He’s not a scientist, but he’s sure gonna act like one. The NYT reports EPA head Scott Pruitt has rejected “the scientific conclusion of the agency’s own chemical safety experts” and decided against banning an insecticide that has already been banned in most households due to toxicity, but is still used in about 40,000 farms for fruit and other crops:
Late last year, and based in part on research conducted at Columbia University, E.P.A. scientists concluded that exposure to the chemical that has been in use since 1965 was potentially causing significant health consequences. They included learning and memory declines, particularly among farm workers and young children who may be exposed through drinking water and other sources.
Other recent actions from the regime have shown that neither farm workers nor children are exactly top priorities for them. What has been a priority for them, though, is listening to multi-billion dollar corporations, like the insecticide’s creator, who in January objected to the Obama-era research in a letter to the agency. Now this week, Pruitt has made them happy by obliging:
“We need to provide regulatory certainty to the thousands of American farms that rely on chlorpyrifos, while still protecting human health and the environment,” Mr. Pruitt said in his statement. “By reversing the previous administration’s steps to ban one of the most widely used pesticides in the world, we are returning to using sound science in decision-making — rather than predetermined results.”
The United States Department of Agriculture, which works close with the nation’s farmers, supported Mr. Pruitt’s action.
“It means that this important pest management tool will remain available to growers, helping to ensure an abundant and affordable food supply for this nation,” Sheryl Kunickis, director of the U.S.D.A. Office of Pest Management Policy, said in a statement Wednesday.
Dow Agrosciences, the division that sells the product, also praised the ruling, calling it in a statement “the right decision for farmers who, in about 100 countries, rely on the effectiveness of chlorpyrifos to protect more than 50 crops.
Former EPA experts aren’t as enthusiastic:
Jim Jones, who ran the chemical safety unit at the E.P.A. for five years, and spent more than 20 years working there until he left the agency in January when President Trump took office, said he was disappointed by Mr. Pruitt’s action.
“They are ignoring the science that is pretty solid,” Mr. Jones said, adding that he believed the ruling would put farm workers and exposed children at unnecessary risk.
More on the devastating effects of the insecticide, via the LA Times:
The chemical is an organophosphate, a class of chemicals originally designed as a nerve agent weapon.
Chlorpyrifos has been banned from consumer products and residential use nationwide for more than 15 years. Several studies have suggested it can impair cognitive development in children. A UC Berkeley study found that 7-year-old children in the Salinas Valley who were exposed to high levels during pregnancy had slightly lower IQ scores than their peers. A Columbia University study showed similar effects at lower exposure.
As if Americans didn’t have enough to worry about under this administration already.