Court Denies Petition to Ban Pesticide

A U.S. Appeals Court in San Francisco denied a petition from environmental groups to force the EPA to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos.  Reuters said that decision ends one of three parallel attempts to get the ban put in place.  The groups, including Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council, wanted the ban in place because they allege the EPA took too long to make a decision on the safety of the pesticide.

The judges wrote in their findings that even though EPA did drag its heels on the matter for ten years, the agency has done what the judges asked it to do.  The court had previously ordered the EPA to issue a final decision on the ten-year old petition to ban the pesticide, which is considered a neurotoxin by the CDC.

The EPA formally denied the petition on March 29^th, and the environmental groups alleged the denial was inadequate because it didn’t contain any new safety findings.  A lawyer for Earthjustice says the groups are pursuing two other court challenges related the EPA’s decision in March.

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