# Agricultural Worker Protection Standard: farm duties and resources URL: https://leafwrit.com/us/agricultural-worker-protection-standard/ Reviewed: 2026-10-29 ## Agricultural Worker Protection Standard: farm duties and resources WPS pesticide protection covers agricultural workers and handlers on farms, forests, nurseries and greenhouses. The [Worker Protection Standard](https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-worker-safety/agricultural-worker-protection-standard-wps) requires covered employers to train crews, restrict entry, provide application information and provide emergency assistance. Employers of workers and employers of handlers have different duties. The WPS protects over 2 million agricultural workers and pesticide handlers at over 600,000 agricultural establishments. EPA revised it in 2015 to decrease pesticide exposure incidents among farmworkers and their family members. Any handler and any early entry worker must be at least 18 years old. ### Supervisors and labor contractors The agricultural employer must provide supervisors, including labor contractors, information and directions sufficient to ensure that each worker and handler receives the protections the rule requires. The directions must specify the tasks for which the supervisor is responsible. Each supervisor, including a labor contractor, must in turn give each worker and handler sufficient information and directions to comply with the rule. Build the crew briefing around what people will do today. A picker, irrigator, nursery-stock mover, mixer and equipment mechanic can have different exposure circumstances even when the same farm employs them all, so a job title is a poor substitute for looking at the task. After the briefing, ask each person to explain in their own words what they should do and where questions go. ### Duties for workers and for handlers Workers are people employed for any type of compensation, including the self-employed, who carry nursery stock, repot plants, water or do other tasks directly related to producing agricultural plants. Handlers mix, load or apply agricultural pesticides, clean or repair pesticide application equipment, or assist with the application. All employers must provide annual pesticide safety training, decontamination supplies and emergency assistance, and may not retaliate against a worker or handler. Agricultural employers must also give workers and handlers access to pesticide application information, Safety Data Sheets and pesticide safety information at a central location during normal work hours. Employers of workers must also keep workers and other people out of the treated field and the application exclusion zone, implement restricted-entry intervals (REIs), protect early entry by workers, and notify workers about treated areas by oral warning or warning signs. Employers of handlers must also monitor handlers working with toxic pesticides, give handlers specific instructions and access to labeling, ensure equipment safety, and meet the PPE duties: provide required PPE clean and in good operating condition, ensure it is worn correctly, replace respirator purifying elements and dispose of contaminated PPE. Handlers required by the product label to wear a respirator receive a medical evaluation, a fit test and respirator training. ### Application Exclusion Zone and restricted-entry interval The Application Exclusion Zone (AEZ) is the area surrounding outdoor application equipment where people are prohibited while pesticides are applied. It exists only during the application, moves with the equipment, and can extend outside the agricultural establishment, for example onto school grounds or into residential neighborhoods. When the application is over, the AEZ ends and post-application restrictions such as the REI apply to the treated area. Keep the two ideas separate when you brief a dispatcher: the AEZ answers whether an application must pause right now, and the REI answers whether a crew can go back into the treated area later. The AEZ is at least 100 feet horizontally in all directions when the pesticide is applied by air, by an air blast or air-propelled method, as a fumigant, smoke, mist or fog, or with a fine spray quality. It is at least 25 feet when the application does not require 100 feet and uses a medium or larger spray quality from a height of more than 12 inches above the soil surface or planting medium. No AEZ is required for an application at 12 inches or less from the soil with a medium or larger spray quality. Handlers must suspend the application if workers or other people are in the AEZ, on or off the establishment, and must not resume until people have left it. Employers may not direct or allow any worker to enter the AEZ within the establishment, except appropriately trained and equipped handlers involved in the application. Workers may not enter an area where a pesticide was applied until the application and hazard information is displayed, the REI has expired and all treated-area warning signs are removed or covered, except for permitted early entry. ### Display of application and hazard information The display of safety and application information is required when workers or handlers are on the establishment and a pesticide product was used, or an REI was in effect, within the last 30 days. The application and hazard information for each product includes a copy of the safety data sheet, the product name, EPA registration number and active ingredients, the crop or site treated with the location and description of the treated area, the dates and times the application started and ended, and the duration of the label's REI. It is displayed where workers and handlers are likely to pass by or congregate and where it can be readily seen and read, no later than 24 hours after the application ends. It stays displayed until at least 30 days after the last applicable REI ends or until workers and handlers are no longer on the establishment, whichever is earlier. Workers and handlers have access during all normal work hours, and the information must stay legible. The employer keeps the application and hazard information on the establishment