A group of Democratic Senators, led by Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, introduced a bill to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos over health concerns, after the EPA refused to take it off shelves earlier this spring. “Udall’s bill calls for the EPA to conduct a broad review of the use of the pesticide to determine which groups are most vulnerable to its harmful effects,” says Reuters. “If the review shows any people are being exposed to harmful levels of chlorpyrifos, the EPA administrator must take ‘appropriate regulatory action’ within three months by either suspending or revoking the chemical’s registration or lowering the amount that can legally be used.”
Chlorpyrifos is manufactured by multiple companies, including a subsidiary of Dow Chemical. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry list the chemical as a neurotoxin. Dow has denied harmful effects from the chemical as long as it is used properly.
In a Facebook post, United Farm Workers supported the new bill, saying, “We know chlorpyrifos does neurodevelopmental harm in children and expecting mothers who are exposed to it, [produces] children with a lower birth weight, reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention disorders and delayed motor development. Farm workers and their families’ health and lives should not be put in jeopardy.”