Earlier today, California officials at the California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) and Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment announced steps to address the threat of the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos.

“California’s proposed action fails to protect the most vulnerable populations: young children, pregnant women and farmworkers. Their revised risk assessment, just released and available for public comment until October 2, fails to consider the well-documented brain-harming effects of this pesticide. Any mitigations that result from such a flawed risk assessment will undoubtedly fall far short.

DPR must recognize that the science of the neurotoxic effects of this pesticide is well-established and beyond any doubt, and come up with a swift timetable for removing chlorpyrifos from California’s fields as quickly as possible.

California’s agricultural communities were betrayed by the U.S. EPA in March when they reversed a proposed ban. California can and must do better.”