for two years after the REI expires. ### EPA-approved pesticides: the registration number on your display An EPA-approved pesticide is a product that EPA has registered. Before it registers a product, EPA examines the ingredients, the crop or site where the product is used, the amount, frequency and timing of use, and storage and disposal practices. EPA also approves the wording on each label, and following the label directions is required by law. WPS ties your farm's information to that registration. The application information you display names the product, its EPA registration number and its active ingredients, so copy the number from the container, not from memory. To look a product up by its registration number, use the [EPA product lookup guide](/us/epa-pesticide-product-lookup/). ### Equipment, mechanics and outside service personnel Before each day of use, equipment used for mixing, loading, transferring or applying pesticides is inspected for leaks, clogging, and worn or damaged parts, and damaged equipment is repaired or replaced. A handler is instructed in the safe operation of the equipment before using it. Workers and other persons employed by the establishment may not clean, repair or adjust pesticide application equipment unless trained as a handler under 40 CFR 170.501. Before a person not directly employed by the establishment cleans, repairs or adjusts equipment used to mix, load, transfer or apply pesticides, the employer must tell that person that the equipment may be contaminated, the potentially harmful effects of exposure, the procedures for handling the equipment and limiting exposure to residues, and the personal hygiene practices and decontamination procedures that prevent exposure. ### Emergency assistance If there is reason to believe a worker or handler experienced a potential pesticide exposure during employment on the establishment, or shows symptoms similar to acute pesticide exposure during or within 72 hours after employment there, and needs emergency medical treatment, the employer must promptly make transportation available from the establishment, including worker housing, to an operating medical care facility able to treat pesticide exposure. The employer must give the treating medical personnel copies of the applicable safety data sheets, the product names, EPA registration numbers and active ingredients, the circumstances of application or use, and the circumstances that could have resulted in exposure. Rehearse this before a busy season with a short tabletop exercise: a handler reports possible exposure in a distant block while the usual supervisor is unavailable. Ask who arranges the transportation, who finds the SDS, who knows the product identity, and who can explain the application and exposure circumstances to the clinic. ### Requests for application information A person employed as a worker or handler while the information was displayed can ask for a copy of it or access to it, orally or in writing, and the employer must provide it within 15 days of receiving the request. Treating medical personnel, or a person acting under their supervision, can request access or a copy orally or in writing to inform diagnosis or treatment, and the employer must provide it promptly. A designated representative must request in writing. The request names the worker or handler represented, describes the specific information wanted, includes a written designation bearing the worker's or handler's printed name, signature and date and the representative's printed name and contact information, and gives directions for where to send the information. The employer provides access or a copy within 15 days. ### Exceptions Before you rely on any exception, check its exact conditions and write down which people and tasks qualify. Owners and immediate family members on family-owned farms are exempt from many WPS requirements. Certified or licensed crop advisors performing crop advisor tasks are exempt from certain provisions, including pesticide safety training. The AEZ immediate family exemption lets farm owners and their immediate family remain inside enclosed structures or homes during pesticide applications under specific conditions. It does not apply to employees or labor housing. ### Test the plan against ordinary farm changes Walk through these situations before the season and see whether your plan has an answer for each. - **A replacement crew arrives at dawn.** Does the dispatcher know their assignments? Can the person explaining the precautions communicate with them? Are yesterday's restricted blocks left off their route? Who settles a mismatch between the posted map and the harvest instructions? - **A greenhouse bench is moved.** How will the treated area be described once pots or trays have moved? Do the nursery manager, propagation team and maintenance staff use the same location reference? - **The regular sprayer operator is on leave.** Who gives the substitute the equipment instructions and the current label? Ask the substitute to show where the shutoff, pressure release and decontamination supplies are. - **An outside electrician comes to fix a pump fault.** Ask whether the job involves contaminated application equipment. If it does, give the contamination and hygiene information before work starts; a work order that says only "electrical fault" can leave out the detail that matters most. - **A supervisor changes the afternoon assignment.** Check the new task against the treated-block restrictions before sending anyone. The morning briefing does not cover every later reassignment. - **An employee asks for application information.