FROM +Earthjustice , a petition to ban a pesticide that is a serious threat, not only to the farm workers and their children but to the communities throughout farm country, and to via the food on our tables. The massive petition campaigns by Earthjustice and many other organizations to ban the toxic pesticide killing off bees was successful, and we can win this fight too. Hope you will sign and share.....
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The EPA has a court-ordered deadline of October 31
to respond to our request to ban chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxic pesticide
that poisons farmworkers and communities at alarming rates and causes
serious brain and neurodevelopmental impairments in children.
The
agency has already found that extensive scientific evidence links
chlorpyrifos to serious harm to children’s brains, including reduced IQ,
loss of working memory, delayed development, and attention disorders.
What’s
worse is just how widely the pesticide is used—on everything from
cotton and corn to almonds and fruit trees, including oranges and
apples.
After
multiple Earthjustice lawsuits in recent years and letters from more
than 150,000 individuals like you, the agency has finally started the
process to ban this dangerous chemical.
Sincerely,
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Kari Birdseye
Advocacy Communications Manager
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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 brain damage in
children and poisons workers and their families when it's sprayed in
the fields. The EPA banned household uses of chlorpyrifos in 2001 and
now has a Halloween deadline to respond to a petition to ban all
remaining uses.
After years of delay, the EPA has finally
acknowledged the extensive evidence that exposure to chlorpyrifos
damages 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
still considering allowing continued use of this pesticide, based on
studies conducted by Dow Agrosciences, the company that manufactures
chlorpyrifos. Dow has a serious conflict of interest and bases its
studies on intentionally dosing people, despite serious ethical and
scientific flaws in the studies pointed out in the EPA's peer reviews.
The EPA should take immediate steps to ban 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 sources 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.