5.3 EPA Worker Protection Standard (WPS) Requirements

5.3 EPA Worker Protection Standard (WPS) Requirements

The Worker Protection Standard (WPS), codified under Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 170 (40 CFR Part 170), is a comprehensive federal regulation promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency under the statutory authority of FIFRA. The WPS is specifically designed to reduce the risk of pesticide poisonings, chemical injuries, and chronic occupational illnesses among agricultural workers and pesticide handlers. In New Mexico, compliance with the WPS is enforced directly by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA) through routine agricultural inspections and unannounced field audits.

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Scope and Jurisdictional Boundaries of the WPS

Understanding the exact operational scope of the WPS is a core requirement of state licensing exams. The WPS applies strictly to commercial agricultural establishments involved in the production of agricultural plants.

Covered Agricultural Establishments

1. Farms: Crop production acreage, orchards (such as pecan and apple orchards), chile and onion fields, alfalfa operations, and vineyards.
2. Forests: Commercial timber stands, Christmas tree plantations, and forestry tree nurseries.
3. Nurseries: Commercial outdoor container nurseries, wholesale shrub and shade tree facilities, and cut-flower operations.
4. Greenhouses: Enclosed structures, hoop houses, and shade structures where commercial plants, vegetables, or ornamental herbs are propagated.

Non-Covered Operations

The WPS does NOT apply to pesticide applications conducted on:

• Structural pest control operations (residential houses, food processing plants, commercial warehouses).
• Turf and ornamental landscapes on golf courses, athletic fields, public parks, or home lawns.
• Public health vector operations (mosquito abatement districts).
• Livestock, dairy cattle, poultry, or veterinary parasite control.
• Rights-of-way, railroad beds, highway utility easements, and oilfield well pads.

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Agricultural Workers vs. Pesticide Handlers

The WPS establishes a critical legal distinction between two categories of agricultural employees, assigning distinct protective standards and training requirements to each.

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                   WPS EMPLOYEE CLASSIFICATIONS                          |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
                                     |                                    
            +------------------------+------------------------+           
            |                                                 |           
+-----------v-------------------------+   +-------------------v-----------------+
|        AGRICULTURAL WORKERS         |   |         PESTICIDE HANDLERS          |
+-------------------------------------+   +-------------------------------------+
| * Perform manual cultural labor     |   | * Directly manipulate pesticides    |
| * Harvesting, thinning, pruning     |   | * Mixing, loading, transferring     |
| * Weeding, hoeing, irrigating       |   | * Applying, flagging aerial rigs    |
| * Minimum training: Worker Module   |   | * Cleaning or repairing spray rigs  |
| * Decontamination: 1 gal water      |   | * Decontamination: 3 gal + eyewash  |
+-------------------------------------+   +-------------------------------------+

1. Agricultural Workers

An agricultural worker is defined as any person employed (for wages or salary) on an agricultural establishment who performs hand labor tasks in fields, orchards, or greenhouses. Hand labor includes harvesting crops, detasseling corn, weeding, hoeing, pruning vines, moving irrigation pipes, or handling containerized nursery stock where pesticides have been applied or where a Restricted Entry Interval (REI) has been in effect within the past 30 days.

2. Pesticide Handlers

A pesticide handler is any person employed on an agricultural establishment (or by a commercial pesticide handling business) who performs direct operational tasks involving pesticides:

• Mixing, loading, transferring, or pouring pesticide formulations.
• Operating application equipment (driving tractor sprayers, operating motorized orchard mist blowers).
• Handling open pesticide containers or pesticide delivery hoses.
• Cleaning, adjusting, unstopping nozzles, or repairing contaminated application equipment.
• Disposing of excess chemical mixtures, rinsate, or unwashed pesticide containers.
• Serving as an on-ground flagger for aerial pesticide applications.
• Entering enclosed structures to monitor, vent, or aerate spaces following fumigation.

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Employer Responsibilities & Pesticide Safety Training

Agricultural employers carry affirmative legal duties under 40 CFR Part 170. Employers cannot delegate or contract away their statutory responsibilities to workers or labor contractors.

