Trump’s EPA Greenlit This Pesticide Linked to Brain Damage. Eight Senators Are Fighting Back.
On Tuesday, two senators introduced a bill that would ban a pesticide linked to brain damage in kids. The legislation would do what the Environmental Protection Agency had long planned to—before EPA Chief Scott Pruitt denied the agency’s own proposal in March. Pruitt’s move was widely considered a signal from the Trump Administration on its intent to relax environmental regulations.
July 26, 2017 | Source: Mother Jones | by Jenny Luna
A new bill would put an agricultural ban on chlorpyrifos.
On Tuesday, two senators introduced a bill that would ban a pesticide linked to brain damage in kids. The legislation would do what the Environmental Protection Agency had long planned to—before EPA Chief Scott Pruitt denied the agency’s own proposal in March. Pruitt’s move was widely considered a signal from the Trump Administration on its intent to relax environmental regulations.
The new bill, called Protect Children, Farmers and Farmworkers from Nerve Agent Pesticides Act of 2017, was introduced by Tom Udall of New Mexico and has seven other co-sponsors, including California senator Kamala Harris (about a fifth of all chlorpyrifos used in the US is used on crops in California).
My colleague Tom Philpott wrote about the health risks associated with chlorpyrifos and Pruitt’s denial of its ban here.