LIHUE — Federal courts ordered a nationwide ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos Thursday, in a split decision ruling the Trump administration endangered public health by keeping the chemical on the market.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco handed down the ruling and ordered EPA to remove chlorpyrifos from sale in the U.S. within 60 days, in a decision by a three-judge panel with one member dissenting from the majority.
Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Michael Abboud told the Associated Press the agency was reviewing the decision as EPA could appeal to the Supreme Court on the matter.
EPA did not respond to requests for further comment from TGI before deadline.
Chlorpyrifos is an agricultural pesticide sprayed on citrus fruit, apples and other crops and was created by Dow Chemical Company in the 1960s.
“We expect that all appellate options to challenge the majority’s decision will be considered,” said Gregg Schmidt, with Corteva Agriscience, the agricultural division of DowDuPont, which is a merging of Dow Chemical Company and Dupont Pioneer that has a research station in Waimea.
He continued: “We note that this was a split decision of the panel and we agree with the dissenting judge’s opinion.”
Schmidt pointed out DowDuPont and Corteva will “continue to support the growers who need this important product” and that chlorpyrifos is a “critical pest management tool used by growers around the world to manage a large number of pests.”
Bennette Misalucha, executive director, Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, said HCIA will wait to see how the EPA responds to the ruling, “which is likely to have a significant negative impact on agriculture.”
She said in the U.S., the EPA requires all pesticides to undergo more than 100 safety studies before they are approved for commercial use, and every crop protection product sold in the U.S. must have an EPA-approved label with specific directions on application use.
“While Hawaii’s tropical climate is ideal for growing crops, we also face tremendous challenges with pests, diseases, and invasive species, which calls for the need for effective solutions,” she said in a prepared statement.
It was a coalition of farmworkers and environmental groups that sued in 2017 after the then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt reversed the effort to ban chlorpyrifos. Attorneys general joined the case against EPA from California, New York and Massachusetts.
“The panel held that there was no justification for the EPA’s decision in its 2017 order to maintain a tolerance for chlorpyrifos in the face of scientific evidence that its residue on food causes neurodevelopmental damage to children,” Judge Jed Rakoff wrote in the court’s opinion.
And those who maintain the chemical is dangerous for human health are celebrating the ruling.
“I think it’s a good decision,” said Blake Dolorson, member of GMO Free Kauai and of Hawaii SEED. “It’s a dangerous chemical and it has been proven to cause damage to people when they’re exposed to it, especially young children.”
In May, Hawaii became the first state to ban chlorpyrifos in a law that’s set to take effect in January, giving those who are using it a chance to phase the chemical out of their stock and adjust to the new rule.
The Hawaii law also requires all users of Restricted Use Pesticides (RUP) to report their usage and establishes a 100-foot buffer zone for RUPs around schools during school hours to preserve the health of the students.
“Some things are too sacred to play politics with and our kids top the list,” said Erik Olson, senior director of health and food at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The court has made it clear that the children’s health must come before powerful polluters.”
While some are working to remove the chemical from the U.S. agricultural industry, about 5 million pounds of chlorpyrifos are sold domestically each year through Dow AgroSciences.
According to the Associated Press, chlorpyrifos belongs to a family of organophosphate pesticides that are chemically similar to a chemical warfare agent developed by Nazi Germany before World War II.
“Shift one molecule over and we’re ready to go to war, one molecule over and we’ve got nerve gas,” said Dolorson. “But, we’ll shift that molecule the other way and spray that all over and that’s a mistake.”
As a result of its wide use as a pesticide over the past four decades, traces of chlorpyrifos are commonly found in sources of drinking water. A 2012 study at the University of California at Berkeley found that 87 percent of umbilical-cord blood samples tested from newborn babies contained detectable levels of the pesticide.
Under pressure from federal regulators, Dow voluntarily withdrew chlorpyrifos for use as a home insecticide in 2000. EPA also placed “no-spray” buffer zones around sensitive sites, such as schools, in 2012, the AP reported.
In October 2015, the Obama administration proposed banning the pesticide’s use on food.
A risk assessment memo issued by nine EPA scientists concluded: “There is a breadth of information available on the potential adverse neurodevelopmental effects in infants and children as a result of prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos,” AP reported.
Federal law requires EPA to ensure that pesticides used on food in the United States are safe for human consumption — especially children, who are typically far more sensitive to the negative effects of poisons.
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Jessica Else, environment reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or at jelse@thegardenisland.com.
Yipeeeeeeeeeee! About time—i am sure many children and adults on the westside have been damaged by heavy use of the pesticide on the agri -crops——-too late for many!
Aloha Kakou,
The reason Chlorpyrifos is so dangerous to children (and adults) is that it retards the development of the Nervous System amongst other detriments to the body, many of which are still unknown, or known and suppressed from the public for profit purposes.
