BP BHEAD INT S

AN ACT Relating to worker safety and health in the use of extremely toxic pesticides; and adding a new chapter to Title 49 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The purpose of this chapter is to protect Washington farm workers from extremely toxic pesticides in the workplace. The legislature finds that:

(1) Certain pesticides dispersed in Washington workplaces are extremely and acutely toxic even in small amounts. Exposure to only small amounts of these pesticides may result in severe systemic illness, blindness, severe burns, or death.

(2) There are less toxic substitutes for these pesticides.

(3) Principles of industrial hygiene require the substitution in the workplace of less toxic materials or alternative practices, where available, in order to protect workers from exposures to extremely toxic substances.

(4) Principles of industrial hygiene should be applied to the dispersed use of extremely toxic pesticides by requiring substitution of less toxic substances or alternative practices, where available, and by promoting the development of alternative substances or practices in cases where they are not currently available.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. As used in this chapter, the words and phrases defined in this section shall have the following meanings:

(1) "Director" means the director of the department of labor and industries.

(2) "LD-50" means median lethal dose or concentration.

(3) "Extremely toxic pesticide" means a pesticide determined by the director to:

(a) Have an inhalation LD-50 of 0.2 milligrams per liter or less for a period of one hour;

(b) Have a dermal LD-50 of two hundred milligrams per kilogram or less;

(d) Be corrosive to the eyes, or cause corneal opacity not reversible within seven days; or

(e) Be corrosive to the skin.

For purposes of this subsection, the director may rely upon the determination by another state or federal agency that a pesticide meets the toxicity criteria described in this subsection.

(4) "Dispersed use" means the intentional application of an extremely toxic pesticide by aircraft, power blast equipment, sprayer, or other means to disseminate the pesticide in the workplace.

(5) "Labor-intensive crop" means a crop requiring substantial hand labor for planting, thinning, cultivating, pruning, harvesting, or other agricultural activities. Labor-intensive crops include but are not limited to apples, cherries, peaches, berries, hops, grapes, asparagus, pears, plums, nectarines, onions, cucumbers, cauliflower, and squash. By virtue of mechanization, crops such as, but not limited to, wheat, oats, and barley are excluded unless substantial hand-labor is utilized.

(6) "Pesticide" means, but is not limited to:

(a) A substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, control, repel, or mitigate insects, rodents, snails, slugs, fungi, weeds, and other forms of plant or animal life or virus, except virus on or in a living person or other animal that is normally considered to be a pest or that the director may declare to be a pest;

(b) A substance or mixture of substances intended to be used as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant; or

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. Except as provided in section 4 of this act, no employer may engage in, or cause an employee to be engaged in, the dispersed use of extremely toxic pesticides in a labor-intensive crop, on or after January 1, 1996.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. (1) The director may authorize the dispersed use of an extremely toxic pesticide if the director finds in writing, by rule, that prohibition of the dispersed use of an extremely toxic pesticide will cause severe economic hardship in the affected industry, and that no feasible alternative substances or practices are available.

(2) Whenever the director authorizes an extension of the dispersed use of an extremely toxic pesticide pursuant to subsection (1) of this section, the director shall immediately notify appropriate research institutions and programs of the state, including the University of Washington and Washington State University, in order to facilitate research into alternative substances and practices.

(3) This section expires on January 1, 2000, unless a later enacted statute, enacted before January 1, 2000, deletes or extends that date.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. Notwithstanding section 3 of this act, an institution of higher education that is otherwise authorized to use extremely toxic pesticides may use these poisons for research purposes only.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. Sections 1 through 5 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 49 RCW.