The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has ordered the United States Environmental Protection Agency to ban all food supply chain uses of the pesticide Chlorpyrifos within 60 days, or publish new guidelines on the use of the chemical, supported by vigorous evidence of how the new usage procedures would be safe to both workers and children. The ruling was made on 29 April 2021, following petitions to the court made by the several Human rights organisations and state governments.
Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate pesticide which has been in use since the 1960s, which works by targeting the nervous systems of Insects. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) the chemical has also been shown to cause damage to the nervous systems of a variety of other Animals, including Humans. Exposure to high levels of Chlorpyrifos can result in acute poisoning, with symptoms which include seizures, unconsciousness, paralysis, and suffocation from lung failure. Acute Chlorpyrifos poisoning has been linked to the deaths of a large number of farmworkers (and some tourists) in South and Southeast Asia, but is relatively unusual in the United States. However, long term exposure to Chlorpyrifos at low doses can also cause chronic poisoning, with children having been shown to be more vulnerable to the toxin than adults. Symptoms of chronic Chlorpyrifos poisoning include impaired cognition, slower motor development and attention problems. Prenatal exposure to the pesticide has been linked to children developing autism, attention deficit problems, and developmental disorders.
Campaign groups in the US have been calling for a ban on the use of Chlorpyrifos for decades, and the Environmental Protection Agency had been in the process of introducing a ban in 2016. However, this process was dropped by the incoming Trump regime in 2017, following the appointment of former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruit, a long-term opponent of environmental regulations, to lead the agency. The agency was initially ordered to ban the pesticide by a federal court in August 2018, following a petition by the League of United Latin American Citizens, but this decision was appealed by the Trump administration. However, that appeal has now been rejected, and it seems unlikely that further appeals will be mounted by the incoming Biden administration.
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