Ok Democrats, take this up as an issue to voters and claim that Republicans want to give our babies deformed brains. Play their game.
9
Yeah let's kill people, this is the new motto for "The Environmental Protection Agency " in the trump age.
And all the dim bulbs out there that love him.
16
If it kills plant life, it kills children...
9
We can thank Donald for this one.
9
Corporations are people according to Romney so they wouldn't do anything to harm our children right?
8
So according to our president, vaccines cause autism (see tweet from 3/28/14), and pesticides proven to be neurotoxic to children need to be more widely available.
Another gold medal in mental gymnastics to Trump and his supporters!
17
Really makes no sense; substances such as chlorpyrifos should be banned based on sound studies. I haven't read the studies, but believe (hope) the reviews are scientifically accurate. Saying this, there is nothing to stop states from banning substances - California bans more than Europe, and certainly the EPA.
5
What a fabulous decision for the sickness, litigation & coverage complex!
14
We should never expect this President and his toadies to make decisions that are in the best interests of American citizens. Truth...Scientific fact...informed actions are not in the realm of the self-interested worms running the current American Governmental debacle.
Too bad Trump and his toadies and those who voted for Trump are not the ones who will suffer their poor choices. We all pay the price for that madness. As a senior who experienced and supported my country through WW2 and every difficulty since, I fear the memory of a a society that was willing to solve problems and inch forward to a better life will remain just that....a memory.
At this moment...the American Dream is more like an American nightmare.
17
So Trump puts corporate profits before children's health.
Of course, that's our president!
Trump's "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."
So where is America's outrage?
It's like we live in a country of zombies just marching mindlessly through each Trumpian day of terror.
If this single act by DJT to allow the systematic poisoning of our children is NOT an impeachable act, then this country is completely doomed.
35
@JM another example of why this guy needs to be impeached.
What are they doing to "life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness ".
Day after day more dismantling .
5
If the government has abdicated its role to protect the citizenry then at least let the market do it: every human sickened by these profit centers should be able to sue them out of business.
19
I guess this administration sees negative cognitive development for children as a way to grow their base. Or perhaps they believe their existing base won't notice this decision or its impact until long after the administration has fled to their post-government jobs.
42
Our biggest sin is not to protect all our precious children, who are our future. Whether it be at our southern border or though the environment. What would the deadly results have been if lead particles in paint products weren’t banned in the 1970’s? This is the results of Trumps dysfunctional administration’s disastrous policies to protect their almighty dollar bottom line, rather than the protect the most vulnerable amongst us.
As far fetched as it sounds, It seems that the current powers at be, are doing the dirty work of our adversaries, to assist in destroying future generations of able body Americans. I really wouldn’t put it pass them in their lust for greed and power.
It is beyond contempt!
21
Trump and cronies don’t believe in science and don’t care about anything but money.
17
No surprise here. An Administration that executes policies that cruelly separate children from their families, has blood on its hands for the unnecessary, neglectful deaths of kids in its custody, and sadistically denies essential, everyday heath items while crowding them into cages unequivocally cares not a whit about the exposure of the nation’s youth to this highly toxic and developmentally dangerous chemical. I do not want to hear another single word uttered by Melania Trump in her insulting “Be Best” propaganda campaign, and its expressions of faux concern for the welfare of children. Enough with this outrageous hypocrisy!
13
Well that seems about right. The company needs to make money, the only thing that counts. Did the Sackler family advise the makers of Lorsban just how and who to bribe?
Love the farmers some of whom must have children are begging to keep using it. How they must loath and hate organic farmers who have found safe and natural pesticides.
And I bet these noble farm owners have huge farms and they and their children never live there. Who cares about the workers anyway. And of course they use GMO seeds, because the company who sells those bought out most seed companies and try to outlaw propagating your own seeds.
And weren't the GMO seeds filled with poison supposed to put an end to spraying poisons on the outside of the plant? But somehow the bugs overcame the inner poison and thanks to that company stepping in and offering Round up which gives people cancer...Well does no one ask why most of Europe has banned GMO seeds? And is it not funny that most of those countries offer health care for all. What a bunch of idiots to value serfs, I mean people over profit.
I do want to go back to where a quarter of me came from. That terrible socialist country Norway. Ah the fjords and longish winters and health care and a longer life and clean food. Here is to Ibsen for foreshadowing people in charge knowingly poisoning people. Enemy of The People.
