Syngenta announced this week that it will pay $550,000 in fines after the Environmental Protection Agency found that it misused the pesticide chlorpyrifos at a test field in Hawaii. The fine is dramatically lower than the nearly $5 million initially sought by the Obama administration. Scott Pruitt, Trump’s EPA chief, overruled a recommendation by agency scientists to ban chlorpyrifos for agricultural use.
The company’s violations first occurred in January 2016, when it failed to alert farmworkers that a field had recently been sprayed with the pesticide. The workers entered without proper safety gear, and several were sickened by exposure to the chemical. Another such violation occurred in January 2017.
The breakdown of Syngenta’s fines is $150,000 for improperly using the pesticide, and $400,000 to train farmers in pesticide use.