Kara Cook-Schultz: EPA says a pesticide is harmful for children; Scott Pruitt says let?s use it on our food
By U.S. PIRG -
April 11, 2017, 09:48:38 AM
April 11, 2017 ? Last year, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) panel found that a chemical pesticide, chlorpyrifos, is unsafe to ingest at any level. So in November of 2016, the EPA proposed to completely ban its use.
But last week the EPA changed course: Scott Pruitt announced that EPA will let Big Ag keep using this chemical on food.
The controversy over chlorpyrifos began more than a decade ago, when the EPA first banned the indoor use of the insecticide, but continued to allow its use on food crops. After this decision, the EPA studied the risks of eating food treated with the pesticide. Jim Jones, former assistant administrator of the EPA, says scientists followed hundreds of mothers and their newborn children, monitoring their exposure.
EPA scientists found that 90% of American women of childbearing age have unsafe levels of chlorpyrifos in their bloodstream. Studies showed that at age 7, the average IQ of children who had been exposed to high levels of chlorpyrifos was a few percentage points lower than children who hadn?t been exposed to much of the chemical at all. And in November of 2016, the EPA found some toddlers are exposed to levels that are more than 14,000 percent above what the EPA scientists considered a ?safe? limit....
By U.S. PIRG -
April 11, 2017, 09:48:38 AM
April 11, 2017 ? Last year, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) panel found that a chemical pesticide, chlorpyrifos, is unsafe to ingest at any level. So in November of 2016, the EPA proposed to completely ban its use.
But last week the EPA changed course: Scott Pruitt announced that EPA will let Big Ag keep using this chemical on food.
The controversy over chlorpyrifos began more than a decade ago, when the EPA first banned the indoor use of the insecticide, but continued to allow its use on food crops. After this decision, the EPA studied the risks of eating food treated with the pesticide. Jim Jones, former assistant administrator of the EPA, says scientists followed hundreds of mothers and their newborn children, monitoring their exposure.
EPA scientists found that 90% of American women of childbearing age have unsafe levels of chlorpyrifos in their bloodstream. Studies showed that at age 7, the average IQ of children who had been exposed to high levels of chlorpyrifos was a few percentage points lower than children who hadn?t been exposed to much of the chemical at all. And in November of 2016, the EPA found some toddlers are exposed to levels that are more than 14,000 percent above what the EPA scientists considered a ?safe? limit....
EPA's inaction on toxic pesticide is irresponsible | Opinion
Patti Goldman Like most Americans, I value the role our government plays in protecting families, especially children. When corporations are preoccupied with the bottom line in the next quarter at the expense of public health, we need the government to step in and protect us from harm.
So what happened recently at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is particularly shocking. EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt abruptly refused to ban a toxic agricultural pesticide that is linked to irreversible brain damage in children. And he did so even though he had a court order to decide whether to ban this pesticide by the end of March.
Scientific studies conducted over many years link prenatal exposure from this pesticide, called chlorpyrifos (marketed by Dow Chemical as Lorsban,) with reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention deficit disorders, and delayed motor development in children.
Though the science and the law compel an immediate ban, Pruitt wants to continue to study the science. For our government to allow vulnerable people further exposure to this toxic chemical is unconscionable and irresponsible....
Patti Goldman Like most Americans, I value the role our government plays in protecting families, especially children. When corporations are preoccupied with the bottom line in the next quarter at the expense of public health, we need the government to step in and protect us from harm.
So what happened recently at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is particularly shocking. EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt abruptly refused to ban a toxic agricultural pesticide that is linked to irreversible brain damage in children. And he did so even though he had a court order to decide whether to ban this pesticide by the end of March.
Scientific studies conducted over many years link prenatal exposure from this pesticide, called chlorpyrifos (marketed by Dow Chemical as Lorsban,) with reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention deficit disorders, and delayed motor development in children.
Though the science and the law compel an immediate ban, Pruitt wants to continue to study the science. For our government to allow vulnerable people further exposure to this toxic chemical is unconscionable and irresponsible....