Washington, DC – Late this evening, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) answered a court-mandated deadline by ignoring scientific evidence — including the agency’s own recent risk assessment — and leaving the brain-harming insecticide chlorpyrifos on the market.
EPA banned indoor use of chlorpyrifos use in 2000 due to concerns over impacts on children. Despite the growing body of evidence, EPA delayed action on the chemical for agricultural uses, prompting a lawsuit in 2007 by Earthjustice on behalf of PAN & NRDC calling on the agency to take action to protect children’s health.
Based on the agency’s recent findings on human exposures to chlorpyrifos in water and food, the pesticide should have been phased out.
Kristin Schafer, policy director at Pesticide Action Network released the following statement:
This decision is outrageous. EPA essentially caved to corporate pressure, failing to follow overpowering scientific evidence of harm to children’s brains. The new administration’s agency ignored the findings of their own scientists that all exposures to chlorpyrifos on foods, in drinking water, and from pesticide drift into schools, homes and playgrounds are unsafe.”
Contact: Paul Towers, 916-216-1082, ptowers@panna.org
