ASSOCIATED PRESS

January 14, 2009

New record-keeping rules OK'd for pesticide use

RALEIGH - North Carolina officials announced Wednesday they have tightened rules on pesticide use to require farmers to record the exact time chemicals are used and to keep the records for two years.

The North Carolina Pesticide Board said in a written statement that the new rules are aimed at increasing the protection of farm workers from pesticide exposure.

The old rules required licensed pesticide users to note the date and approximate time pesticides were applied and to keep records for only 30 days.

The changes were mandated by legislation adopted by the General Assembly last year in response to a state task force's recommendations. The board adopted the rules during a meeting Tuesday.

Then-Gov. Mike Easley appointed the task force following the state's case against Florida tomato grower Ag-Mart Produce Inc.

The board heard testimony from Ag-Mart workers last year who said they were forced to work in fields freshly sprayed with pesticides in North Carolina. One woman whose son was born without arms and legs said the company was responsible and that supervisors ignored her complaints of headaches and stomach pains in 2004.

Plant City, Fla.-based Ag-Mart has denied the allegations and other former and current workers testified they were never sprayed with the chemicals. But the company agreed to a confidential court settlement in Florida last year that will pay for lifetime care of the child, attorneys have said. The company did not admit any wrongdoing but has stopped using a number of pesticides alleged to have caused birth defects.

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture's case against the company began three years ago, and its Pesticide Board is considering whether Ag-Mart violated worker safety laws.

Also during its Tuesday meeting, the board fined several farming operations for various violations, including $1,000 for violating state law by improperly disposing pesticide containers. A $900 fine was levied on an operation that sold a restricted-use pesticide to a non-certified applicator.