Children and Pesticides- Trump's EPA promotes poison

© Robin Romano

In September of 2007, the Pesticide Action Network North America and the Natural Resources Defense Council requested a ban of the common pesticide chlorpyrifos, due to concerns with the health and safety of the product. On Wednesday, March 29th, the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt denied this petition.

Chlorpyrifos, a product of Dow Agrosciences, has been registered for use in the US since 1965. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, exposure to chlorpyrifos may lead to a range of symptoms including nausea, vomiting, headaches, dizziness, seizures and paralysis. In 2000, after increasing scientific evidence that chlorpyrifos might be harmful to human health, the EPA reached an agreement with manufacturers to voluntarily phase out all residential uses beginning in 2001. In October 2015, they submitted the aforementioned petition, proposing a ban on all food uses for chlorpyrifos. 

This proposal was based on four studies from Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, which examined associations with chlorpyrifos and neurodevelopment.  In 2011, the EPA estimated that children consume a greater quantity of the chemical per unit of body weight from food residue, with toddlers the highest at 0.025 micrograms of chlorpyrifos per kilogram of their body weight per day. 

The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs estimates that there are between 400,000 and 500,000 children working in American agriculture. They labor in pesticide-soaked environments and suffer the consequences in their health and development. If the president and his administration won't step in on their behalf, who will?