BILL REQ. #:  S-2287.1 

READ FIRST TIME 03/10/03.   

     AN ACT Relating to a pilot project by the department of labor and industries to determine the feasibility and benefits for medical monitoring of agricultural workers; creating new sections; and declaring an emergency.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that: The state's highly productive and efficient agriculture sector is composed predominately of family owned and managed farms and an industrious and efficient work force; the supreme court has directed the department of labor and industries to initiate rule making regarding monitoring of agriculture workers who are exposed to certain pesticides. It is the intent of this act that the safety and health of workers be protected, and that this can best be accomplished through a pilot project to determine whether mandatory medical monitoring is effective and beneficial to workers who mix, load, or apply cholinesterase inhibiting pesticides, and whether mandatory medical monitoring is feasible considering all of the technical requirements of such a regulation.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   (1) The department of labor and industries shall initiate a pilot project, in accordance with RCW 34.05.313, to determine whether mandatory medical monitoring for class one and class two organophosphate and carbamate pesticides is practical and effective to promote worker safety. The pilot project shall be completed by December 31, 2005.
     (2) In accordance with RCW 34.05.350, the department of labor and industries may adopt emergency rules necessary to protect the health and safety of farmworkers.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect immediately.