight the big money in Washington and stand-up for the environment and worker’s rights.
Since employers don’t care about the health of their workers, it is up to the EPA to be both the moral and physical guardian of the people who produce our foods. Please make all requirements verifiable and up to the highest standards, ensure there are no loopholes, and make non-compliance too painful to risk. Agricultural practices that poison workers, our waters, and even our food need to be changed for the good of all of us.
From the time of the beginning of civilization until 75 years ago, everyone ate organically grown foods i.e. pesticide free, herbicide free, non GMO. And, as a result there was no risk of cancer to growers or consumers. Today, our food is poison; it’s one of the causes of cancer, even to the farm workers who grow it. This has to end. The profits of The .1 %: Those who own and control BIG OIL/ BIG CHEMICAL companies can not supersede the rights of The 99%. The Rich do not own The Planet; YHVH: The Creator And The Ruler Of The Universe does. He has said – “All of The Earth is mine”. (Shemot [Exodus] 19:5) And, he has said (concerning our Kings) – “And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this Law in a book out of that which is before The Priests the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear YHVH his Mighty One, to keep all the words of this Law and these statutes, to do them: That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Yisra’El”. (Devarim [Deuteronomy] 17: 18 – 20)
EPA, please work with Directly Affected stakeholders to create meaningful standards for pesticide protection of agricultural workers.
Your Comments
Agricultural workers should be 18+ and have the proper training and equipment to perform the job.
Isn’t it about time we provided protections for agricultural workers? Not only are they the worst paid part of the agricultural process, they generally bear the burden of “worst treated, worst poisoned” part of the agricultural process.
Americans should be ashamed that they know and care so little about the people who perform the backbone labor behind their food.
Farmworkers deserve safe working conditions!
Please strengthen your regulations so that farm workers have the protection that they deserve.
Safety needs to be a priority!
Farmers deserve out utmost respect. They grow, provide, and tender the soil that gives our food of everyday. Their rights should always be guaranteed no matter what.
Please support workers rights.
PROTECT the workers.
Please act to protect workers from pesticides and other dangerous chemical in the farming industry.
Farmworkers deserve protection from dangerous chemicals just as much as workers in any other occupation do. Please protect our farmworkers!
No worker should be exposed to toxic chemicals as part of their job, including farm workers!!
Farming needs to be safe work.
Please do what’s right- protect these human beings from the hideous chemicals- it’s on your shoulders, do you want to be responsible for causing illness and death?
Phasing out the use of pesticides will not only benefit farmworkers, but will improve the health of farmers, consumers and the natural environment, as well.
Nobody has assured the risk of multiple substances spraying, nor cumulative effects from mixtures. Worst scenario must be considered in order to warranty occupational health for workers. Also the standars of farms inspection should include the evaluation of the associated risks konwledge level of workers.
It’s agent Orange that we used during the Vietnam War era. Minus a few distinctive traits
I support strengthening regulations to protect agriculture workers from pesticides, including need for minimum ages (at least 18) requirement to handle pesticides, additional training for workers, better posted information, and well-trained bi/multilingual inspectors to ensure regulation enforcement.
POISON!!!
If it was you or your children working in conditions that might expose them to chemicals and pesticides, wouldn’t you strive for more stringent rule making and enforcing? Huh? from a retired Public Health Nurse
We need to be protecting our farmers, they do the hard work of getting the food we all eat to our tables; the health and safety of them should be a predominate concern.
Please strengthen safety standards!
Please protect workers from chemical exposure.
EPA stands for Environmental Protection Agency! We all know how the likes of Big Ag control our politicians. It’s laughable in a sad way; the head of the FDA is an ex Monsanto employee – sad and pathetic. Please do you job protect the environment And strengthen the safety standards for farmworkers.
Our country is such a joke…I mean the head of the FDA is an ex Monsanto guy? How can the Americna people expect to get fair treatment. Please do you job; protect the environment And the people that have to work in all the pollution that big Ag puts out there.
PESTICIDES ARE MEANT TO KILL, PERIOD. THEY DO NOT KNOW OR CARE WHO OR WHAT THEY KILL, AND THEREFORE MUST BE CONTROLED WHEN USED AROUND HUMAN BEINGS!!!
PESTICIDES ARE MEANT TO KILL, PEROID!!! THEY DO NOT CARE WHO OR WHAT THEY KILL, AND THEREFORE MUST BE CONTROLED WHEN USED AROUND HUMAN BEINGS!!!
These harmful pesticides are bad for the workers, bees/any pollinator and the environment!
The Environmental poisoning agency is just another corrupt and sinister agency of the evil and sinister us federal govt. Death to DC please!
This should be an obviously necessary step. Eventually, pesticides must be eliminated.
do the right thing for people
Farm workers need to be guaranteed a safe working environment.
Ensure safety for ALL workers!
Health concerns should reach beyond those who can afford it.
Agricultural workers and communities deserve to be protected from pesticide exposure. They need good, clear information and training, protection from entering treated fields too soon after application, should be at least 18 years of age and meaningful enforcement.
Farmworkers, consumers, and the environment should be protected from exposure to these harmful products. If we can’t ban them completely, we should at least ensure that they be used as safely as possible, and that those who handle them be protected as much as possible.
