The purpose of the Worker Protection Standard
(WPS) Unit is to reduce the risk of pesticide exposure to agricultural
workers and pesticide handlers (persons who apply, mix or load
pesticides) who work in farm, nursery, greenhouse and forest
operations. This is accomplished by enforcing federal rules
adopted into the state Pesticide Control Code and performing
educational outreach regarding the WPS requirements for pesticide
safety training, personal protective equipment, restricted entry
intervals for pesticide treated fields, and other safety measures.
Training workers and handlers, and the agricultural employers
who hire them, is the foundation of the WPS program. For questions
or to order any of the materials referenced below, call (609)
984-6920.
DEP Commissioner Campbell's Article on the Farmworker
Enforcement Initiative.
Specific WPS requirements for New Jersey are
described in Subchapter 12
of the NJ Pesticide Control Regulations.
For more information on how to comply visit
the EPA's
Worker Protection Standard site.
Trainer Information
Before training workers or handlers, you
must first be recognized as a trainer. To qualify for trainer
recognition, you must meet one of the following criteria:
be a licensed pesticide applicator; be currently qualified
as a trainer in another jurisdiction recognized by New Jersey;
or have completed an approved train-the-trainer program.
The Application
for Worker Protection Trainer Recognition/ Trainer Provider
Agreement must be filled out, signed, and returned to
this office in order for you to receive a trainer certificate.
This must be done prior to conducting training in New Jersey,
or in order to receive WPS cards that are issued to employees
after they have been trained. The WPS Unit can also provide
worker or handler cards and information for ordering training
materials and supplies upon request.
Training rosters, which must be completed
with information from training sessions, and submitted to
this office, can be downloaded here:
Inspection of Agricultural Establishments
Agricultural establishments are routinely
inspected for WPS compliance. In order to give you a summary
of the topics covered on a typical WPS inspection, keep a
copy of the WPS Inspection
Summary Sheet for reference.
WPS Educational Pamphlets and Fact Sheets
Regulations require agricultural employers
to distribute educational pamphlets to their workers and handlers
as part of new employee orientation and as part of the annual
"refresher" training if the employee no longer has
a copy.
Protect
Yourself from Pesticides (English version)
Regulations also require agricultural employers
to keep pesticide Fact Sheets on file, and provide them to
workers and handlers upon request. The following Fact Sheets
(English version) can be downloaded and kept on file for distribution:
Distributing the pamphlets to employees
and keeping fact sheets on file is dependent upon the DEP
making them available to agricultural employers. Currently,
these materials are being distributed during inspections,
at training sessions, and by calling the WPS Unit. Since these
materials must be presented in a language employees can understand,
they are also available in the following languages: Spanish,
Chinese, Italian, Korean, Laotian, Vietnamese, Cambodian,
Haitian, and Tagalog. These other languages will be available
for downloading at this site in the future. In the meantime,
to request any or all of these, call the PCP at (609) 984-6920,
and indicate the number of copies you wish to receive.
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