The Nervous System is composed of the Brain, Brain Stem, and Spinal Cord. The Nervous System is the Master Organ of the body, it is the very first part of the human being that begins to grow after conception occurs between our parents 2 primary cells that become us.
The Nervous System grows first as it needs to “reach out” with its billions of “arms” called nerve fibers, and coordinate the development of our entire body; and throughout our entire life the Nervous System first develops, then controls, coordinates, organizes, and interacts with every cell, tissue, organ, and system of our bodies. Each of our organs has a system that makes it do what it’s purpose is for and via the Nervous System every organ interacts with all the other organs and their systems.
The human brain and our bodies continue to develop and mature until we are between about the ages of 25 to 27 for most people.
For some people, 25 years, sadly, that is half of their life, for some others it is 1/3 of their life, and for the rest it is rightfully, deservedly, and optimally, 1/4 of their life.
Exposure to Chlorpyrifos (pron: Klor-pie-rih-foss) during your first 25 years of life occurs from its agricultural use including residues left on our foods, or sprayed in your neighborhood, but also provided by these same means to you by Agriculture Chemical Companies in your umbilical cord…which is your feeding tube from the beginning of your life inside your Mother, and while your Mom is trying to provide you the best food possible for your healthy development; these seed, crop, and chemical companies (even some of the ones on Kauai) are providing you poison and retardation to your brain, your Nervous System and the diminished development of your body via your umbilical cord in Mom’s uterus, while you are inside your Mom for those 9 months. Poisoning a new human from its very start? That’s macabre, sad and sadistic, and not necessary.
Is it any wonder that so many people have health problems, or birth defects, whether visible or unseen whether mentally or physical; and then as a result are only provided Disease (more chemicals) Care as a result.
It’s the 21st century, science has impressed us of their fake prowess and advancements with how wonderful scientists are and what they are doing. But if you look at it from a wider perspective, from further away, so that you see ”not only the trees but the whole forest”, you would see that we have developed deeper ruts in the road of life with creeping larger and larger Corporate companies in control of the Food, Agriculture, Petroleum, Pharmaceutical, Chemical, Drug, and Medical entities (not to mention the Military Industrial Complexes of the larger nations), in that most everything that you put in your body is polluted with CHEMICALS.
These chemicals for the most part are made from oil, that is petroleum, petroleum based products are a primary cause of cancer and are in or on our air, water, foods, farms, and medicines, even our clothing is from petroleum made into polyester, rubbing against your skin all day. Does that make sense for you. Some people are sensitive enough to feel their skin repelling the polyester content.
Bacteria and virus for the most part cause temporary flu and sickness, but it is only temporary, even if you take no drugs for it, you still recover from it because the human race has been being challenged by and adapted to these natural causes of illness for at least a few hundred thousand years.
However the recent surge in manmade petroleum based chemicals has only been around for less than 100 years, and more and more recently (decades) these chemicals are an active part in the rapid increase in new diseases and increased numbers of people victims from the amount of the killer chronic diseases that have been around for a not very long of time.
The insanity is that while it is chemicals that are many of the causes of a short life, the treatment for those diseases is people being given more chemicals in the form of prescription and over the counter drugs. This is due in part to the in-depth study of disease instead of in-depth study of Health in medical schools. These schools that we are ultimately relying on for disease care have for the most part ZERO training in Nutrition, something every human relies on, and some are starving without, yet the study of nutrition needs is ignored in medical schools.
Add to that the diseases caused or accelerated by the 60+ sugars (chemical compunds) put in our foods, and foods from animal flesh and dairy are also lumped (?) into the same Disease Care System of giving more chemicals as a solution that generates the use of more and more chemicals due to drug side effects and lifetime prescriptions.
Hopefully by the next Century people will become sick of being sick and handicapped from chemical pollution at what appears to be all bodily levels.
And it is hoped that the opposite of Disease Care, and that is Health Care, will prevail, and such things like prevention, and finding, understanding, discovering , and removing causes of disease (like removing Chlorpyrifos) will become the first line of defense against disease and at the same time provide proactive restoration and maintenance of Health.
Definition of Health:
1.) 100% of your cells,
2.) should function 100%
3.) 100% of the time…
4.) In order for you to have and experience, the optimal mental, physical, and emotional Well Being.
Chlorpyrifos is not the only chemical, out of thousands, that need to be eliminated for our Health and Well Being. Chemicals cause and perpetuate disease and are the basis of medical disease care and the current arguments of who is going to pay for it, the proven failing disease care system, why failing?…becuase there are more and more different diseases, and more and more people coming down with those diseases.
Mahalo,
Charles
Not a single word about what will be used instead and all the reasons why it was much less popular and much less in demand. You guys are so freaking brilliant! I’m sure you shot off both feet this time!