For a decade, Earthjustice has worked with community members and advocates from all over the country to call on the Environmental Protection Agency to ban chlorpyrifos. Used on a whole host of foods, the dangerous chemical causes pesticide poisonings on contact and can damage the developing brains of children.
In March, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced he would not ban this hazardous chemical from our food. This move defies the agency's own scientific findings that this pesticide is unsafe in every way people come into contact with it.
>A week after the announcement, Earthjustice went back to court to ask that the EPA be ordered to revisit this decision. We are also filing an appeal with the EPA. This fight will take all of us, and now you have an opportunity to urge the agency to get chlorpyrifos off the market. The EPA is asking for the public's input and we only have until the June 5th deadline to protect children, workers and consumers from this chemical that damages children's brains.
The EPA has found unsafe levels of chlorpyrifos in food and drinking water and whenever workers come into contact with it on the job. Workers and families in agricultural communities are at the front lines of exposure to this neurotoxic chemical. Kids are exposed when it drifts to schools, homes and playfields. Even low levels of exposure to chlorpyrifos can result in reduced IQ, loss of working memory and attention deficit disorders in children. Minimal exposure to chlorpyrifos can result in vomiting, muscle cramps and twitching, tremors, weakness, and in extreme cases even convulsions and death.
>This neurotoxic pesticide was banned for residential use 17 years ago, and there is no valid reason why the EPA should continue to allow chlorpyrifos to be used on farms, where it can poison everything it touches. Speak up today and let's get rid of this pesticide once and for all!
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