** Decide who receives the request, who finds the right employment period and who pulls the records. Requests from workers, medical personnel and designated representatives follow different routes, and for a representative you need the worker's written designation. ## WPS worker and handler training: farm roster and checklist Workers are trained under [40 CFR 170.401](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-40/chapter-I/subchapter-E/part-170/subpart-E/section-170.401) and handlers under [40 CFR 170.501](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-40/chapter-I/subchapter-E/part-170/subpart-F/section-170.501). All training materials must be EPA-approved. ### When training is required Before a handler performs any handler activity involving a pesticide product, the handler employer must ensure the handler was trained within the last 12 months. Before a worker performs any task in a treated area where a pesticide was used or an REI was in effect within the last 30 days, the agricultural employer must ensure the worker was trained within the last 12 months. Look at the actual training date, not just "last season": a record from the previous calendar year may already be outside the 12 months. Note the person's role and any claimed exemption beside the date before you rely on an old certificate. A worker who completed the handler training, or who is certified or licensed as a crop advisor by a program EPA or the State or Tribal agency acknowledged in writing, need not take worker training. Handlers who are certified restricted-use applicators or such crop advisors need not take handler training. ### Who may train A worker trainer is designated as a trainer of certified applicators, handlers or workers by EPA or the State or Tribal agency responsible for pesticide enforcement, has completed an EPA-approved train-the-trainer program for trainers of workers, or is currently certified as an applicator of restricted use pesticides under 40 CFR part 171. A handler trainer is designated as a trainer of certified applicators or pesticide handlers by the same agencies, has completed an EPA-approved train-the-trainer program for trainers of handlers, or is currently certified as a restricted-use applicator. Ask the trainer which of these routes applies and keep the evidence with the roster, rather than picking a qualification from memory. ### How the session is run Training is presented orally from written materials or audio-visually, at a location reasonably free from distraction and conducive to training, in a manner the audience can understand, such as through a translator. The trainer must be present during the entire program and must respond to questions. ### Approved training materials EPA-approved pesticide safety training materials are available on the Pesticide Educational Resources Collaborative website. Choose the worker or handler resource that matches your audience and note which material you used. A general pesticide-safety video or poster does not by itself tell you that it is an approved training program. ### What the worker training covers The worker program covers the employer's responsibilities and the right to designate a representative to request application information, how to recognize the posted warning signs, and how to follow directions and signs about treated areas subject to an REI and application exclusion zones. It covers where and in what forms pesticides are encountered and the sources of exposure on the establishment, the hazards to workers and their families including acute and chronic effects, delayed effects and sensitization, and the routes by which pesticides enter the body. It also covers signs and symptoms of poisoning, emergency first aid, routine and emergency decontamination including emergency eye flushing, the location of safety data sheets and unimpeded access to them, the potential hazards to children and pregnant women, keeping children and nonworking family members away from treated areas, removing work boots and clothes and washing before contact with family, and how to report suspected violations to the State or Tribal agency. Ask the trainer to explain terms such as exposure route, acute effect, chronic effect, delayed effect and sensitization, and use the same meanings in translated instruction and in farm examples. ### What the handler training covers The handler program includes all the worker topics plus proper application and use of pesticides, following the labeling for safe use, the format and meaning of label information, the need for and use and removal of all personal protective equipment, and how to recognize, prevent and give first aid for heat-related illness. It also covers safety requirements for handling, transporting, storing and disposing of pesticides including spill cleanup, and environmental concerns such as drift, runoff and wildlife hazards. ### Training records Handler employers keep training records on the establishment for two years after the date of training. Agricultural employers keep worker training records on the establishment for two years from the date of training. Each record has the trained person's printed name and signature, the date of training, information identifying which EPA-approved training materials were used, the trainer's name and documentation showing the trainer met the qualification requirements at the time of training, and the employer's name. The employer who provides the training must give the worker or handler a copy of the record on request. After each session, compare the printed names with your workforce list, make sure everyone who attended has signed, and keep the records retrievable by person and by session. Handler training is a separate session from a worker-only presentation. ### Sample handler roster Oregon OSHA publishes a WPS Handler Training Record, printed edition **3/2019**, with these fields. | Printed field | Rule element it corresponds to | | --- | --- | | Farm Name | The handler employer's name | | Trainer | The trainer's name | | Qualifications (Circle): Certified Applicator, Train the Trainer, Designated by State | The trainer's qualification route; the rule requires documentation showing the trainer met it at the time of training | | WPS Training Materials Used, EPA Approval Number | Information identifying which EPA-approved materials were used | | Handler Name (printed), Handler Name (signed), Date | The handler's printed name and signature and the date of training | ## Next step The [central display checklist](/us/wps-central-display-checklist/) covers where the information is displayed, and the [PPE checklist](/us/pesticide-ppe-checklist/) covers the handler PPE duties.