19
We entrust government with our safety. Under Republican leadership that favors profit over human health, it is utterly failing us in that role. This is only a small part of a far greater threat to air and water quality and pesticides like glyphosate that are turning up in virtually all of our food. It's difficult to provoke outrage over something we cannot see or health consequences that are not immediate. But outrage is the only reasonable response. Some of these chemicals are so pervasive that even organic foods are becoming tainted, though they are still better than their "conventional" counterparts.
5
if it is the wrong thing to do to protect the public then count on our President's team to do the right thing: make the decision for businesses and bottom lines, not the safety of the public. Oh yea, farmers win along with chemical companies too. More votes for Trump from his non-tariffed agrarian core here. More health problems for workers and people in general. What Trump worry? Only about votes. Now if only China would buy more soybeans from our farmers! His socialist subsidy program of supporting these hurting soybean should be points Dems make in calling Trump a socialist in action.
10
Who is the E.P.A. protecting?
Is it the American people or chemical making corporations?
If Asbestos, Chlorpyrifos (Lorsban), sulfoxaflor and other chemical compounds are scientifically proven to be harmful why are they not banned?
16
All the more reason to grow your own and buy organic. Vote with your dollar, vote organic, vote real food. Feed your cells, not your mouth. Be the change your want.
So, even on the 10th floor balcony of my mother's condo, I grew spinach, kale, tomatoes, and had fruit trees with organic soil. In Los Angeles, every house is allowed 3 hens...that's enough eggs to stop buying toxic CAFO eggs.
Bottom line is that these chemical companies want your money. Don't give it to them. Give it to the farmer that is growing organically, not using chemicals. Forget being mad at the EPA or at Trump...turn that energy into making a positive change for our environment, for Mother Earth. Teach children NOT to eat conventional food, processed foods, fast foods. This is food sedition, this is a revolution. In the 70's, the liberals were saying, "vote for incompetence because that's how you start a Revolution!" Well, that time has come...let's start a food revolution and show them how we can vote with our dollar. Change our eating habits, don't eat out, know where our food comes from and what was done to it. Be informed!!
24
@Denise Anderson What a great and inspiring comment. I deeply appreciate it. And so wonderful about growing all that food on the balcony of your Mom's condo. I get raw grass fed milk from NJ. And free range eggs from there too and you cannot believe how orange the yolks are. I make my own kifir from the raw milk. So cheap and healthy and easier to make than yogurt and more beneficial too. We used to have many food markets which sold organic foods, now I have to rely on WF and Trader Joes mainly.
6
What are brand name for these cereals, nuts, fruits etc. seems if the public is aware of what chemicals are on their products they will choose not to buy
9
So the EPA is now the Environmental Pollution Agency. This is the real harm being done by the Trump administration, putting poisons back into our air and water, selling off our public parks and wildlands to oil and gas drillers, firing scientists in our government agencies, undermining the rule of law and committing gross human rights violations on our southern border.
15
Sounds like trump is the one who hates our country! He’s destroying our environment.
7
Once again, money talks.
I mean, “money is speech.
7
America continues its descent into a third world dystopia. Now children are harmed by a timid chemical. Earlier we saw pollution standards gutted.
Unless the Trump GOP can be expelled from office next year, Americans will soon have to wear masks like Chinese do in Shanghai because of our toxic air.
3
There is no longer an Environmental PROTECTION Agency. This once vital and valuable part of our government is solidly in the pocket of the thuggish 45, reading from the Koch Brothers' handbook on how to gradually destroy the health of all of us while lining their own pockets. And don't get me started on Monsanto-Bayer. Ugh. Once you "discredit" science to a dumbed- down U.S. audience, then you can run roughshod over every known fact. This chemical is dangerous to our children's developing brains. Anyone care? Anyone listening? Public health is no longer a priority for the so-called leaders of this country. Oh, the endless, craven, corrupt, amoral gluttony of this group and the Republican party --for power, for money, for domination--but at a great cost to us all.
12
Chlorpyrifos is banned in most European countries. Half a cup of concentrate was enouh to kill all shrimp and insect life along 15km of the River Kennet in the UK in 2013.
14
This, along with locking them in cages, illustrates how much Trump and his administration really love children. If he could sprinkle chlorpyrifos on ice cream cones and hand them out to kids, he would. Wheeler is no better. Watch for him to be driving a much nicer car next week, compliments of the pesticide industry. Deplorable.
2
Did anyone see the movie Thank You For Smoking? It’s older, but worth revisiting. It’s a satire about how lobbyists for Big Tobacco kept obfuscating the health dangers of smoking by maintaining that the “science” was “inconclusive.” That movie was a comedy, but yet it has been adapted as a playbook for lobbyists for BigAg and the fossil fuels industries and the current administration.
