Thirty workers were transported immediately to a medical clinic; the other four
went home, showered, and sought medical care three to seventeen days later. All of
the workers received hospital treatment for symptoms, and twenty-eight missed at
least one day of work. The CDHS continued to monitor these workers to assess the
acute and chronic effects associated with these pesticide overexposures. In this inci-
dent, workers entered a field at 6A.M. to complete weeding begun the previous day.
This was well below the required forty-eight-hour reentry interval and without label-
ing and oral notification. The results were moderately severe illness. The incident
demonstrates that 1) posted and oral warnings based on the REI are necessary to pre-
vent illness among workers performing hand labor in fields recently treated with pes-
ticides, and 2) failure to adhere to an REI can result in serious health consequences
for the exposed workers. No worker without prescribed protective clothing should
enter a treated area to perform a hand-labor task until the REI expires. The length of
the REI depends on the specific pesticide but generally can be no less than twelve
hours. Additionally, this incident demonstrates that sole reliance on these control
measures may be inadequate, creating a case for the substitution of safer, less-toxic al-
ternative pesticides when feasible, or of integrated pest management techniques,
where pesticide usage is prohibited.^18
State Regulations
Most Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) activities have
been delegated to the states. Many of the states have adopted the federal WPS, and
others have adopted standards that are more restrictive than the federal standard.
Standards adopted in Arizona and California are two examples of more restrictive
regulations.
California’s standard requires that employers of pesticide handlers have a written
training program for their employees and that handlers be trained every year, rather
than every five years. Cards used to certify EPA training are not accepted in Califor-
nia. Workers must be trained before they can enter treated fields. Employers must
have a hazard communication program (including material safety data sheets) in
place. They must also provide periodic cholinesterase blood tests under certain condi-
tions. Employers must also provide a written respiratory protection program at the
work site. They must require people working alone with pesticides labeled as danger-
ous to have contact with another person every two hours during daylight and every
hour at night. Contractors must be notified about areas of pesticide applications and
areas where entry is restricted (California Code of Regulations n.d., and the Califor-
nia Environmental Protection Agency n.d.).
Arizona’s standard requires that contractors be notified of areas where pesticides are
or are about to be applied, areas under restricted entry, and locations of the central
posting of pesticide safety materials (Arizona 1998). Pesticide safety training includes
instruction in how to file a complaint with the Arizona Department of Health
Services.^19
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