The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos on more crops because it is linked to neurological damage, a group of nine attorneys general said Tuesday.
The EPA has already proposed banning chlorpyrifos on 70 crops, but the proposal would allow it on 11 others, including apples, asparagus, citrus, cotton, peaches, soybeans and strawberries.
The ban is still under review and the EPA said an interim decision would come in 2026.
Chlorpyrifos is toxic and linked to neurodevelopmental harms in children, with exposures among pregnant woman causing lower birth weight, reduced IQ, loss of memory, attention disorders and delayed motor development, said the California attorney general, who joined with attorneys general of New York, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia in filing a comment letter with the EPA.
Acute exposure to chlorpyrifos can cause sweating, salivation, vomiting, low blood pressure and heart rate, seizures and even death, the attorneys general said.
People are exposed to chlorpyrifos through food residues, drinking water contamination and drifts of agricultural sprays, the attorneys general said.
“The facts are clear: chlorpyrifos exposure poses a grave danger to a child’s health," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. "This pesticide has no place in our food systems."
California has already banned chlorpyrifos on all crops, but Bonta said the health of its residents are threatened by imports of crops sprayed with the pesticide.
Email Dieter Holger at dholger@consumeraffairs.com.