Media Reports Wrong in Recent EPA Chlorpyrifos Decision

(WASHINGTON, DC) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is denying a petition by environmental groups to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos. Despite media reports and activists claims that the agency proposed a ban in 2016, EPA did not. In fact, EPA’s own Science Advisory Board questioned the scientific legitimacy of the approach that led to a preliminary conclusion, and for that reason, it was never finalized. Thousands of studies support responsible use of this product and vouch for its safety when used according to label directions. Chlorpyrifos has been used as a pesticide since 1965 in both agricultural and non-agricultural areas and the largest agricultural market for chlorpyrifos in terms of total pounds of active ingredient is corn. It is also used on soybeans, fruit and nut trees, Brussels sprouts, cranberries, broccoli, and cauliflower, as well as other row crops.

The petition was filed September 2007 by the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). In their response, EPA says that despite the inadequacy of cancer claims, the Agency examined the study cited by petitioners and concluded that the evidence fails to raise sufficient grounds for consideration of revocation or cancellation of the chlorpyrifos registrations.

Chlorpyrifos is classified as “Not Likely to be Carcinogenic to Humans” based on the lack of evidence of carcinogenicity in mice and rats. In studies, animals received chlorpyrifos in their feed every day of their lives (78 weeks for mice and 104 weeks for rats) at doses thousands of times greater than any anticipated exposure to humans from authorized uses. There was no evidence of cancer in experimental animal studies. Therefore, cancer risk would not be a factor in any potential Agency risk determination to revoke tolerances for chlorpyrifos.

On August 9th, 2018, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered EPA to ban chlorpyrifos within 60 days. The following month, the Department of Justice requested a rehearing before the 11-judge panel. The request was granted on February 6th, 2019 and the result was a vacating of the earlier ruling. After hearing oral argument on March 26th, and again on April 19th of this year, the court ordered EPA to issue a final decision with respect to the petition objections within 90 days and did not otherwise address the issues raised in the case.

Read the full review from EPA here: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2007-1005-0100