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Description of the measure

Workers may be exposed to a pesticide when they enter an area (e.g. for pruning, cutting, picking, harvesting, pest inspection) that has been treated previously with a pesticide or when they handle a crop commodity (e.g. sorting, bundling, packing) that has been treated with a pesticide.

A re-entry interval can be established to allow the pesticide to degrade to levels that do not pose an unacceptable risk to workers. The re-entry interval (also called restricted entry interval) is the minimum amount of time that must pass between the pesticide application and the time that workers can re-enter the treated area.

In principle, the length of the re-entry interval is based on a worker risk assessment that takes into account the toxicity of the pesticide, its application rate, its speed of dissipation from the crop, and crop density/structure, as well as working practices. 

Conditions for effective implementation

Increasing the re-entry interval for workers should not conflict with agronomic practices (e.g., harvesting times).

The government should be able to effectively enforce worker re-entry intervals.

Estimated risk reduction potential

An effective re-entry interval will reduce the risk to, or below, the acceptable operator exposure level (AOEL).

Potential constraints

In certain crops, the required re-entry interval may not be possible because agronomic practices such as harvesting, picking or pruning must be conducted before the end of the re-entry interval. In such cases, applying that pesticide in the crop will not be possible, unless more protective PPE can be used.

Further information

More information on worker hazard and risk assessments can be found in the Assessment Methods module.