Senators Rebuke EPA Plan To Let Kids Handle Pesticides Again
A group of 28 senators sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt on Tuesday urging him not to roll back restrictions on the use of dangerous pesticides by young workers.
March 14, 2018 | Source: The Huffington Post | by Dave Jamieson
If regulators remove the age restrictions, minors could work with pesticides that aren’t even sold to the general public because of how toxic they are.
A group of 28 senators sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt on Tuesday urging him not to roll back restrictions on the use of dangerous pesticides by young workers.
HuffPost first reported that EPA leadership was considering undoing age requirements put in place in 2015 to protect minors working in agriculture and other industries. Those rules required workers to be at least 18 years old if they are going to handle pesticides on farms or get certified to work with “restricted use” pesticides, such as arsenic and methyl bromide. RUPs, as they are known, are not sold to the general public because of how toxic they are.