The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is weighing whether or not to ban a pesticide used at tens of thousands of farms across the U.S. that has been linked to brain damage in children. The pesticide in question — chlorpyrifos — has been used in the U.S. since 1965 to protect crops such as berries, nuts, citrus and vegetables. Anyone can be exposed to the pesticide through the food they eat, but farmworkers and those living near farms that use chlorpyrifos are at a higher risk of exposure.

The use of chlorpyrifos in homes was largely banned in 2000 and under the Obama administration, experts at the EPA decided that it should be totally banned in the U.S. The recommendation was based partly on a Columbia University study that found links between children who were exposed to the pesticide and neurodevelopmental damage such as reduced IQ, loss of working memory and attention deficit disorders.

In 2017, the Trump administration reversed course and decided not to implement the ban, announcing that additional study on the potential effects of the pesticide was needed. “We are returning to using sound science in decision-making — rather than predetermined results,” then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said at the time.

Since 2017, EPA officials have specifically pointed to potential flaws in the data set of the Columbia study as reason for further study of the potential side effects of chlorpyrifos. “Although EPA does not have reason to believe that the [Columbia University study] inappropriately handled the data or statistical analysis, without the availability of the raw data, EPA remains unable to verify the reported findings,” an anonymous EPA official told The Hill newspaper in October 2020.

Advocates of banning the pesticide, however, argue that the science around chlorpyrifos and its potential side effects is sound.

“It is a tragedy that [the Trump] administration sides with corporations instead of children’s health,” said Patti Goldman, lead attorney with the environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice, in a statement. “Every day we go without a ban, children and farmworkers are needlessly eating, drinking and breathing this dreadful pesticide.

Earthjustice and our clients won’t stand for this.” Earthjustice, joined by other environment and public health groups, is suing the administration to implement a ban Others include Farmworker Justice, the Natural Resources Defense Council, United Farm Workers (UFW) and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee AFL-CIO, all of which joined together in 2017 to collect more than 150,000 public comments objecting to the EPA’s decision not to ban chlorpyrifos. “We are extremely disappointed in EPA for not upholding the law and focusing on the well-being of workers and their children who live in areas surrounded by pesticides,” Erik Nicholson, vice president of UFW, said at the time. “Instead, the agency is caving in to corporate interests. We, along with thousands of our supporters, urge EPA to reverse their frightening decision and ban this toxic pesticide.”

Environmental and workers’ rights advocates also argue that because many of those who are most exposed to the pesticide are undocumented farmworkers, some negative side effects are going underreported, making it more difficult to build a case to ban the pesticide.

“They often don’t have health insurance, there are language barriers, cultural barriers, just practical barriers such as transportation for being able to access health care,” Iris Figueroa, an attorney with Farmworker Justice, told The Hill about the challenges of assessing the true dangers of chlorpyrifos.

Agriculture interests argued that banning the chemical would unfairly hurt farmers. American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvallsaid in 2017 that “farmers nationwide depend on chlorpyrifos in managing their crops,” adding that the chemical already goes through federal safety reviews.

Some states — including Hawaii, California, New York, Oregon, New Jersey and Connecticut — have already passed or are considering legislation banning the sale of chlorpyrifos. California’s ban was implemented in early 2020, and the European Union also voted to ban the sale of chlorpyrifos beginning in February 2020. In February 2020, manufacturer Corteva Agriscience, the nation’s largest supplier of chlorpyrifos, said it would stop making the chemical but said it was a financial decision rather than one driven by safety concerns.

With the White House set to change hands in 2021, some experts project that the Biden administration will institute a federal ban of chlorpyrifos.

For more background, see the October 2010 Congressional Digest issue on “Controlling Toxic Substances.”