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The environmental law organization Earthjustice celebrated a "huge victory" for farmworkers and children on Thursday after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to ban all food uses of a toxic pesticide linked to memory loss and developmental harms.
The EPA was given 60 days (pdf) to revoke all food uses of chlorpyrifos and retain only those that are found to have no effects on people's health.
"This ruling is a huge victory for children and communities across the country who will finally be spared by needless poisonings and lifelong learning disabilities," said Earthjustice in a statement.
Representing labor groups including United Farm Workers and public health organizations including the Learning Disability Association of America, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the EPA after the agency refused to ban chlorpyrifos in 2019 and in 2016 under the Trump administration.
The Obama administration had been working to ban the pesticide before former president Donald Trump took office in 2016, and environmental groups have been calling for an end to all food uses for the chemical for decades.
"We have been working for years to make this happen," Earthjustice tweeted Thursday.
\u201cBREAKING: Today, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the @EPA to ban all food uses of chlorpyrifos, a toxic pesticide, or retain only those uses it can find safe for workers and children. We have been working for years to make this happen. 1/2 https://t.co/DKVoX2KdV7\u201d— Earthjustice (@Earthjustice) 1619717592
\u201cThis ruling is a huge victory for children and communities across the country who will finally be spared from needless poisonings and lifelong learning disabilities. 2/2\u201d— Earthjustice (@Earthjustice) 1619717592
Numerous scientific studies have found that exposure to organophosphate pesticides, the class of chemicals that includes chlorpyrifos, is linked to attention deficit disorders, autism spectrum disorders, hand tremors, and other symptoms in children.
Organophosphates--which also include sarin nerve gas--were originally developed by the Nazis for chemical warfare but were later adopted for agricultural uses.
Chlorpyrifos was banned for household use in 2001, but is still used widely to grow strawberries, apples, citrus, broccoli, corn, and other fruits and vegetables--putting farmworkers and rural communities most at risk for exposure but also affecting children's long-term health through exposures in food and drinking water.
"The court got it right: EPA's time is now up. EPA must now follow the law, ban chlorpyrifos, and protect children and farmworkers from a pesticide we know is linked to numerous developmental harms."
--Patti Goldman, Earthjustice
The court condemned the EPA's "egregious delay" in banning the agricultural use of the chemical and accused the agency of exposing "a generation of American children to unsafe levels of chlorpyrifos."
"By remanding back to the EPA one last time, rather than compelling the immediate revocation of all chlorpyrifos tolerances, the court is itself being more than tolerant. But the EPA's time is now up," the ruling stated.
Earthjustice called on the EPA to put the ban into effect immediately.
"The court got it right: EPA's time is now up," said Patti Goldman, managing attorney at Earthjustice. "EPA must now follow the law, ban chlorpyrifos, and protect children and farmworkers from a pesticide we know is linked to numerous developmental harms. It would be unconscionable for EPA to expose children to this pesticide for any longer."
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit denounced the agency for failing to take action without legal intervention.
"Today the court has affirmed what scientists have known for decades: chlorpyrifos is much too dangerous to be using, and EPA's lack of action has put children, farmworkers and rural communities at risk," Kristin Schafer, executive director at Pesticide Action Network (PAN), said. "Sadly, it takes legal action to force our public agencies to do their job."
"We are gratified by the court's decision in this case, yet, outraged that the EPA has dragged this out for four years after their 2015 decision based on sound science to ban all food uses of chlorpyrifos," said Jeannie Economos of the Farmworker Association of Florida. "It is unconscionable that it has taken so long to provide equal protection to these beautiful, yet vulnerable children in our agricultural communities. EPA must act immediately to comply with the court's decision. This is about health justice and a human right to a healthy workplace."
Earthjustice noted that chlorpyrifos is just one of dozens of organophosphates used on produce at farms across the country.
"While we celebrate this win today, EPA must also ban all organophosphates to fully protect public health," said Goldman.
In a move aimed at restoring the role of science at--and public trust in--the Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator Michael Regan announced Wednesday that more than 40 advisers appointed by former President Donald Trump will be fired from the agency.
"When politics drives science rather than science informing policy, we are more likely to make policy choices that sacrifice the health of the most vulnerable among us."
