New rule to block the use of chlorpyrifos on food will take effect in six months<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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<\/strong>THURSDAY, Aug. 19, 2021 (HealthDay News) — The Biden Administration said Wednesday that a widely used pesticide will be banned because it has been linked to neurological damage in children.<\/p>\n The new rule to block the use of chlorpyrifos on food will take effect in six months, the Environmental Protection Agency said.<\/p>\n “Today [the] EPA is taking an overdue step to protect public health,” EPA head Michael Regan said in an agency news release<\/a>. “Ending the use of chlorpyrifos on food will help to ensure children, farmworkers, and all people are protected from the potentially dangerous consequences of this pesticide.”<\/p>\n Available since the mid-1960s and among the most widely used pesticides, chlorpyrifos is routinely applied to corn, soybeans, apples, broccoli, asparagus, and other produce, The New York Times<\/em> reported. In April, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals<\/a> told the EPA to stop agricultural use of the pesticide unless it could demonstrate its safety. The court order gave the EPA a deadline of Aug. 20 to either prove that chlorpyrifos is harmless to children or to end its use on food crops.<\/p>\n Several states have already banned chlorpyrifos. Studies have linked exposure to the pesticide with lower birth weights, reduced IQs, and other developmental problems in children, and a wide range of groups have long fought for a ban on chlorpyrifos, The Times<\/em> reported. Chlorpyrifos can still be used on golf courses, turf, utility poles, and fence posts as well as in cockroach bait and ant treatments.<\/p>\n