AMES, Iowa -- The Pest Management and the Environment (PME) Program at Iowa State University and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) have a new course available online -- Worker Protection Standard: Train-the-Trainer.

The Worker Protection Standard (WPS) is a federal regulation designed to protect employees on farms, forests, nurseries and greenhouses from occupational exposures to agricultural pesticides. The Worker Protection Standard offers protections to approximately 2.5 million agricultural workers (people involved in the production of agricultural plants) and pesticide handlers (people who mix, load or apply pesticides) that work at more than 600,000 agricultural establishments.

“This new online course was developed by Iowa State University Extension with funding support from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship,” said Betsy Buffington, ISU Extension program specialist in the Department of Entomology. “It is designed for agricultural employers or managers to know and understand what is required by the Worker Protection Standard. It will guide them through the necessary procedures to provide agricultural workers with required information on how to avoid exposure to pesticides and pesticide residues. Effective and thorough WPS training not only will protect agricultural workers, it may reduce lost work time and medical expenses and increase worker productivity.”

The online course is offered in six study units and will require approximately 1.5 to 2 hours to complete. Each study unit contains educational information and a practice quiz. The convenient, user-friendly study units can be completed at a time that fits the employer’s schedule.

After completing all six study units, employers can take a certification exam. The exam is comprised of questions taken from the practice quizzes. A certificate of completion is available once an employer passes the final exam with a score of at least 70 percent. Upon successful completion, agricultural employers will be qualified as WPS worker trainers by the Pesticide Bureau of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

To learn more or enroll in the course, go to www.extension.iastate.edu/WorkerProtection.

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