In hopes of preventing farmworkers from being exposed to toxic chemicals, a task force has recommended a laundry list of changes to state pesticide laws.

Gov. Mike Easley appointed a group of state officials in January to consider strengthening pesticide regulations. The task force was a response to the state's case against tomato grower Ag-Mart, which is accused of forcing its employees to work in fields with freshly sprayed pesticides, possibly causing birth defects in the babies of pregnant workers.

The company, based in Florida, is fighting the charges, saying they are based on a misunderstanding of its records.

The task force submitted its recommendations to Easley's office this week. The plan would cost $1.6 million to implement and would affect tens of thousands of migrant farmworkers who pick crops in North Carolina, along with the farmers who hire them. Many will be considered in the legislative session that begins in May.

The recommendations include several new training programs for farmworkers and tougher record-keeping requirements for farms that use pesticides, as well as beefed up tracking of pesticide poisoning cases.

"I think they're a very positive step in the right direction," said task force member John Price, director of the state Office of Rural Health and Community Care. "They're certainly not going to be the answer to all the problems."

But advocates said the task force failed to include two key changes: a requirement that farmers document the exact time that workers return to fields after a pesticide application, and a new process that would keep confidential the names of workers who file pesticide complaints with the state. Those names are now public, which advocates say leaves whistle-blowers open to retaliation from their employers. The task force suggested a law against retaliation, but did not allow workers to complain confidentially.

"There was no farmworker on that task force," said Fawn Pattison, head of the anti-pesticide group Toxic Free North Carolina. "So farmworkers aren't really getting anything."

The task force members did, however, ask for significant changes in how farmers operate.

Growers would be required to record the specific times they finish spraying pesticides. Ag-Mart kept records only of the days on which pesticides were applied, making it difficult for state officials to know when the fields were safe for workers.

The rules also would force farmers to keep all pesticide records for two years and to disclose whether their farms are run by corporations when they apply for pesticide applicator licenses. Now state pesticide officials can't distinguish from the license whether it is held by a small family farmer or by a 5,000-acre corporate farm with hundreds of employees.

The task force members also recommended new farmworker training on the possible reproductive effects of pesticides, a reaction to three deformed babies born to Ag-Mart workers in 2004 and 2005. The company recently settled with the family of a boy born without arms and legs, although Ag-Mart officials said there was no proof that pesticide exposure caused the boy's birth defect.

And the group supported establishing for the first time a pesticide training program for crew leaders, the traveling labor contractors who supply workers to many North Carolina farmers and supervise the workers on the job.

Task force chairwoman Dr. Leah Devlin, the state health director, said the recommendations address "fundamental basic needs" and that a new state pesticide work group will continue to try to strengthen state pesticide laws.