--EPA Administrator Michael Regan
The Washington Postreports Regan's purge will include Trump appointees who informed EPA policies and actions that favored the agenda of polluting corporations and industries over protecting the environment and addressing the climate crisis.
Trump-appointed members on two EPA panels--the Science Advisory Board (SAB) and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC)--helped thwart or roll back regulations related to air pollution, fracking, and other environmental issues.
"Resetting these two scientific advisory committees will ensure the agency receives the best possible scientific insight to support our work to protect human health and the environment," Regan--a former EPA regulator and head of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality--said in a statement.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan has dismissed more than 40 Trump-appointed advisory panel members, in an effort to focus on science and reduce Industry influence.
He has also revived the EPA's climate change web page that was removed by Trump. https://t.co/WMEzDqWjBG
-- Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) March 31, 2021
Regan's move is one of numerous steps taken by the Biden administration to restore scientific integrity throughout the federal government after the anti-science years of the Trump administration.
The former administration downplayed or outright denied the climate crisis; the coronavirus pandemic; the harmful effects of fossil fuel extraction and use; the dangers of carcinogenic pesticides, asbestos, and other toxins; and many other facts that conflicted with its pro-corporate and pro-polluter agenda.
Declaring that the American people "deserve access to science and data," Regan earlier this month restored the EPA's climate change website, which had been shut down under former Administrator Scott Pruitt.
Pruitt also led a purge of scientific advisers who refused to toe the fossil fuel industry line, and along with his successor Andrew Wheeler--a former coal lobbyist--raised alarm by elevating individuals with industry connections and often scientifically dubious views to imporant agency panels.
One of these people, former Big Oil and chemical consultant Tony Cox, was chosen by Pruitt in 2017 to lead an EPA air pollution advisory board.
In a letter to EPA staff earlier this month, Regan wrote that "when politics drives science rather than science informing policy, we are more likely to make policy choices that sacrifice the health of the most vulnerable among us."
Regan added that "manipulating, suppressing, or otherwise impeding science has real world consequences for human health and the environment."
\u201cImportant plans on scientific integrity announced by @EPAMichaelRegan this week. We must insist these efforts are carried through to better protect science and scientists from the political interference we saw in the last four years. https://t.co/CAYL6unObr\u201d— Gretchen Goldman, PhD (@Gretchen Goldman, PhD) 1616786779
Environmental advocates applauded Regan's dismissals.
"It only makes sense to go back to the drawing board," Genna Reed, a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told the Post.
Christopher Zarba, a retired EPA official who led the agency's office that coordinates with scientific panels, called Regan's move "absolutely warranted." Zarba told the Post that during the Trump era, "lots and lots of the best people were excluded from being considered" for positions on science committees, and that individuals who were tapped for posts "did not accurately represent mainstream science."
While green groups and activists welcomed moves like restoring the EPA climate site and purging advisory boards, they stressed that the Biden administration must act more urgently to combat the climate crisis, protect the planet, pursue environmental justice, and curb the influence of polluters.
Donna Chavis, senior fossil fuels campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said earlier this month that "Regan and the EPA have a new opportunity to place environmental justice at the center of the agency and the United States' approach to the climate crisis."
Chavis, who is also an elder of the Lumbee Nation, urged Regan to "take bold and visionary steps to rebuild the EPA and address the very real climate crisis we face in the U.S. and globally."
A joint report on Monday highlighted the pressure that President-elect Joe Biden is already facing to deliver on his environmental justice campaign promises--particularly when it comes to the 34 Superfund sites nationwide for which there is no reliable cleanup funding--the largest backlog of "unfunded" sites in 15 years.
The federal Superfund program began with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), passed by Congress in 1980. While cleanup efforts were initially paid for by a trust fund created by taxing the chemical and petroleum industries, lawmakers let the tax expire 25 years ago.
The new report on the cleanup program from NBC News, InsideClimate News, and The Texas Observer is the fifth installment of the "Super Threats" series about Superfund sites and climate change. The first report, published in late September, detailed how hundreds of hazardous waste sites across the United States are threatened by hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, which are all exacerbated by a climate crisis that the Trump administration often refused to acknowledge let alone act to address.
