Court Orders EPA to Ban Pesticide Linked to Health Risks

The story

A federal appeals court on Thursday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the controversial pesticide chlorpyrifos, after EPA staff scientists recommended it be removed from the market based on health studies linking it to neurological damage in children.

Former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt declined to ban chlorpyrifos last year.

Why it matters

In May 2017, 50 California farmworkers became ill, some hospitalized, after they were exposed to chlorpyrifos that was used according to its labeled use but had drifted from a nearby property.

Chlorpyrifos is the most broadly used conventional insecticide in the U.S. It’s called a broad-spectrum insecticide because it can kill a wide variety of insects, but its potential impact goes beyond insects.

The insecticide is toxic to birds and extremely toxic to fish, according to the National Institutes of Health. It’s also extremely toxic to non-target insects such as bees. Bees perform a critical role in our food supply, and their numbers are declining around the world in part due to pesticide exposure.

Chlorpyrifos and other nerve agents such as sarin gas belong to a class of chemicals called organophosphates, several of which have already been banned by the EPA.

Both EPA scientists and the American Academy of Pediatrics have urged the EPA to ban the insecticide.

Dow Chemical, the primary manufacturer of chlorpyrifos, stands by the safety of its product, and disputes the methodology by which the EPA concluded that it was harmful.

FactCheck.org offers the following assessment:

“Some studies suggest that chlorpyrifos exposure can lead to developmental issues in children, for example, but they’re correlational studies, meaning they don’t provide causal links. However, research in rodents has found causal links between chlorpyrifos and developmental issues.

“Other studies in human populations have failed to find correlations between chlorpyrifos and development issues in children, but that research may be suffering from what scientists call ‘confounding variables,’ or unrelated factors that may be affecting the study’s results.”

Fact-checking site Snopes deemed claims that chlorpyrifos causes brain damage to be “unproven, but likely.”

What do you think?

Should chlorpyrifos be banned? Why or why not? Hit Take Action to tell your reps what you think, then share your thoughts below.

—Sara E. Murphy

(Photo Credit: iStock / simonkr)