Easley forms panel on protecting workers from pesticides

RALEIGH (AP) -- Governor Mike Easley wants some ideas on how to better protect farm workers and others around pesticides. State health director Leah Devlin will lead a new panel comprised of state officials and academics with health and agriculture expertise. Easley said Wednesday he wants recommendations by May. The state Agriculture Department fined a tomato grower $184,000 in 2005 for endangering workers by exposing them to harmful pesticides. A state report said the exposure may have caused birth defects found in the babies of three Ag-Mart workers. In October, an administrative law judge recommended the proposed fine be reduced to $6,000 because he said the department failed to prove its case. A state board now must decide whether to accept the recommendation. (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)