Both reports pointed to a 2019 Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis which found that 945 Superfund sites are vulnerable to extreme weather events that are intensifying because of human-caused climate change, including hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, increased precipitation, or wildfires. The news outlets behind the series created an interactive map for all the locations on the office's list, which includes over half of the unfunded sites--19 of 34.
\u201cPresident-elect Joe Biden will have his work cut out for him as he attempts to reverse President Trump\u2019s environmental rollbacks. That includes abandoned climate adaptation plans meant to clean up some of the nation\u2019s most toxic industrial sites.\n\nhttps://t.co/bqJV41Gn09\u201d— Inside Climate News (@Inside Climate News) 1609155300
The outlets reported Monday that Democrats in Congress, environmentalists, and former officials at the Environmental Protection Agency are urging Biden to consider climate change when creating cleanup plans for not only the unfunded backlog--which has grown under President Donald Trump--but all 1,570 Superfund sites.
"Even before taking office, the Biden administration accomplished one of the GAO's key recommendations: acknowledge the climate threat," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). "A Biden EPA will need to assess every federal Superfund project and help states do the same. As the GAO showed, climate change brings a new priority to rapid Superfund cleanup work."
As the outlets reported:
Beyond Whitehouse's call for climate-threat assessments at every site, one senior former EPA official said the incoming Biden administration should review all of the agreements negotiated by the Trump EPA at Superfund sites with corporations liable for cleanups.
"You will want to see if the responsible parties were being given preferential treatment," said Mathy Stanislaus, who served as assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of Land and Emergency Management during the Obama administration.
Stanislaus said such reviews should focus first on any agreements negotiated since the election by the lame-duck Trump EPA.
Earlier this month, Public Citizen launched an online tool to track Trump's "most corrupt, norm-breaking, dangerous, and unjust actions during the lame-duck session," noting that the past four years have featured "cruelty, recklessness, and cronyism" from the outgoing administration.
The watchdog group has been critical of Trump's EPA administrators. Currently the agency is run by former coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, who was confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate in early 2019. His predecessor, Scott Pruitt, stepped down in July 2018 in the face of several ethics scandals.
The Monday report noted that "the Superfund program is led by Peter C. Wright, a lawyer who previously worked for Dow Chemical and represented the company in negotiations with the EPA over Superfund sites."
Although party control of the Senate will be determined by a pair of runoff elections in Georgia on January 5, Biden has already announced several of his preferred Cabinet picks, including Michael Regan, the top environmental official in North Carolina, to head the EPA--a move that drew a range of responses from campaigners.
On the campaign trail, Biden promised to take bold climate action with a focus on frontline communities. His $2 trillion green energy and environmental justice plan, unveiled in July, earned praise from various activists, including Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement.
\u201c.@sunrisemvmt's @VarshPrakash and @DiverseGreen's @andresforchange: @JoeBiden needs to make good on environmental justice promises. #TimeToAct https://t.co/xqfwmQeQWJ\u201d— Defend Our Future | #ClimateCantWait\ud83c\udf0e\u270a\ud83c\udfff\u270a (@Defend Our Future | #ClimateCantWait\ud83c\udf0e\u270a\ud83c\udfff\u270a) 1609175348
Writing for The Hill on Monday, Prakash and Green 2.0 executive director Andres Jimenez welcomed Biden's selection of Regan for EPA and Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) for interior secretary as "an encouraging sign that his administration is prioritizing the voices of the populations who are most in need of serious attention and aggressive action on some of the most important environmental challenges our nation faces."
"Still, much difficult work remains to be done if the concerns of frontline and at-risk communities are to be truly prioritized with forging and implementing equitable environmental policies," Prakash and Jimenez wrote, emphasizing that "communities of color have been disproportionately affected by our federal government's lack of action to solve ongoing environmental problems" and "are also at higher risk of the consequences of human-induced climate changes."
The pair urged Biden to "follow through on his promises to root out systemic racism when it comes to our nation's environmental policy," appoint environmental leaders of color to positions at all levels of his administration, and "take urgent action to curb the global climate crisis and to restore justice for communities impacted by air, water, and land polluters."