Environmentalist are suing Environment Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt for not prohibiting a pesticide that the Obama administration had been on track to ban.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and Pesticide Action Network are taking the lead on the lawsuit, arguing that Pruitt is evading a court order in taking action last week not to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which is linked to learning disabilities in children.
The EPA had been under court order to ban the chemical pesticide by March 31.
“The Trump administration is not above the law — and we will not let them put our kids at risk,” said Erik Olson, the NRDC’s senior attorney health program director. “The science is clear that this chemical is dangerous, yet Administrator Pruitt is ignoring findings from EPA’s own experts and brushing off the courts to keep it on the market. We are asking the court to step in to keep our children safe.”
The lawsuit said that an EPA health analysis from the fall showed that residue of the chemical on fruits and vegetables led to exposures in children up to 14,000 percent higher than the EPA’s safety limit.
Pruitt said his decision not to move forward with the ban was a return to sound science.
“By reversing the previous administration’s steps to ban one of the most widely used pesticides in the world, we are returning to using sound science in decision-making – rather than predetermined results,” Pruitt said last Wednesday in announcing that he is terminating the proceedings to ban the pesticide.
Ahead of lawsuit, EPA issued a press release showing all the groups and other federal agencies that thought denying the ban was the right decision, including the U.S. Agriculture Department, the American Farm Bureau and others.
