Court Orders EPA to Halt Chlorpyrifos Use
August 9, 2018 The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has given the EPA 60 days to revoke all food tolerances and cancel all registrations for the widely used insecticide chlorpyrifos, Agri-Pulse reports.
Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s decision last year to allow continued use of chlorpyrifos (trade name: Lorsban) violates the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the San Francisco-based court said.
EPA had proposed to ban food tolerances for the chemical, but Pruitt issued an order in March 2017, which “declined to revoke chlorpyrifos tolerances but did not make a finding of reasonable certainty that the tolerances were safe,” as required by FFDCA, the court said. “Instead, (EPA) found ‘significant uncertainty’ as to the health effects of chlorpyrifos, which is at odds with a finding of ‘reasonable certainty’ of safety” under the FFDCA.
“Chlorpyrifos similarly does not meet the statutory requirement for registration under FIFRA, which incorporates the FFDCA’s safety standard,” the court said.
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