This pesticide is linked to learning disabilities – and it’s sprayed on fruit

Chlorpyrifos is a dangerous pesticide linked to children’s learning disabilities and behavioral disorders. But despite these dangers, chlorpyrifos is still being widely used across America.

An opportunity for the EPA to limit toxic pesticide 

Today, we have a chance to limit this awful pesticide. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is opening a comment period for a partial ban on chlorpyrifos. If we encourage the EPA to go through with it, we could reduce exposure to this toxic pesticide for countless plants and animals — not to mention our own children and grandchildren.

Currently, chlorpyrifos is sprayed on apples, strawberries, broccoli and many other popular foods. Traces of the pesticide can end up on produce sold at the grocery store. The EPA has determined that some children consume 140 times the safe amount of chlorpyrifos in their lifetimes. 

The effects of chlorpyrifos can be permanent, potentially changing a child’s social behavior and leading to developmental disorders. That’s an unacceptable risk to our children’s brains. 

And what’s bad for children is also dangerous to the environment. Experts say that chlorpyrifos likely harms more than 1,700 endangered plants and animals, well over 90% of all of America’s endangered species.

Why is chlorpyrifos still being sprayed on our food? 

Currently, the EPA is proposing a partial ban on chlorpyrifos for legal reasons. It’s great that the EPA is acknowledging the danger chlorpyrifos poses, but the ban simply doesn’t go far enough. The new rule still permits dangerous chlorpyrifos on 11 crops, including childhood favorites like peaches, apples and cherries.

We need to tell the EPA not only to go forward with its proposed ban, but to encourage the government and industry to fully remove chlorpyrifos from the agricultural supply chain. Some companies have already voluntarily agreed to stop producing and selling the pesticide.

If we can finally ban this dangerous pesticide, our children will thank us for it.