6
@Kristi
There was a movie made called “The Marlboro Man” paid for by the tobacco companies but when they saw it they banned its showing. The American Lung Association used it in smoking cessation workshops.
1
If you care about your children's or grandchildren's health remember who appointed the current policy makers of the EPA and vote appropriately in 2020 to replace this travesty.
8
Well, Trump's EPA already approved coal plants releasing more mercury into the environment which we know will cause death, retardation and birth defects in children, so why reverse course?
Apparently evangelicals who support Trump believe that doctors aborting fetuses is wrong, but corporate America can do any harm they like to fetuses as well as the already born.
8
"This week, the E.P.A. acknowledged a new policy doing away with surprise inspections of chemical and power plants. The “no surprises” policy is aimed at fostering better working relationship between the agency and states, E.P.A. officials wrote."
Ayup, we Republicans can't let some pesky "law" get in the way of making money! So what if a few kids get so brain damaged that they might actually vote for us? Even better!
-----
"The E.P.A. may argue that the science showing chlorpyrifos is unsafe is unclear. But Mr. Minoli said under the Food Quality Protection Act, the E.P.A. must prove that there was a reasonable certainty that the pesticide would not cause harm."
Oh, Minoli, you're still expecting Mr. Hush Money In Installments to follow the law, or for his personally staffed courts and cabinet to consider it? How adorable.
7
Seems that any country importing our agricultural products should go ahead and issue sanctions as that is the language the current administration understands best.
6
Another frightening development from the Trump administration that should get banner headlines and wall-to-wall coverage on all news channels but it won't because we are getting too used to this kind of news. The Trump administration is the most corrupt of all time and unraveling the damage it is doing will take decades to come...
7
Really it's now the PPA (Polluters Protection Agency).
But it's job creation ... for pediatricians.
1
How can we find out who uses it so we can boycott the product?
4
Follow the money.
Of course not. No one can be seriously surprised by this egregious act of irresponsible action - it is completely consistent with the Trump Administrations disregard for human health, except of course for unborn fetuses.
5
Andrew R. Wheeler should be required to tour the towns and fields (where children play) that are near these farms. Mr. Wheeler should make a point of publicly eating the produce with these chemicals infused into them.
Easy to control a population with underdeveloped brains.
Shame.
5
And this is only one of many reasons why this administration is a horror. They pretend they care about people and the environment and their followers are buying it.
They have a ruthless agenda because they're scared.
3
Why? Because it insures many more tRump voters in the future, Oh, and someone's making more money. Yeah capitalism.
1
The “E.P.A. has determined that their objections must be denied because the data available are not sufficiently valid, complete or reliable to meet petitioners’ burden to present evidence demonstrating that the tolerances are not safe. . ."
WOW! This is extremely disturbing and troubling news. Just what the heck are "developmental disabilities and other health problems in children" associated with chlorpyrifos called if not safe? Hiccups or flukes in the system or science or in various children's DNA? Give me a break already.
Once again, it looks pretty clear that the chemical industry and farmers who have lobbied to continue using chlorpyrifos matter more than the lives of innocent children because when it comes down to it, it's about money and greed and rewarding the lobbyists for their support. What's the next reversal going to be? Smoking no longer causes lung cancer because suddenly the data available is not "sufficiently valid, complete or reliable"?
It's these kinds of reversals under this administration's leadership that causes people to loose sleep at night and worry and wonder what's next up the EPA's sleeve?
2
We are in big trouble here. Trump has to be defeated he is destroying our environment and our kids. My god America, wake up and vote this person out of office in 2020!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5
The EPA, formerly known at the Environmental Protection Agency, under this administration, can now be known as the Environmental Poisoning Agency.
3
Dear Middle America,
This is what Republicans do.
4
Welcome to Robber Baron Rule, where Greed Over People, Grand Old Poison and the Environmental Pollution Agency are hard at work increasing the risk of death, injury and disability while trying to pull healthcare out from under non-rich Americans and handing out guys to anyone with a pulse.
There's a difference between Democrats and Republicans, America.
Democrats are not trying to injure, maim and kill you.
Make Asbestos Great Again !
Trump-GOP 2019
25
Oh, my, what a surprise! After Trump set up the EPA to do his bidding, they won’t ban the use of the pesticide, chlorpyrifos. You see it only harms children. I guess it’s just a continuation of his border policy of trying to kill the children there.
He plays no favorites.
2
Ban the pesticide and put persons on welfare and those in the country illegally to work, picking the bugs off of plants.
The US Republican party is itself toxic and bad for developing brains.
