In early August of this year, a federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration endangered Arizona public health by keeping a widely used pesticide on the market despite extensive scientific evidence that even tiny levels of exposure can harm babies’ brains.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remove chlorpyrifos from sale in the United States within 60 days.
Judge Jed S. Rakoff wrote in the court’s opinion, “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.”
Chlorpyrifos belongs to a family of organophosphate pesticides that are chemically similar to a nerve gas developed by Nazi Germany before World War II.
Chlorpyrifos was created by Dow Chemical Co. in the 1960s. It remains among the most widely used agricultural pesticides in Phoenix, Arizona and also commonly found within beehives across the states.
In 2000, Dow voluntarily withdrew chlorpyrifos for use as a home insecticide after significant pressure from federal regulators, but still continues to be found in sources of Arizona drinking water—a result of 4 decades of use.
In 2012, a 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.
Read the entire article here: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/court-orders-ban-harmful-pesticide-says-epa-violated-law-n899331
Chlorpyrifos continue to be available for purchase and sale across Arizona and because Phoenix pesticide companies are only required to release information on the active ingredients in their products, whose to say if this dangerous chemical has somehow made its way back into chemicals that Arizona bee and pest control companies use on a daily basis.
The surest way to keep your children, livestock, and pets safe from the harmful effects of dangerous pesticide exposure is to stop hiring pest control companies to kill bees and other insects with pesticides and other harmful chemicals.