Annual Training Mandates

1. Annual Retraining: Both agricultural workers and pesticide handlers must receive certified pesticide safety training every 12 months (annually). There is zero grace period; workers must be trained before they enter any treated area, and handlers must be trained before performing any handling activity.
2. Approved Materials: Training must be conducted using EPA-approved training curriculum presented orally, through video, or using interactive computer programs in a language the employees understand.
3. Qualified Trainers: Training can only be administered by a currently certified applicator (commercial or private), a designated state lead agency instructor, or an individual who has successfully graduated from an EPA-approved "Train-the-Trainer" course.
4. Record Retention: Employers must maintain complete training documentation for at least 2 years from the training date. Records must include: the employee's printed name and signature, date of training, trainer's name and certification license number, the specific EPA-approved training material title and registration code, and the employer's business name.
5. Age Minimums: Handlers and early-entry workers must be at least 18 years of age (with narrow exemptions for immediate family members on family-owned farms).

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The Central Notification Display

Every covered agricultural establishment must establish a centralized information display at a prominent, readily accessible location where workers and handlers congregate (such as the main farm office, chemical storage shed, or employee break area).

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                    CENTRAL NOTIFICATION DISPLAY REQUIREMENTS                      |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1. OFFICIAL EPA WPS SAFETY POSTER (or NMDA-approved state equivalent)             |
|    Must detail basic hygiene, washing, symptoms of poisoning, and legal rights.   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2. EMERGENCY MEDICAL CARE INFORMATION                                             |
|    Name, exact address, and direct emergency telephone number of the nearest     |
|    hospital, clinic, or emergency medical facility.                               |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 3. COMPREHENSIVE PESTICIDE APPLICATION RECORDS                                    |
|    Must be posted BEFORE application begins and include:                          |
|    • Product trade name, EPA registration number, and chemical active ingredients |
|    • Specific location, crop, and geographical boundaries of treated area         |
|    • Scheduled application date, exact start time, and exact end time             |
|    • Restricted Entry Interval (REI) duration in hours or days                    |
|    * Must remain posted for 30 consecutive days following REI expiration.         |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Information Exchange for Commercial Applicators

When a commercial agricultural applicator is contracted to treat fields on a farm, an information exchange must occur before spraying:

• Custom Applicator to Operator: The commercial applicator must provide the grower with full product details, EPA registration numbers, REI duration, and safety requirements before the application begins so the grower can post the Central Display.
• Operator to Custom Applicator: The grower must inform the commercial applicator of any treated areas under active REIs on the farm that the applicator or their equipment might cross.

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Field Decontamination Supplies

Agricultural employers must supply clean, fully stocked decontamination stations to enable workers and handlers to wash off accidental chemical splashes immediately.

Mandatory Supply Quantities and Proximity

Proximity and Location Rules

• 1/4-Mile Maximum: Decontamination stations must be located within one-quarter mile (1/4 mile) of every worker performing hand labor, and within 1/4 mile of every handler mixing, loading, or applying chemicals (or at the nearest vehicular access point).
• Isolation from Contamination: Decontamination stations must never be positioned inside a treated field or an area under an active REI, unless the clean water and supplies are stored inside an enclosed, sealed container or cab.
• Emergency Eyewash Delivery: At mixing and loading sites where the pesticide label requires protective eyewear, the handler decontamination station must provide a dedicated, plumbed or gravity-fed emergency eyewash system capable of delivering continuous flow (at least 0.4 gallons per minute for 15 minutes, or a reservoir of at least 3 gallons of clean water). Furthermore, handlers applying pesticides must carry at least one pint of emergency eyewash water directly on the spray tractor or on their person for immediate flush access.

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Restricted Entry Intervals (REI) & Early-Entry Exceptions

The Restricted Entry Interval (REI) is the period of time immediately following a pesticide application during which entry into the treated field or greenhouse is strictly restricted to protect employees from toxic residues.

Determining the REI

• Label Mandate: REIs are printed directly on the product label under the "Agricultural Use Requirements" box. REIs range from 4 hours (for low-toxicity biorational materials) to 12, 24, 48 hours, and up to 72 hours (for high-toxicity organophosphates applied in arid regions receiving less than 25 inches of annual rainfall, typical throughout New Mexico).
• Multiple Chemical Rule: If two or more pesticide products with different REIs are tank-mixed, the applicator and employer must enforce the longest of the applicable REIs.
• Double Notification: If the label mandates dual notification, the employer must post standardized WPS warning signs at all usual field entry points AND notify all agricultural workers orally.

