The EPA (still) refuses to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide harmful to kids

Despite clear evidence that chlorpyrifos causes long-term damage to children’s brains, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has once again refused to ban the pesticide. The agency announced today that it will continue to allow farmers to spray millions of pounds of the toxic chemical on fruits and veggies each year. Efforts to get chlorpyrifos off the market have been going on for more than a decade—and were nearly successful in 2016 after the EPA under President Obama acknowledged its risk and proposed to ban it. Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration has reversed course. (It just so happens that the pesticide’s producer, Dow Chemicals, donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration ceremony, and its CEO, Andrew Liveris, acted in an advisory role to the president in 2017.) California, the country’s biggest user, announced earlier this year that it plans to ban the chlorpyrifos, but children across the country need our government’s protection, too.