California Bans Pesticide Linked To Brain Damage In Children
Source: Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A widely used agricultural pesticide that California environmental officials have said has been linked to brain damage in children will be banned after next year under an agreement reached with the manufacturer, state officials announced Wednesday.
Under the deal, all California sales of chlorpyrifos will end on Feb. 6, 2020, and farmers will have until the end of 2020 to exhaust their supplies. The pesticide is used on numerous crops in the nation's largest agriculture-producing state -- including alfalfa, almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes and walnuts.
State regulators have said chlorpyrifos has been linked to health defects in children, including brain impairment, and to illnesses in others with compromised immune systems.
"For years, environmental justice advocates have fought to get the harmful pesticide chlorpyrifos out of our communities," Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement after the deal was announced. He added: "Thanks to their tenacity and the work of countless others, this will now occur faster than originally envisioned. This is a big win for children, workers and public health in California." -More...
Read more: https://www.apnews.com/2b433b664d834f3faa4e39ff257cabb6
HAWAII and NEW YORK are now phasing in chlorpyrifos bans as well.
Earlier this year when California announced it was moving toward banning the pesticide, Jared Blumenfeld, the state's environmental secretary said it was doing so because the federal government was allowing it to remain on the market. "The swift end to the sale of chlorpyrifos protects vulnerable communities by taking a harmful pesticide off the market," Blumenfeld said after Wednesday's announcement.
In 2015, the Obama administration announced that it would ban chlorpyrifos after scientific studies funded in part by the federal EPA showed the potential for brain damage in children. After President Trump was elected, the EPA reversed that ban, questioning the studies' validity.
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Not to mention rolling back every safety regulation that he can - because they were enacted by the Obama administration! And then there's the fight over auto emissions - same thing, they were put in place under Obama and he wants to roll them back, too, even though the automakers are on board with it since they want to sell cars to the rest of the world which is fighting climate change! 
And then there's coal, even though the incidence of black lung is up and these people need health care! Next, he'll want to start adding lead to paint again!
As for the California smog, I posted this article last month, it chronicled what it used to be like and all the progress they've made - till now: 
How decades of L.A. smog led to California's war with Trump over car pollution
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127132318
I know it's all about how much money he can get from the American taxpayers. I've always thought that it's the only reason he came up with the idea to run - candidates can accumulate millions in donations and he figured he could just keep it - to make up for all the lawsuits he lost and for his numerous bankruptcies - but what does he possibly get out of poisoning the American people??
