Register for EPA’s June 15th Webinar on Bilingual Pesticide Labels 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hosting a public webinar on Thursday, June 15, 2023, from 5:00pm to 7:00pm EST to obtain input from the public on ways to make bilingual pesticide labeling accessible to farmworkers as required by the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of 2022 (PRIA 5).  

The majority of our nation’s two million farmworkers speak Spanish. This effort will advance environmental justice by ensuring those farmworkers have access to important health and safety information on pesticide labels in their native language. During the webinar, EPA will provide a brief overview of the PRIA 5 requirements on bilingual pesticide labeling and milestones. PRIA 5 amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, requiring Spanish language translation for key health and safety sections of the end-use pesticide product labels where the translation is available in the EPA Spanish Translation Guide for Pesticide Labeling. The Spanish language translation must appear on the pesticide product container or on a link to the translation via scannable technology or other electronic methods readily accessible on the product label. These translations are required on a rolling schedule from December 2025 to December 2030 depending on the type of product and the toxicity category. PRIA 5 also requires EPA to begin to seek stakeholder input on ways to make bilingual pesticide labeling accessible to farmworkers by June 30, 2023, and to implement a plan to ensure that farmworkers have access to the bilingual pesticide labeling by December 2025. 

As EPA determines the next steps in developing a plan to make bilingual pesticide labels accessible to farmworkers, the Agency is interested in feedback on the following items.

• What communication approaches, processes or strategies should the Agency consider to ensure bilingual pesticide labels are accessible to farmworkers?  What specific approaches should the Agency avoid or adopt when implementing efforts to best ensure access by farmworkers to bilingual pesticide labels? 

• What technologies, mobile applications, and internet access should the Agency consider? Would web-based labels be accessible to farmworkers? How should the Agency overcome internet connectivity issues that some farmworkers may face?

• How can the Agency effectively share health and safety information on pesticide labels with farmworkers? What should on-the-ground logistics look like? Which entities (e.g., community-based organizations) should the Agency work with to provide label information to farmworkers? 

• As the Agency implements actions to meet this requirement, how can EPA effectively increase farmworker access to bilingual pesticide labels (e.g., communication plans, outreach strategies)?  

Attendees have two options for webinar participation – listen only or listen and speak during the webinar to provide recommendations to EPA. Speakers will have up to three minutes to provide recommendations to the Agency depending on the number of participants interested in providing remarks. Speakers must register for the event by Friday, June 9th. Attendees can register any time until the start of the webinar as a listen only participant. Further logistics and information will be provided to participants through the Eventbrite system. 

Following the webinar, EPA will open a comment period for 60 days through a Federal Register Notice to obtain written input on ways to make bilingual pesticide labeling accessible to farmworkers. Further information about the public docket will be provided during the event and in future EPA announcements.  

Stakeholders are encouraged to share this announcement with their networks. This webinar will be held in English with Spanish and American Sign Language interpretation services. For general inquiries about this webinar, email: OPPbilinguallabels@epa.gov. 

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