vvEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Enforcement
& Compliance Assurance
Washington, DC 20460
EPA305-F-01-009
August 2001
www.epa.gov
AF~ «—w^ T
g Center
Helping Agriculture Comply with
Environmental Requirements
O C U S ON
Information Growers Must
Provide to Commercial Handlers
The Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS) is a regulation issued by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency in 1992 and amended in 1995. It covers pesticides that are
used in the production of agricultural plants on farms, forests, nurseries, and greenhouses. The
WPS requires you to take steps to reduce the risk of pesticide-related illness and injury if you (1)
use such pesticides, or (2) employ workers or pesticide handlers who are exposed to such
pesticides.
This fact sheet will help you understand how to comply with WPS requirements concerning the
information that growers must provide to commercial handlers about pesticide-treated areas.
Information provided by growers
to commercial handlers
Operators of farms, forests, nurseries,
and greenhouses must make sure that,
whenever a commercial pesticide
handler will be doing pesticide handling
tasks (including tasks as a crop advisor)
on their establishment, the commercial
handler's employer knows specific
information concerning treated areas on
the agricultural establishment.
Operators of agricultural establishments
must provide the following information
to the commercial pesticide handlers
they hire:
• Specific location and description of
any areas on the agricultural
establishment:
--may be treated with a pesticide or
be under a restricted-entry interval
while the commercial handler will
be there, AND
--the commercial handlers maybe in
(or walk within 1/4 mile of)
• Restrictions on entering those areas.
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The Ag Center
welcomes
comments on this
document and its
other services.
Operators of commercial pesticide
handling establishments must have this
information to protect their employees
as required by the WPS. They must
make sure that, whenever one of their
handlers will be doing pesticide
handling tasks (including tasks as a
crop advisor) on an agricultural
establishment, he or she is aware of the
required information concerning
pesticide-treated areas on the
agricultural establishment.
For more information
To get more facts about compliance,
contact the Ag Center by phone, fax, or
mail. Call the toll-free number to ask
compliance questions or order
publications. At the Center's web site,
www.epa.gov/agriculture, you can
explore compliance information and
order or download publications. For a
complete publications list, request
document 10001, "Ag Center
Publications."
For example, if custom applicators are
scheduled to use ground equipment to
apply a pesticide on a farm, they need
to be informed of any nearby areas on
the farm that they should stay out of
because the area has an REI in effect.
Or if commercial crop advisors are
scheduled to scout in an area on a farm
that remains under an REI, they need
to be told what personal protective
equipment they should wear while in
that area.
National Agriculture Compliance
Assistance Center
901 N. 5th Street
Kansas City, KS 66 1 0 1
Toll-free:
Internet:
Fax:
1-888-663-2155
www.epa.gov/agriculture
913-551-7270
United States Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20460
Ag Center Fact Sheet Series
Agrichemicals/WPS - Growers Must Inform Commercial Handlers
Page 2
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