TRUMP’S EPA KEEPS BRAIN-DAMAGING PESTICIDE IN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Washington, D.C. —
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos can still be used on food , although mainstream science says this pesticide is unsafe for children and farmworkers. This decision meets the deadline ordered by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for the EPA to make a final decision on a petition to ban chlorpyrifos on food.
“By allowing chlorpyrifos to stay in our fruits and vegetables, Trump’s EPA is breaking the law and neglecting the overwhelming scientific evidence that this pesticide harms children’s brains,” said Patti Goldman, Earthjustice attorney. “It is a tragedy that this administration sides with corporations instead of children’s health. But this is only a setback. Lawmakers in states like Hawai'i and New York are now showing the rest of the country that banning this dreadful pesticide is not only possible, but inevitable.”
While the Trump administration disregards science and health, states are taking action. Last year Hawaiʻi passed a law banning chlorpyrifos and this year, New York legislators overwhelmingly approved a bill doing the same in that state. The New York bill awaits Governor Andrew Cuomo's signature.
“Every day we go without a ban, children and farmworkers are eating, drinking and breathing a pesticide linked to intellectual and learning disabilities and poisonings,” said the 12 plaintiff organizations challenging the 2017 decision. “We will continue to fight until chlorpyrifos is banned and children and farmworkers are safe from this dangerous chemical.”
Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate (OP), a class of chemicals that includes sarin nerve gas. First developed by the Nazis for chemical warfare, OPs were later repurposed for agricultural uses. Chlorpyrifos and other OP pesticides are used on strawberries, apples, citrus, broccoli, corn, and more. In fact, chlorpyrifos is one of the most frequently used pesticides in the United States.
Studies show that exposures to chlorpyrifos and other OP pesticides in infants and children are associated with lower birth weight, reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention disorders, and even autism .
Chlorpyrifos and the other OP pesticides were banned from almost all home use nearly two decades ago, they were too toxic to children. EPA was on course to ban chlorpyrifos from all food crops, but weeks after former EPA boss Scott Pruitt met with the head of the largest manufacturer of chlorpyrifos, Dow Chemical — now Corteva Agriscience — Pruitt falsely claimed in 2017 the science is “unresolved” and decided EPA would study the issue until 2022.
Earthjustice is representing the League of United Latin American Citizens, National Hispanic Medical Association, United Farm Workers, Farmworker Association of Florida, Learning Disabilities Association of America, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, Pesticide Action Network, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Farmworker Justice, GreenLatinos, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Photo: Chlorpyrifos is acutely toxic and associated with neurodevelopmental harms in children AUSTIN VALLEY / CC BY 2.0
Who cares...as long as chemical companies can back a few mil. /s
That’s what the Obama epa said, for sure.
So no other comment except to give a false accusation?
The EPA proposed a ban in 2015. Pruitt overturned that proposal in 2017.
There was a court mandated deadline for a decision.
This is a toxin that was banned in home use. The trump administration decided to backtrack and let the company continue to use poison on our food.
Funny to me that people complain about healthcare costs yet champion a company detrimental to health.
is it any surprise
that Trumpp would want people to be brain dead
?
Obama was president for up to 2 years after that. Why did he not ban it during that time?
I'm not aware that he could have banned it all by himself. His EPA director did, admittedly after much delay, probably thanks to lobbying efforts by Dow. Two days before the ban was to take effect, Pruitt, you know, Trump's anti-EPA EPA director, reversed it.
trump and his administration has everything to do with it. Just saying otherwise does not make it so.
It is a poison and there is even a link in the article about developmental delays in children from the product.
Amazing to me that you would not mind eating poison.
By the way, it is not poisoning foods crops, it is poisoning the people eating the crops...
It's also harmful to bees, even at low doses. I doubt this administration is nearly as concerned as it should be about the decline in bee populations. I would hope that farmers understand the importance of pollinators, and voluntarily stop using chlorpyrifos.
Well, didn't he say he loves the poorly educated? Brain dead is kind of like that.
Do Democrats NOT love the poorly educated or something?
Is that why so many are so fond of quoting the President on that?
Seems very weird, considering the base that makes up much of the Democratic Party---some of the lowest educated groups in America.
I wouldn't know. I'm not a democrat.
Okay then, do you not love the poorly educated?
No. Why would i? I have no emotional connection to them.
Some folks simply choose to love all, without regard to race, religion, sex, or education.
At least until those folks do something to warrant the loss of that love.
To each their own.
Good for them. I don't pretend to carry emotional attachments for someone I never met. And in the context of Trump, he probably only "loves" the uneducated because he thinks they voted for or supported him. I doubt he harbors actual feelings of love for them.
No emotional attachments. Get real, for once. If you really don't understand what one might mean when they say they "Love the poorly educated" or "Love the educated" or any other [removed]
I understand what a decent human being with a sense of empathy might mean by that. I also understand what Trump meant by it - and it was not complimentary. Basically he only loves them because they support him. Same way he loves Putin and Kim, and despises anyone who doesn't adore him.
SOSDD
What Katrix said. She said it better than I could.
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Sure I am dismissive [Removed]
Getting personal only shows you have nothing.
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You're the one who engaged me first. So don't complain when a discussion doesn't go your way! You only have yourself to blame.
I don't see where I complained.
Do quote me.
Stop derailing. Anything to say on the topic?
Start with your deleted comment and work your way up from there. Oh, and what Ender said too.
All politicians love the uneducated. It doesn't matter which party both think the uneducated are easily duped.
I know who quoted Trump on that, and why.
You can pretend otherwise if you choose, it doesn't matter to me.
I just love it when one side pretends to be something they aren't.
Two of the lowest-educated groups make up a sizable part of the Democratic Party base.
Pretending to do what exactly?
That is probably true
Dear Friend Ender: Europe is way ahead of us in protecting consumers from harm in what we eat, and how it is produced and prepared.
Its OK to learn from the wisdom of others.
Thanks for an interesting and informative post.
P&AB.
Enoch.
True. Sometimes it feels like health and well being take a backseat to profit margin.
Indeed!
?
i'd go with way too fricken often !
Touché