After years of pressure from Earthjustice lawsuits and advocacy efforts by a diverse coalition of groups, the EPA recently proposed banning the dangerous neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos from all food crops.
The agency will be accepting public comments on its proposal until January 5—and we need you to take action immediately to ask the EPA to ban ALL uses of chlorpyrifos now.
Dow AgroSciences—which manufactured the millions of pounds of chlorpyrifos sprayed on our agricultural fields this past year—is doing everything in its power to stop or weaken the ban. We urgently need you to tell the EPA to stand up to the pesticide industry!
Chlorpyrifos poisons farmworkers and communities at alarming rates and causes serious brain and neurodevelopmental impairments in children. It is already banned for residential uses because of its harm to kids.
What's worse is just how widely the pesticide is used—millions of pounds applied each year on crops from corn to almonds and fruit trees—and even Christmas trees sold during the holiday season!
We can't let chlorpyrifos continue to poison people. Urge the agency to ban all uses of this toxic pesticide now.
Subject: Protect ALL communities from the toxic risks of chlorpyrifos
Dear Administrator McCarthy,
I urge the EPA to ban all uses of the neurotoxic insecticide chlorpyrifos, based on extensive evidence that it causes neurodevelopmental harm to children and poisons workers and their families when it's sprayed in the fields. The EPA banned household uses of chlorpyrifos in 2000 and now has proposed a ban for use on food crops. That doesn't go far enough: All workers and communities deserve protection.
[Your comment will be added here]
After years of delay, the EPA has finally acknowledged the extensive evidence that exposure to chlorpyrifos damages the development of children's brains. It's time to act to protect children from reduced IQ, delayed development and attention disorders associated with this dangerous pesticide.
Despite acknowledging the brain impairments to children at low levels of exposure, the EPA is considering allowing continued use of this pesticide on some crops and in nurseries, based on scientifically flawed studies conducted by Dow Agrosciences, the company that manufactures chlorpyrifos.
The EPA should take immediate steps to ban all uses of chlorpyrifos in order to:
* Protect children from learning and memory impairments
* Protect communities from pesticide poisonings when chlorpyrifos drifts off crops and into nearby neighborhoods and schools
* Prevent contamination of drinking water with chlorpyrifos
* Prevent worker poisonings
Action on this toxic chemical is long overdue. I urge you to ensure that your agency moves quickly to ban chlorpyrifos now.
Thank you for your consideration of this important issue.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
