By Jim Harvey and Jeffrey Stoltzfus
With the harvest in full swing, you want to be sure you have all the required decontamination supplies on hand for Worker Protection Standard, food safety requirements, plus COVID-19 prevention.
The Worker Protection Standard requires employers to provide their workers with at least one gallon of water, soap, and single-use towels for routine washing. These supplies must be within a quarter-mile of the pesticide-treated area where the workers are located.
Employers are also required to provide their pesticide handlers with even more decontamination supplies and in more locations. Handlers need to be supplied with at least three gallons of wash water, soap, and single-use towels. Just like worker supplies, these supplies must be within a quarter-mile of the area being treated. Those same decontamination materials must be at the mix and load site and where the handler removes their personal protective equipment (PPE).
Pesticide handlers must also be supplied with an emergency change of clothes in case their clothes become saturated with a pesticide, which can be as simple as keeping a Tyvek suit in a plastic bag under the tractor seat. If the handler is working with a pesticide requiring eye protection they must have at least a pint of “immediately available” eyewash water.
With the 2015 revision to the Worker Protection Standard, an emergency eye flushing station must be provided at any site where handlers are mixing or loading a pesticide that requires protective eyewear or are mixing or loading any pesticide using a closed system operating under pressure. This system must be capable of delivering gently running water of at least 0.4 gallons per minute for a minimum of fifteen minutes or having at least 6 gallons of water in jugs capable of a gentle flow for a minimum of 15 minutes.
The eyewash system can be as simple as a hose screwed into a faucet. Just be sure not to use the hose that you also use for mixing and loading as it will have pesticide residue on it. Also, keep the eyewash hose out of the sunlight so that your initial shot of water does not come out at a superheated temperature which could damage your eye.
Early entry workers are afforded the same protections that handlers are so, if and when you use early entry, their decontamination supplies will be the same as handlers.
An important reminder is that hand sanitizer is Not acceptable for Worker Protection Standard requirements therefore, you must have soap to wash the pesticides away.
Source : psu.edu