Early-Entry Exceptions (Strictly Regulated)

Under narrow exceptions, agricultural workers may enter a field before the REI expires:

1. No-Contact Entry: A worker enters a treated area where no contact with treated surfaces (plants, soil, water, air) will occur (e.g., walking on paved paths or driving an enclosed tractor).
2. Short-Term Tasks (<1 Hour): Workers may enter to perform urgent, non-hand-labor tasks (such as adjusting an irrigation valve) for a maximum of 1 hour in any 24-hour period. The employer must provide full early-entry PPE specified on the label, ensure decontamination supplies are outside the field, and explain label hazards. Hand labor (harvesting, weeding) is strictly prohibited during early entry.
3. Declared Agricultural Emergency: A formal agricultural emergency certified by the state lead agency (NMDA) where an unexpected frost, flood, or insect invasion threatens catastrophic crop destruction.

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Application Exclusion Zone (AEZ)

The Application Exclusion Zone (AEZ) is an active, moving safety perimeter surrounding pesticide application equipment during outdoor agricultural applications. The AEZ is designed to prevent direct chemical impingement and immediate drift exposure to workers, bystanders, and non-handlers.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                 APPLICATION EXCLUSION ZONE (AEZ) DISTANCE MATRIX                  |
+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Distance Radius   | Application Methods & Equipment Parameters                    |
+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| **100 Feet**      | • Aerial applications (fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters)      |
|                   | • Air-blast sprayers (orchard and vineyard mist blowers)      |
|                   | • Fumigant, smoke, mist, or fog applications                 |
|                   | • Fine spray droplets (volume median diameter < 294 microns)  |
+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| **25 Feet**       | • Ground boom sprayers applied >12 inches above target         |
|                   | • Medium or coarser spray droplets (VMD >= 294 microns)       |
+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| **0 Feet**        | • Enclosed cab applications using directed spray              |
|                   | • Soil injection, granular applications, bait stations        |
+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+

The Applicator's Affirmative Duty to Suspend

MANDATORY LEGAL OBLIGATION: The applicator has a strict legal duty to IMMEDIATELY SUSPEND APPLICATION if any unauthorized person (other than trained, equipped handlers) enters the Application Exclusion Zone.

• No Boundary Limitation: The applicator's duty to suspend applies whether the person is on the agricultural establishment or on neighboring property (e.g., a person walking down an adjacent rural road within 100 feet of an active air-blast sprayer).
• Resuming Application: The applicator may only resume spraying once all non-handlers have vacated the AEZ perimeter or moved outside the exclusion boundary.

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Practical Compliance Scenario: Hatch Valley Chile Operation

A commercial agricultural producer in the Hatch Valley of New Mexico plans a ground-boom application of an organophosphate insecticide on 80 acres of green chile. The product label specifies an REI of 48 hours and requires eye protection.

Step-by-Step WPS Execution:

1. Pre-Application Posting: The farm supervisor posts the application details (product name, EPA Reg. No., active ingredient, 48-hr REI, maps of the 80-acre block, and start/finish times) at the central notification bulletin board next to the EPA safety poster and emergency clinic contacts.
2. Decontamination Staging: The employer verifies that 3 gallons of clean water per handler, liquid hand soap, single-use paper towels, and clean replacement coveralls are staged at the mix/load pad. A 3-gallon continuous eyewash station is connected at the pad, and each tractor operator is equipped with a 1-pint emergency eyewash bottle.
3. Enforcing the AEZ: During spraying, the tractor boom operates with medium droplets (25-foot AEZ). A field hand walking along an access ditch steps within 15 feet of the boom. The tractor applicator immediately shuts off the spray valve and suspends application until the field hand moves beyond the 25-foot perimeter.
4. Post-Application Retention: Following application completion, warning signs remain posted at all field access gates, and the Central Display records remain accessible for at least 30 consecutive days beyond the 48-hour REI.