Three states sue EPA over pesticide education delays - Entrepreneur Generations

California, Maryland and New York filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court against the Environmental Protection Agency and its administrator Scott Pruitt for slowing the implementation of Obama-era requirements for farm employers to provide more pesticide training for farmworkers and pesticide handlers. The suit alleges that the EPA's delays harm hundreds of thousands of farmworkers and their families, Chris Clayton reports for DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

The rules were updated in 2015 for the first time in 25 years and included such provisions as requiring pesticide handlers to be at least 18 and educating farmworkers on pesticide residue that could cling to their clothes and harm children who came into contact with the clothes.

The 2015 rule change had more than 393,000 supporting signatures and 2,400 comments, but "last December, EPA delayed publication of new training materials and in doing so, the lawsuit states, EPA ended up 'indefinitely delaying the compliance dates for the enhanced pesticide safety training provisions ...'" Clayton reports. "EPA did so even though it had the new training materials on hand and ready to make available. EPA announced its decision with a notice in the Federal Register and added that EPA also intended to reconsider other aspects of the rule."




from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2J4891Q Three states sue EPA over pesticide education delays - Entrepreneur Generations

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