1
Environmental Pollution Agency seems like a more apt name for E.P.A. every passing day.
4
Stories like this should hit the front page repeatedly because they impact everyone. We depend on great reporting, as in this publication, to educated us about vital information that gets lost in the flurry of one-topic storms on the news cycles. Let's not wait until children start showing brain damage. Keep it coming NY Times. And thank you.
10
How much money has the producer donated to Trumpian campaigns? Evidently enough for now.
2
In my own gated community, it feels like we are living in a golf course, with all the pesticides, fertilizers and other nasty stuff sprayed on our trees and applied to our lawns. Oh, we all get notices when “EPA-approved” chemicals are applied. Last year, I decided to research the chemicals and found one where the EPA admits it can cause cancer in pregnant women, even though it is approved. It’s not unusual for neighbors to host visits of pregnant daughters or granddaughters, but they have not a clue because the notices don’t give them all the facts.
We are poisoning ourselves, plain and simple.
11
Twenty five years ago, my brother died from cancer at 37 because an industry turned a blind eye to the dangers workers were being exposed to. The EPA is suppose to be protecting us...
4
"The Obama administration announced in 2015 that it would ban chlorpyrifos after scientific studies produced by the E.P.A. showed the pesticide had the potential to damage brain development in children."
"Under Mr. Pruitt, the agency proposed a rule saying it could not consider scientific research unless the raw data behind it was made public..."
How do these two statements exist within the same agency? The EPA conducted their own research in 2015 and found the link, but suddenly, the data is "not sufficiently valid, complete, or reliable" even though data was compiled by both Columbia University AND the EPA themselves?
9
Donald's orders from above are to damage and degrade, degrade, degrade.
And that's just what he's doing to government, diplomacy, the environment, healthcare, public discourse and culture, trade, etc. Oh, and infrastructure!
Viewing him as some kind of patriot, rational maverick, or quirky genius, takes great imagination.
1
Better life through chemistry? Not always.
Once again, big industry and its lobbyists trump public health, welfare, and safety.
No pun intended.
17
When candidates and voters say they want to roll back regulations, this is exactly what they are talking about.
What parent -- or farmer for that matter -- is willing to save a couple dollars at the expense of their own children's health?
This next election needs to address just these kinds of examples when Trump trumpets his success in rolling back "job-killing regulations." What he really means is rolling back health, safety, and environmental regulations that will result in more deaths and disabilities of Americans and their children.
28
The EPA regulatory system is rigged. It does not protect the public, rather it protects corporations. This is been true for a while but it’s especially true now.
34
The EPA protects not the people but the financial interests of BigAg and the chemical producers. We are awash in these toxins with the most vulnerable paying the price.
In the end, of course, we all will pay.
24
The Environmental Protection Agency will not protect our children against a pesticide that it's own experts have linked to serious health problems in our children.
"Protection Agency"?
Protecting what?
Protecting who?
50
@J. Swift
EPA...Environmental POISONING Agency
3
@J. Swift, Protecting corporate profits. I mean, is there something else that Trump should be doing?
4
The “E.P.A. has determined that their objections must be denied because the data available are not sufficiently valid, complete or reliable to meet petitioners’ burden to present evidence demonstrating that the tolerances are not safe. . ."
This is extremely disturbing and troubling news.
If children have "developmental disabilities and other health problems” when exposed to chlorpyrifos, now can that chemical still be considered safe? Give me a break already.
It appears pretty obvious that the priorities of the chemical industry and farmers who have lobbied to continue using chlorpyrifos are important than the lives of innocent children. The EPA’s decision seems to be about money and greed and rewarding the lobbyists for their support.
I wonder what could be the next reversal - smoking no longer causes lung cancer because suddenly the data available is not "sufficiently valid, complete or reliable"?
It's these kinds of reversals under this administration's leadership that causes people to lose sleep at night and worry what else may be up the EPA's sleeve?
50
Over 10 years ago I was part of a scientific team evaluating chlorpyrifos. Our peer reviewed study showed clearly that chlorpyrifos can have substantial negative impacts on cognitive development. I challenge the proponents of its use to raise their children in and around it on a daily basis. My guess is we’d see just how safe they think it is.
117
At the same time that the Administration is doing everything in in its power to reduce or eliminate medical coverage, the administration takes steps that will increase the need for medical assistance. I guess the messaging here is to hurry up and die?
88
And that they love the poorly educated, so they may as well damage our brains early!
Even worse, chlorpyrifos seems to be a poor pesticide. I still see Republicans in government.
5
@SW, exactly.
2