The Worker Protection Standard is a Federal regulation designed to protect agricultural workers (people involved in the production of agricultural plants) and pesticide handlers (people involved in mixing, loading or applying pesticides or doing other tasks involving direct contact with pesticides.) The Standard will impact farms, agricultural dealerships, nurseries, forests and greenhouses who hire employees to do tasks related to agricultural plant production. The Worker Protection Standard goes into effect on April 15, 1994. After this date, applicators that use a pesticide which refers to the Worker Protection Standard on its label, must comply with requirements under the Worker Protection Standard. The employer is responsible for seeing that their employees comply with this new regulation. The following information is a brief overview of the Worker Protection Standard. The complete details of the Standard are presented in the Federal Register or in the How to Comply manual, PAT-12, available from ISU Extension Distribution
