To: The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate
Tell Congress: Hold the EPA accountable for letting Syngenta poison workers with toxic pesticides!
Dear legislator,
I’m deeply concerned by EPA’s recent actions on toxic pesticides. In recent months, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Nancy Beck -- a former chemical industry employee that now helps run the chemical safety office -- announced that they want to weaken rules that prevent children from applying toxic pesticides and protect all of us from dangerous chemicals found in agricultural, commercial and residential settings. By tampering with the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS), and its sister set of safety standards, the Certification of Pesticide Applicators Rule (CPA), the administration is putting farmworkers, pesticide handlers, their families, and the broader public at risk. I urge you to hold the EPA accountable and not rollback these important standards.
Specifically, EPA wants to weaken or gut the following safeguards:
• MINIMUM AGE: the protections that prohibit children from applying pesticides, especially the most dangerous pesticides on the market.
• RIGHT TO A REPRESENTATIVE: the right of a farmworker to designate someone who can, on their behalf, access information about the chemicals they are exposed to. This is vital for laborers with limited English proficiency.
• PROTECTIONS FROM PESTICIDE DRIFT: the requirement to protect workers and bystanders by suspending application of a pesticide if the applicator sees an unprotected/non-trained person enter the area around the application equipment, also known as the "application exclusion zone."
Pesticides are applied on our food and in, on, or around our homes, schools, hospitals and work places. If the people that handle pesticides aren't adequately trained, or don't understand the dangers of the chemicals they're handling, the health and safety of workers, communities and all consumers is at risk. Pesticide misuse has led to worker poisonings and serious harm for hundreds of homeowners and their families. It has also resulted in the tragic deaths of children.
Aside from these critical safeguards, the EPA recently announced it is cutting a penalty for Syngenta from $4.8 million to a meager $150,000 for failing to protect workers from the highly toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos. These recent actions from EPA signal that Scott Pruitt is more concerned with protecting the interests of the pesticide industry than protecting public health and the environment.
I urge you to stop EPA’s attack on the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard and the Certification of Pesticide Applicators Rule and not allow the agency to cut these critical protections for children.
Sincerely,
I’m deeply concerned by EPA’s recent actions on toxic pesticides. In recent months, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Nancy Beck -- a former chemical industry employee that now helps run the chemical safety office -- announced that they want to weaken rules that prevent children from applying toxic pesticides and protect all of us from dangerous chemicals found in agricultural, commercial and residential settings. By tampering with the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS), and its sister set of safety standards, the Certification of Pesticide Applicators Rule (CPA), the administration is putting farmworkers, pesticide handlers, their families, and the broader public at risk. I urge you to hold the EPA accountable and not rollback these important standards.
Specifically, EPA wants to weaken or gut the following safeguards:
• MINIMUM AGE: the protections that prohibit children from applying pesticides, especially the most dangerous pesticides on the market.
• RIGHT TO A REPRESENTATIVE: the right of a farmworker to designate someone who can, on their behalf, access information about the chemicals they are exposed to. This is vital for laborers with limited English proficiency.
• PROTECTIONS FROM PESTICIDE DRIFT: the requirement to protect workers and bystanders by suspending application of a pesticide if the applicator sees an unprotected/non-trained person enter the area around the application equipment, also known as the "application exclusion zone."
Pesticides are applied on our food and in, on, or around our homes, schools, hospitals and work places. If the people that handle pesticides aren't adequately trained, or don't understand the dangers of the chemicals they're handling, the health and safety of workers, communities and all consumers is at risk. Pesticide misuse has led to worker poisonings and serious harm for hundreds of homeowners and their families. It has also resulted in the tragic deaths of children.
Aside from these critical safeguards, the EPA recently announced it is cutting a penalty for Syngenta from $4.8 million to a meager $150,000 for failing to protect workers from the highly toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos. These recent actions from EPA signal that Scott Pruitt is more concerned with protecting the interests of the pesticide industry than protecting public health and the environment.
I urge you to stop EPA’s attack on the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard and the Certification of Pesticide Applicators Rule and not allow the agency to cut these critical protections for children.
Sincerely,
Why is this important?
In 2016, Syngenta poisoned 19 workers at a research farm in Hawaii. They were exposed to Dow’s nerve gas pesticide chlorpyrifos -- without any protective gear. After the workers were exposed, Syngenta failed to provide adequate decontamination supplies or emergency medical attention.
More than 45,000 members of Friends of the Earth like you have called on the EPA to hold Syngenta accountable. But the agency hasn’t responded yet. So now, we need to turn up the heat by pushing Congress to step in.
More than 45,000 members of Friends of the Earth like you have called on the EPA to hold Syngenta accountable. But the agency hasn’t responded yet. So now, we need to turn up the heat by pushing Congress to step in.