In 2015, for the first time in over 20 years, the Environmental Protection Agency updated the Worker Protection Standard (WPS). The WPS provides basic workplace protections for agricultural workers to reduce the risk of pesticide exposre. This issue brief overviews the major revisions that are particularly relevant for clinicians caring for agricultural workers. 

Haz-Map® is an occupational health database designed for health and safety professionals and for consumers seeking information about the adverse effects of workplace exposures to chemical and biological agents. The main links in Haz-Map are between chemicals and occupational diseases. These links have been established using current scientific evidence.

http://www.farmworkercliniciansmanual.com

This comprehensive manual was developed by the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health and the Migrant Clinicians Network for the diagnosis and treatment of occupational injuries in migrant and seasonal farmworkers. The information in the manual does focus on agricultural occupations in the Northeast.

MCN's Pesticide Clinical Guidelines and Pesticide Exposure Assessment Form assist in the recognition and management of acute pesticide exposures in primary care settings.

The pesticide guidelines were adapted from guidelines developed by Dr. Dennis H. Penzell, a former medical director of a Community and Migrant Health Center with experience in large-scale pesticide exposure incidents.

The Acute Pesticide Exposure Form was adapted from the data collection on an acute pesticide exposed patient tool developed by Matthew C. Keifer, MD, MPH, Director of the National Farm Medicine Center, appearing in the EPA's Recognition and Management of Pesticide Exposures, 6th Edition, EPA 2013.

These resources were developed with guidance from MCN's Environmental and Occupational Health Advisory Committee - a panel of healthcare professionals and researchers with expertise in pesticides and migrant health.

Use the link below to access MCN's Rapid Assessment Tool to help adolescent farmworkers identify agricultural tasks they perform in agriculture and facilitate clinician understanding about the health risks associated with it.  Youth worker images are adapted and reproduced with permission from the National Children Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety. Images copyrighted through Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield, Wisconsin.

If computers and internet access are unavailable where patient care is provided, the worker assessment sheet and clinician information grid are available in PDF.

Objective, science-based information about pesticides - written for the non-expert.