WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.), top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget, issued the following statement on the decision by Corteva, Inc., one of the leading producers of chlorpyrifos, to stop producing the toxic chemical. Udall has introduced the Protect Children, Farmers and Farmworkers from Nerve Agent Pesticides Act of 2019 to outlaw the use of chlorpyrifos nationwide.
“It is a major win when a leading chemical company decides to stop producing a toxic chemical that damages the brains of children and causes serious health problems in farmworkers and others exposed to it. The science on chlorpyrifos is clear and unambiguous, and it has no place on our food or in our fields. With this announcement, the writing is truly on the wall. The only question now is whether the Trump administration will finally stop doing the bidding of big corporations and start putting the health and safety of our children and farmworkers first. Today’s announcement is yet more proof that there is no excuse for the Trump EPA to continue to refuse to ban chlorpyrifos.”
