Issue:
The Environmental Protection Agency announced it would not ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide used for killing insects, which causes neurological damage to the developing brains of children.
Action:
Contact the EPA and South Carolina Legislators and tell them to ban chlorpyrifos.
Click here for the EPA.
Click here for S.C. Representative Peter McCoy.
Click here for S.C. Senator Chip Campsen:
Talking points:
There is ample scientific evidence to show that chlorpyrifos is dangerous to children’s neurological development, such as a 2006 study that shows that children who are exposed to chlorpyrifos in the womb are at risk of delayed physical and mental development as well as attention and hyperactive disorder problems.
Dozens of scientific researchers, doctors, and public health professionals have joined environmental groups in urging the EPA to prohibit all use of chlorpyrifos.
In a 2016 memorandum, the EPA itself stated, “there is evidence of delays in mental development in infants (24-36 months), attention problems and autism spectrum disorder in early childhood, and intelligence decrements in school-age children who were exposed during gestation.”
Several states, including Hawaii, California and New York have recently passed bans on chlorpyrifos.
Background:
Chlorpyrifos is acutely toxic and associated with neurodevelopmental harm in children. Prenatal exposures to chlorpyrifos are associated with lower birth weight, reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention disorders, and delayed motor development.
Acute poisoning suppresses the enzyme that regulates nerve impulses in the body and can cause convulsions, respiratory paralysis, and, in extreme cases, death. Chlorpyrifos is one of the pesticides most often linked to pesticide poisonings.
Chlorpyrifos is used on a wide variety of crops including apples, oranges, strawberries, corn, wheat, citrus and other foods families and their children eat daily.
For more information, click here for an article from the Washington Post and here for one from Forbes.
SIAN Contact: Marg Wildermann
SIAN Email: seaislandsactionnetwork@gmail.com
Sea Islands Action Network 