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Saturday, July 20th, 2019

E.P.A. Won’t Ban Chlorpyrifos, Pesticide Tied to Children’s Health Problems

Author:     Lisa Friedman
Source:     The New York Times
Publication Date:     July 18, 2019 63
 Link: E.P.A. Won’t Ban Chlorpyrifos, Pesticide Tied to Children’s Health Problems
Stephan:   I am amazed that people are not talking more about how dramatically Trump has re-engineered the structure and purpose of federal agencies. Start with they are now mostly run by "acting" heads, most of whom are former lobbyists for the industries they now regulate. An unprecedented number have been forced from office because of incompetence and criminality. Little by little they are systematically reducing regulatory oversight and control. If you look at it overall it is glaringly obvious that in every instance short term corporate profit  is a higher priority than the wellbeing of humans or the rest of the of Earth's matrix of life. And it has come to this.

A 2018 protest in California after a public hearing on increasing restrictions on the use of the agricultural pesticide chlorpyrifos.
Credit: Max Whittaker/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration took a major step to weaken the regulation of toxic chemicals on Thursday when the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would not ban a widely used pesticide that its own experts have linked to serious health problems in children.

The decision by Andrew R. Wheeler, the E.P.A. administrator, represents a victory for the chemical industry and for farmers who have lobbied to continue using the substance, chlorpyrifos, arguing it is necessary to protect crops.

It was the administration’s second major move this year to roll back or eliminate chemical safety rules. In April, the agency disregarded the advice of its own experts when officials issued a rule that restricted but did not ban asbestos, a known carcinogen. Agency scientists and lawyers had urged the E.P.A. to ban asbestos outright, 

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