California defies Trump to ban pesticide linked to childhood brain damage

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian


The EPA had moved to ban chlorpyrifos under Obama, but the Trump administration reversed that effort
Sam Levin in San Francisco
@SamTLevin Email
Wed 8 May 2019 15.06 EDT

California is banning a widely used pesticide that has been linked to brain damage in children, a major victory for public health advocates who have long fought to outlaw the toxic chemical in the agricultural industry.

The state ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide used on almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes, walnuts and other crops, follows years of research finding the chemical causes serious health effects in children, including impaired brain and neurological development. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had moved to ban the chemical under Barack Obama, but the Trump administration reversed that effort, rejecting the scientific conclusions of its own government experts.

“Countless people have suffered as a result of this chemical,” the California EPA secretary, Jared Blumenfeld, said in an interview on Wednesday. “A lot of people live and work and go to school right next to fields that are being sprayed with chlorpyrifos … It’s an issue of environmental health and justice.”

The move in California, home to a vast agricultural sector responsible for growing a majority of the nation’s fruits and nuts, is the latest example of the state resisting Trump’s conservative agenda and policies. Environmental activists, however, have been pushing to stop chlorpyrifos use in the state for years in the wake of overwhelming evidence of harms caused by exposure.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/08/california-pesticide-ban-chlorpyrifos-agriculture

[beachbum bob]

1. Perhaps all blue states with agriculture follow suit?

Let the poison flow in redstates..

[DENVERPOPS]

7. too late

a widely used pesticide that has been linked to brain damage in children.......

Too late, a lot of brain damaged population in Red states already.......

[Initech]

2. So if we extrapolate this, the Trump administration supports brain damage in children.

Great, the psychos are in charge.

[TexasProgresive]

3. Maybe they think this will give them an unbeatable majority.

Too bad, Pukes, brain damage doesn't equal psychosis.

This is really sad.

[lark]

9. That is a known known, in Rumsfeld speak.

Of course drumpf support this, he hates any child not rich and white and male as shown clearly by him causing brown children to be locked up in cages, frozen, sleeping on floors without even a mattress, being drugged, killed and raped by his contractors for huge profits while he hides all this and the media sleeps on.

[pdsimdars]

10. It's the only way he can get other people down to his level.

[KT2000]

4. this damage has been known

for years. That the feds would not take action is despicable. What kind of society knowingly causes brain damage in their children. This is end stage capitalism.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. That the state did not act before this is also despicable

since the article points out that environmentalists had been pushing for the ban for ages.

[Duppers]

12. "end stage capitalism."

Exactly - dollars above lives.

[ffr]

5. I love California! What a beautiful blue state!

[iluvtennis]

6. That's my state - 5th largest economy in the world- take that trumpty dumpty

[SunSeeker]

8. With a President like that, who needs enemies?

He's literally trying to poison us.

[TheBlackAdder]

13. I could make some comment about Anti-Vaxxers & Right to Lifers, but I just don't feel in the mood.

[Danmel]

14. New York just banned it as well