ACTION ALERT

Nix the Neurotoxin!

In November 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally took steps to ban chlorpyrifos, an agricultural pesticide known to be especially harmful to farmworkers and children.

Then along came the Trump Administration. Intent on prioritizing corporate profits over public health, Trump’s EPA reversed the ban on chlorpyrifos—just 20 days after EPA Chief Scott Pruitt met with the CEO of Dow Chemical.

In August 2017, 60 members of Congress, led by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), sent a letter to Pruitt asking how the EPA plans to protect Americans from harmful pesticides.

The letter noted how EPA scientists had previously concluded that the agency should ban chlorpyrifos, due to “significant evidence of the harmful effects it has on farmworkers and young children.”

From the letter:

Research shows that prenatal exposures to chlorpyrifos are associated with reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention disorders and delayed motor development.

Chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate pesticide, is classified as a neurotoxin. In addition to potentially causing reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention disorders and delayed motor development, chlorpyrifos has been linked to autism, dyslexia and other brain-related injuries in millions of children.

TAKE ACTION: Tell the EPA: Don’t Let Dow Chemical Poison our Kids!