EPA Takes Another Look at Insecticide Chlorpyrifos

Here's the latest action alert from my friends at Pesticide Action Network (PAN); it deals with the insecticide chlorpyrifos, which is especially damaging to children (and widely used in conventional apple production). Chlorpyrifos was banned from home use in 2001 but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now reviewing the health effects of its agricultural uses.

As kids head back to school this fall, many will find learning an extra challenge. Scientists now estimate that as many as ¼ of all U.S. children may have lower IQs due to eating foods sprayed with pesticides like chlorpyrifos.

This is both frightening and fixable.

The science is in, and action to get chlorpyrifos out of our food supply is long overdue. Help us tell EPA it’s time to protect children’s developing minds and bodies from this dangerous chemical.

Scientists have known for more than a decade that chlorpyrifos can be especially harmful to children. That’s exactly why it was banned from home use back in 2001. Three new studies this spring provide yet more evidence that chlorpyrifos can harm a child’s developing nervous system, including lowering his or her IQ by several points. There is also evidence of links to ADHD.

Chlorpyrifos food residue is the leading driver of dietary risk both because of its neurotoxic effects, and because so much is used. Ten million pounds of chlorpyrifos are applied to apples, peaches, sweet peppers and many other crops in the U.S. every year. The vast majority of us — including children — carry breakdown products of the chemical in our bodies.

This month our public officials are finally reviewing the health risks of chlorpyrifos, in response to a lawsuit PAN and our partners filed in 2007. Add your name to our petition urging EPA to act now on this dangerous chemical that puts our children at risk.

Click here to add your name to PAN's petition, which urges the EPA to protect children from chlorpyrifos.