Comment Now: Urge Against Pesticide Deregulation!

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Despite the swearing-in of President Joe Biden, a proposed rule from former president Donald Trump is still in the works to further deregulate harmful chemicals in products.

This kind of action could lead to health consequences among the workers who use pesticides with the chemical Chlorpyrifos, as well as the communities where those products are used. California already bans the chemical.

The only way to ensure protection is to stop this rule before it is approved, according to George Kimbrell, the legal director for The Center for Food Safety.

“True to form, the Trump Administration has placed corporate dollars over public health,” he said in a recent statement. “If allowed to stand, its proposal to continue registering this neurotoxic insecticide would cause irreparable harm to farmworkers and future generations. Everything possible must be done to ensure the Biden Administration reverses this proposal and once and for all bans this pesticide.”

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Submit this Comment to Protect Workers from Toxic Products!

Pesticides are harmful, toxic products, that when left unregulated can harm everyday Americans — especially those who work with such chemicals, which includes numerous Latino farmworkers and laborers. That is why I urge the EPA to not further deregulate Chlorpyrifos in items such as pesticides. Protecting the health of Latinos and all Americans is one of the responsibilities of the EPA, and therefore environmental regulation should be strengthened not diminished. If it were to be passed, it would put more people in harm’s way. Administrator Wheeler and EPA officials mustn’t overlook the wellness of the people they are charged to serve.

Comments are due Feb. 5, 2021.

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Why Is Your Comment Needed?

This legislation must be stopped because of the dangers of Chlorpyrifos.

The chemical has harmful impacts on those who are exposed, according to Beyond Pesticides, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that advocates for better pesticide regulation.

Many Latinos could already face chlorpyrifos, considering they make up a large population of agricultural and farmworkers.

“Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate pesticide used on scores of food crops, for mosquito (and other pest) control, and for some turf management (golf courses, especially),” the group states in a recent report. “It has been demonstrated to be highly neurotoxic, especially to young children, leading to impaired cognitive function, developmental delays, lower IQs, attention deficit disorder, and a variety of other pervasive developmental and learning disorders.”

Moreover, this isn’t a new trend in recent history.

The Trump administration has tried time and again to reduce regulations in numerous areas, including coal ash, clean water, and even other chemicals in pesticides.

In order to lessen exposure, the federal agencies that should be regulating harmful chemicals must come clean about their dangers.

“EPA has long been aware of the pesticide’s toxicity. While most residential uses of chlorpyrifos were banned nearly two decades ago, the agency permitted its continued use in agriculture, creating a double-standard in which rural kids and farmworkers are left unprotected,” Beyond Pesticides states in a recent report. “People are exposed to chlorpyrifos in food and water, but also through inhalation of spray drift and vapor.”

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