In an extraordinary surprise move, the EPA has banned carbofuran, a highly toxic pesticide, on both imported and domestic food, effectively removing the chemical from the U.S. market.  According to the story in the Washington Post this morning:

"A 2006 EPA document examining the pesticide's environmental effects found that if a flock of mallard ducks wandered into an alfalfa field within a week after the chemical was applied, 84 percent of the birds would die. The pesticide also kills bees, which have experienced an unexplained massive population collapse in recent years."

While we welcome EPA’s action to ban carbofuran, there are many pesticides on the market that pose risks of cancer, birth defects and nervous system damage to farmworkers and their children which EPA has left untouched.  We wish the Agency had as much concern for the health of farmworkers as they do for the health of consumers.

For that reason, we are suing the EPA to ban use of products such as guthion, chlorypyrifos and endosulfan to provide safer working and living conditions for agricultural workers and their families.  Our latest action, a complaint against the EPA to demand a stop to the use of endosulfan, a DDT-related organochlorine pesticide, was filed yesterday.  Farmworker Justice is proud to be co-counseling this action representing a broad coalition of farmworker, public health and environmental organizations.  For more information about this and other pending cases see our health and safety litigation page.