"6 Things to Know About the EPA’s New Pesticide Rules"

"The agency has updated its pesticide protections for the first time in nearly 25 years. Will the the people behind our food be any safer?"

"For the first time since 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has updated the pesticide protections it requires for the more than two million people who plant and harvest our food. The new protections, which will go into effect in early 2017, could be a game-changer for American farms and workers.

Pesticides can cause a wide range of adverse health effects, including skin rashes, nausea, and headaches, birth defects, reproductive disorders, and increased risk for certain types of cancer, and learning and behavior problems for children whose mothers were exposed while pregnant.

Nonetheless, U.S. farms use over 900 million pounds of pesticides [PDF] each year. The EPA estimates that approximately 10,000 to 20,000 farmworkers are diagnosed with pesticide poisoning and between 1,800 and 3,000 occupational pesticide exposure “incidents” are also reported every year.* Ensuring that fewer people are exposed to these farm chemicals could make agricultural work much safer."

Elizabeth Grossman reports for Civil Eats October 7, 2015.