A coalition of seven states from California to New York filed a challenge that asks the EPA to end the use of the insecticide chlorpyrifos, widely used in agriculture but criticized as a risk to children and farm workers. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt denied in March a petition by environmental groups to ban the chemical and said his decision was based on sound science.
“The Trump administration is jeopardizing our children’s health by allowing continued exposure to this toxic pesticide at levels it has not found to be safe,” said New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who was joined in the challenge by the attorneys general of California, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington state and Vermont. ” “If the Trump administration won’t follow the law – and put our children’s wellbeing first – we will fight back.”
The attorneys general say the EPA failed to make a key safety finding to allow continued use of the insecticide. In the absence of the finding, the agency is required to revoke “tolerances” for residues in food, a step about would effectively stop use of a chemical. Pruitt took what EPA calls a final regulatory action on chlorpyrifos that would put off a new review of the insecticide until 2022.