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Celebrate a victory in the fight against toxic synthetic pesticides! The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally announced a ban on chlorpyrifos. It has been a roller coaster ride, especially over the last 5 years, in the efforts to ban this dangerous insecticide that science says can harm babies and children at levels found on conventionally farmed foods, and is harmful to the farmworkers forced to apply it. Major studies have found strong evidence that low dose exposure to chlorpyrifos in the womb or after birth inhibits children’s brain development. The effects can be devastating, ranging from lower IQ to higher rates of autism. This neurotoxic pesticide is not only used on commodity crops such as corn, soybeans, and alfalfa, but also on apples, cherries, grapes, oranges, peaches, strawberries, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, tomatoes, almonds, pistachios, and walnuts, among other crops. Let's recap... - In 2015, following legal pressure from NGOs, an EPA review concluded that exposure to chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate-class insecticide that is similar to sarin, posed an unacceptable risk to human health, from both residues on food and in drinking water.
- In 2016, the EPA under Administrator Gina McCarthy, proposed to revoke all food residue tolerances for chlorpyrifos. But in December 2016, Dow Chemical made a $1 million donation to the incoming administration's presidential inaugural campaign.
- In 2017, the President appointed Scott Pruitt as the new EPA Administrator to replace Gina McCarthy. Pruitt announced EPA's reversal of the proposed chlorpyrifos ban 20 days after meeting with Dow CEO Andrew Liveris.
- In July 2018, Scott Pruitt was forced to resign due to overwhelming charges of corruption. The pollution industry lobbyist, Andrew Wheeler, was appointed by the President to replace him.
- In August 2018, a federal appeals court ruled that the EPA endangered public health by keeping this widely used pesticide on the market despite extensive scientific evidence that even tiny levels of exposure can harm babies' brains. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the EPA to remove chlorpyrifos from sale in the U.S. within 60 days. Andrew Wheeler ignored the court order to ban chlorpyrifos, prioritizing corporate profits over children's health.
- After federal inaction, individual states began passing state-level bans on chlorpyrifos. And in January 2020, the European Union banned chlorpyrifos, citing that there is no safe level of exposure.
This year, 2021, a federal court again ordered the EPA to either prove the safety of chlorpyrifos or to ban its use on food. The newly appointed EPA Administrator, Michael Regan, put out a press release on August 18 stating: “In a final rule released today, EPA is revoking all ‘tolerances’ for chlorpyrifos, which establish an amount of a pesticide that is allowed on food. In addition, the agency will issue a Notice of Intent to Cancel under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act to cancel registered food uses of chlorpyrifos associated with the revoked tolerances.” Finally, the use of chlorpyrifos on food is banned, protecting children, farmworkers and everyone that eats. For those of us that buy certified organic and biodynamic, we can now be assured that chemical farmers won't be able to contaminate our foods with this toxic pesticide. WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK the tens of thousands of voices that spoke up and didn't stop speaking. The overwhelming volume of emails sent to the EPA made a difference and we finally gained a victory in the fight to clean up our food and agriculture systems in America. But the fight is far from over. Chlorpyrifos is only one of over a dozen organophosphate pesticides being used, all of them just as toxic as chlorpyrifos. And other widely used toxic pesticides such as neonicotinoid-class insecticides, and glyphosate, dicamba, and 2,4-D herbicides still contaminate our food and environment. We proved that we can make a difference when there is a groundswell of people demanding change. Imagine the change we could create if millions of people spoke as one against the poisoning of our food. A clean food system and environment are possible. | |
With gratitude, Diana Reeves Executive Director | |
