E.P.A. Chief, Rejecting Agencys Science, Chooses Not to Ban Insecticide
Source: New York Times
E.P.A. Chief, Rejecting Agencys Science, Chooses Not to Ban Insecticide
By ERIC LIPTON MARCH 29, 2017
WASHINGTON Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, moved late on Wednesday to reject the scientific conclusion of the agencys own chemical safety experts who under the Obama administration recommended that one of the nations most widely used insecticides be permanently banned at farms nationwide because of the harm it potentially causes children and farm workers.
The ruling by Mr. Pruitt, in one of his first formal actions as the nations top environmental official, rejected a petition filed a decade ago by two environmental groups that had asked that the agency ban all uses of chlorpyrifos. The chemical was banned in 2000 for use in most household settings, but still today is used at about 40,000 farms on about 50 different types of crops, ranging from almonds to apples.
Late last year, and based in part on research conducted at Columbia University, E.P.A. scientists concluded that exposure to the chemical that has been in use since 1965 was potentially causing significant health consequences. They included learning and memory declines, particularly among farm workers and young children who may be exposed through drinking water and other sources.
But Dow Chemical, which makes the product, along with farm groups that use it, had argued that the science demonstrating that chlorpyrifos caused such harm is inconclusive especially when properly used to kill crop-spoiling insects.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/us/politics/epa-insecticide-chlorpyrifos.html?_r=0
hibbing
(10,109 posts)The pace of this corporate cabal dismantling decades of progress in so many areas of society is astoundingly frightening.
Peace
TeamPooka
(24,254 posts)MiniMe
(21,718 posts)I know vaccines have nothing to do with it, but something must be causing it. Unless it is just that it is recognized and diagnosed more now
SharonAnn
(13,778 posts)Crash2Parties
(6,017 posts)Autistics simply take in stimulus differently, process it differently and then communicate out differently. Not a disease, not a dysfunction or disorder; it's just another way of being human.
As researchers have begun to listen to Autistics and understand the differences, more people have been recognized. Especially children who in the past would've been labelled as mentally deficient simply because they couldn't learn in a loud, chaotic, overstimulating & disapproving environment.
turbinetree
(24,720 posts)doesn't know that one mighty little creature is being decimated by this chemical, and if he thinks that he can go around and pollinate all the fruits and vegetables all by himself, then he can have at, and then come back and talk, but until then he is dangerous and I hope there is a lawsuit, he really is a one man death panel among many in the right wing fascist party called "republican"
https://beeinformed.org/2016/05/10/nations-beekeepers-lost-44-percent-of-bees-in-2015-16/
http://npic.orst.edu/ingred/specchem.html
http://npic.orst.edu/ingred/chlorpyrifos.html
maxsolomon
(33,400 posts)Republicans would fight to overturn child rape laws.
Crash2Parties
(6,017 posts)maxsolomon
(33,400 posts)of Christianity.
hedda_foil
(16,375 posts)pfitz59
(10,390 posts)progree
(10,918 posts)truthisfreedom
(23,155 posts)because there's quick money in pesticides.
progree
(10,918 posts)SCVDem
(5,103 posts)I would hope migrant workers can ID and boycott any agribiz which use this crap.
KT2000
(20,587 posts)more repub values.
babylonsister
(171,092 posts)but I am beyond furious. Proof positive they don't care about people and are all about profits.
Vinca
(50,304 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,473 posts)leftyladyfrommo
(18,870 posts)Their world view is always short term. Take all you can get as fast as you can get it.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)REF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorpyrifos#Toxicity_and_safety
WHY THE WEALTHY ALWAYS DRINK BOTTLED WATER AND EAT TOP TIER QUALITY FOODS.
hunter
(38,327 posts)The most pathetic thing is that farming methods dependent on these pesticides are obsolete, just as coal power plants are obsolete. The old way of farming has resulted in resistant insects. At the time chlorpyrifos was banned for household use it wasn't killing cockroaches or mosquitoes anymore. Many agricultural pests are likewise resistant.
These knobs who are ignoring the science would be promoting lead plumbing, mercury in food, and glue sniffing if they had a lobbyist for these things, mostly just to spite Obama, Democrats, and any other competent leaders who actually care about the health of their constituents.
mdbl
(4,973 posts)Anyone else notice this?
Tanuki
(14,920 posts)please contact them and shove this in their damned faces. They were warned about him (I was part of a group from Union of Concerned Scientists that went to the local offices of both our Senators to speak with staff and urge voting against his confirmation) and they are now fully complicit and accountable. They need this in their faces, from angry constituents, every single day.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)JTFrog
(14,274 posts)Every time I see that smirk on Pence's face I long to see that sadistic bastard behind bars. Especially as the probability of Dumbo getting impeached increases.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)MFM008
(19,818 posts)Is a manager at a local Lowes. He said they are going to stop selling roundup in stores. He said he tells them to hide what they have in store.
Cognitive_Resonance
(1,546 posts)d_r
(6,907 posts)since I was in 7th grade.