"The
EPA is endangering the lives of children to protect pesticide industry
profits."
In
a move environmentalists denounced as yet another case of the Trump
administration putting industry profits over public health, the Environmental
Protection Agency announced it will not
ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to brain damage in children.
"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," Patti Goldman, attorney with
Earthjustice said in a statement. "It is a tragedy that this
administration sides with corporations instead of children's health."
EPA
chief Andrew Wheeler's decision to reject a petition by environmental groups
calling for a ban on the neurotoxic chemical ignores the assessments of his
agency's own scientists, said Tiffany Finck-Haynes, pesticides and
pollinators program manager for Friends of the Earth.
"The EPA's refusal to ban chlorpyrifos ignores decades of science showing that this pesticide has irrevocable effects on human health and the environment," said Finck-Haynes. "The EPA is endangering the lives of children to protect pesticide industry profits."
Chlorpyrifos
has been banned for household use since 2000, but the pesticide is still used
by farmers on "more than 50 fruit, nut, cereal, and vegetable
crops," according to the New York Times.
"In
2016," the Times reported, "more than 640,000 acres
were treated with chlorpyrifos in California alone."
The
Obama administration in 2015 proposed banning use of the pesticide
on food crops, but former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt authorized its
continued use in 2017.
"This
is a total disgrace," Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) tweeted in response to the EPA's
decision on Thursday.
Finck-Haynes
of Friends of the Earth said that as the federal government continues to work
on behalf of chemical interests, states must take immediate action to protect
the public and the environment.
"While
the federal government refuses to act, we urge states to step in, ban chlorpyrifos,
and demonstrate that they will safeguard public health and the
environment," said Finck-Haynes. "We call on [New York] Governor
[Andrew] Cuomo to sign the chlorpyrifos ban bill sitting on his desk and
protect New Yorkers from this toxic pesticide."
In
a statement on Thursday, the Natural
Resources Defense Council (NRDC) highlighted the Trump administration's ties to
Dow Chemical, the largest producer of chlorpyrifos in the United States.
"The
relationship between President Trump and Dow Chemical... has been called into
question," the group said. "Among other things, the chemical
manufacturing giant reportedly donated $1 million for Trump's inauguration, and
its CEO previously played a chief advisory role to the president, heading up
his now defunct American Manufacturing Council."
Erik
Olson, senior director of health and food at NRDC, said the effort to achieve a
ban on chlorpyrifos will continue.
"Until
EPA gets this stuff out of our fields and off our food," said Olson,
"this fight is not over."