Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate pesticide created in 1965 by the Dow Chemical Company
...initially used for chemical warfare in WWII and later developed as an insecticide due to rapid urbanization that is still commonly applied in agriculture today.
We have chosen to research chlorpyrifos and their social and environmental impacts because of the EPA’s recent rejection to ban their use in agriculture despite banning their use in homes in 2000 due to harmful health effects, such as damaging the fetal brain, which would produce cognitive dysfunction.
We have conducted our research through news sources and research studies at our university.
Chlorpyrifos were banned from household use in 2000 because of rising concerns from a study from Columbia University
...based on pesticide exposure on the developing brain, which had a 70-100% probability of having a causal relationship.
The research team discovered that birth weight decreased with longer levels of chlorpyrifos in newborns. The research was deemed reliable by the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 2010, the cohort of US children lost 1.8 million IQ points due to prenatal organophosphate exposures.
Despite the evidence regarding the correlation between detrimental health effects and chlorpyrifos exposures
...the US EPA’s Administrator Scott Pruitt denied the ban of chlorpyrifos on food, as he called it “crucial to US agriculture to ensure an abundant and affordable food supply for this world”.
Pruitt’s inaction fails to consider the mental and health damages to children, which results in a reduction in lifetime economic productivity.
In a research study on chlorpyrifos and its metabolite in green apples, the results indicated that monitoring chlorpyrifos could be helpful to other crops. We can also turn to alternative methods to reduce pesticide use that are less toxic.
We propose that it is time for EPA to ban chlorpyrifos in agriculture, as the delay in the ban will continue to affect children’s mental development. We can take action against chlorpyrifos by signing a petition against it.
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[Trasande, Leonardo. When enough data are not enough to enact policy: The failure to ban chlorpyrifos. PLOS Biology, 2017. Print.]
Historical Overview
Organophsphates were first synthesized in 1850 and were initially used in medicine. Physostigmine was used to treat glaucoma in the 1870’s and is still presently used. Other cholinesterase inhibitors were also used to treat skeletal muscle, autonomic disorders, parkinsonism, and Alzheimer disease, but are no longer used for these diseases or failed to show any results (Dyro, 2016). Organophsphates are cholinesterase inhibitors, which means that this chemical affects neuromuscular transmission.
This feature of organophsphates was what made it a good insecticide when it was first used for this purpose in the 1930’s. However, this characteristic was also used by German military during World War II and redeveloped as a neurotoxin (Robb & Baker, 2017). After the war, many chemicals produced and used during the war was then repurposed for industrial and agricultural use. Many of the pesticides and their variants that the U.S. still uses come from this time period.
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Chlorpyrifos is an organophsphate was first used in 1965 and its use now is being contested and currently undergoing registration review, after the EPA denied the petition to ban all chlorpyrifos registrations. Chlorpyrifos have already been a chemical that has been looked at by the EPA, since 2000, when the registrants of chlorpyrifos voluntarily entered into an agreement with EPA to eliminate, phase out and modify certain uses (epa.gov).
During this voluntary agreement, it eliminated most homeowner uses, discontinued use on tomatoes (grown in the U.S), restricted use on apples and grapes (epa.gov). The next big change to chlorpyrifos application was in 2012, where EPA created “no-spray” buffers for application methods around public spaces and other areas to protect children and other people (epa.gov). After two more human risk assessments in 2014 and 2016, EPA refused to discontinue use of chlorpyrifos in March 2017.
“The Agency concluded that despite several years of study, the science addressing neurodevelopmental effects remains unresolved and further evaluation of the science during the remaining time for completion of registration review is warranted” (epa.gov). The latest action of chlorpyrifos will be the registration review due October 1, 2022.
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Dyro, F. M. (2017, October 31). Organophosphates. Retrieved April 30, 2018, from https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1175139-overview#a4
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Chlorpyrifos. (2018, February 16). Retrieved April 29, 2018, from https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/chlorpyrifos
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Robb, E. L., & Baker, M. B. (2017, November 27). Toxicity, Organophosphate. Retrieved April 28, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470430/