Protections for all farm workers now!
We need clearer guidelines and oversight to protect agricultural workers. The dangers of pesticides are too great and the lasting health impacts too expensive. Action now will save lives and money well into the future.
Protect farmworkers!
All workers must be treated respectfully, which must include having humane and safe working conditions. Thank you.
Protect these workers now
No one should be poisoned in their workplace!
For the best interest of this nation’s future ability to drink from its watersheds – pesticides need to be reined in. The exposure workers face is life altering as well. We have a responsibility right now to do what is safer and healthier despite corporate or greedy interests.
White collar office workers have many job protections in place, as do blue collar factory workers, and teachers, and government workers. Unions made these changes. Farm workers, mostly illegal immigrants, rarely have health protections in their work places when it comes to pesticides and conditions. We should be ashamed of ourselves as a nation that the people who work on the global farms that feed us are not important enough to safeguard their health. Our livelihood depends on these Agriculture Workers.
I urge the EPA to strengthen the rules for protecting agricultural workers. These jobs are hard, dangerous, underpaid. The least they can have is very safe working conditions.
Farm workers must be protected from dangerous agricultural pesticides. What is not safe for the worker’s is also not safe in food for consumption. It is time for all pesticides to be proven safe, before being allowed to be used. Commercial agriculture is producing unsafe food.
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And protect the communities around farms.
And protect the communities around the farms.
Everyone deserves a safe and healthy working environment.
Everyone deserves a safe and healthy workplace.
Please strengthen farm worker protections against pesticides. There should be a minimum age of 18, better training for workers and better posting of information, and the training and posting should be done in both English and Spanish. Most importantly, loopholes allowing some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon should be closed. These are basic, fair rights of farm workers. You can better protect their health by strengthening pesticide regulations.
Though the proposed rule will strengthen safety standards for the millions of farmworkers who work with or near pesticides on farms, it falls short in several areas. There is a need for minimum ages for those allowed to handle pesticides of at least 18, closing of loopholes in the regulation which currently is written to allow some workers to enter a recently treated area too soon, the need for additional training for workers and better posted information, and well-trained bilingual or multilingual inspectors to ensure regulations are enforced.
Please strengthen the proposed pesticides rule by adding minimum ages of at least 18, restrict access to treated areas for all workers and additional training for workers and bi-lingual information posted and inspectors available.
people need protection against pesticide exposure. glyphosphate is showing itself to not be safe to work with. please protect our farmers against this exposue. thank you.
The proposed Agriculture Worker Protection Standard regarding pesticides is too weak. Children under 18 shd not be allowed to handle pasticides, and shd be kept out of recently treated places. Also, relevant informational documents shd be clearly posted in places that will allow workers who are exposed to pesticides to read them. And there must be well-trained bi- or multilingual inspectors who routinely make sure that regulations are being enforced.
Listen to Farmworker Association of FL and CATA’s Comments. Strengthen new rules governing pesticides using knowledge provided by workers themselves.
Why do we have to beg and plead for government agencies to do their job and protect the interests of the people. If you do your job responsibly you could start a trend and who knows where it might end. Before you know it we might end up with a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” What a concept!
Please help to protect farmworkers from dangers they may encounter while trying to earn a living for their families.
Minimum Age for working with pesticides should be established, workers need Info of what they are exposed to, fields should be marked & Drift Info provided!
These pesticides are harmful to workers and consumers. Please keep safety standards as high as possible, as we can’t trust producers to self-police.
Don’t allow children to work in areas where pesticide exposure is sure to result.
We want this to be a great democracy. To be a great democracy you need people that stand up (really stand up) to the mediocrity that want to endanger others for more profits. Let’s get back on the right track.
Ag workers should have safe working conditions just as other workers do.
I prefer food raised without pesticides and I know that the use of such endangers the people that raise it, harvest it, process it and consume it. Please help us stop killing each other for the sake of profit. What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul!
Please, provide safe working conditions for all!
Strengthen regulations and protect the workers. It’s basic workplace safety!
No more pesticides.
We can also teach our farmers to grow industrial hemp with good returns for the farmers and none of the pesticides, herbicides nor insecticides, with low water requirements. Then the plants would be processed locally to provide the raw materials, for most of our basic humans needs. Food, shelter, clothing, plastics fuels to name a few, without hurting the earth, farmers nor consumers. It’s a win, win for all and future self-sustainability.
It’s pass time to protect the workers.
Your Comments
no more pesticides
I urge you to protect agricultural workers from very harmful pesticides!
In a democracy, we, the people have the right to produce without pesticides and harmful unlabeled Gmo’s. We need to have all Ag workers protected against illness and genetic defects in their future children. Give us pure food. That is God’s will!
Give the farmworkers a break!
protect farm workers!
Unfortunately, it is all about $$$$ for big AG. Not about labor. The capitalist model.
Protect farm workers…keep the toxic chemicals away! I don’t want to eat food that’s toxic either and refuse to buy it!
Please stop ignoring scientific evidence that shows how these chemicals in pesticides and other toxic agricultural aids destroy farmworkers health. Please choose to protect them instead!
protect farm workers