"Five states this week sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over a rule that narrows the areas where farmers are required to limit human presence during the application of pesticides.
The states argue that the rule will harm their agricultural workers.
The agency's rule, finalized in October, makes it so that requirements that govern areas near pesticide applications can only be enforced on a farmer’s property and not in surrounding “off-farm” areas.
The EPA argued that it was hard for farmers to enforce rules off of their property, but opponents of the move say that the changes risk exposing more people to harmful chemicals that can drift into nearby areas.
The new lawsuit filed by New York, California, Illinois, Maryland and Minnesota echoed this criticism, noting there are “statistical associations between pesticide exposure and cancer, including blood cancers, prostate cancer, and lung cancer.”"
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