EPA Sued for Allowing Nerve-Agent Pesticides on Our Fruit and Vegetables

San Francisco, CA —

Today, farmworker and public health groups represented by Earthjustice, sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to respond to a petition to ban organophosphate pesticides, a class of chemicals used on fruits, vegetables, and field crops. In utero exposures to organophosphates are linked to autism, attention deficit disorders and impaired cognition in school-age children. They also cause countless instances of farmworker and community poisonings every year.

The lawsuit comes nearly four years after Earthjustice filed a petition along with a coalition of 10 health, community, and farmworker groups urging the EPA to ban organophosphates.

“The EPA recognized a decade ago that organophosphates can impair children’s learning and behaviors, but the government keeps dragging its feet,” said Patti Goldman, senior attorney at Earthjustice. “Our children deserve long-overdue EPA action so they don’t suffer preventable harm.”

Organophosphates are a class of pesticides derived from World War II nerve agents that chemical companies then turned into pesticides. They are widely used on berries, citrus, peaches, tomatoes, and broccoli, to name a few. Decades of peer-reviewed studies show that even low-level exposure to organophosphates during pregnancy can harm children’s brain development. Farmworkers and rural communities can suffer acute poisonings from exposure to organophosphates through contaminated food, drinking water, and exposure to lingering residues in and around fields after spraying. Children are especially vulnerable.

The EPA’s own scientists found organophosphates pose serious health risks, even when used as directed. Yet instead of acting, the agency missed deadlines and delayed imposing critical safeguards. It banned chlorpyrifos in 2022, once one of the most widely used organophosphates, but has not yet reinstated the ban to address a court decision, despite its stated intention to do so by now. It proposed phasing out almost all uses of two organophosphates, acephate and dimethoate, by 2024, but never finalized the plans or proposed to address the harms of the rest of this class of toxic chemicals.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, asks the Court to compel EPA to respond to the 2021 petition. Earthjustice clients include Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Farmworker Association of Florida, Farmworker Justice, GreenLatinos, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pesticide Action and Agroecology Network North America, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, and UFW Foundation.

Find maps of organophosphate use in the United States.

Quotes from Our Clients

“The use of organophosphates is a direct attack on the health of campesinas nationwide and cannot be allowed to continue. Too many of our members have suffered from exposure to this harmful insecticide, experiencing negative impacts on their reproductive system, unborn children, and neurological health. This is an issue that goes beyond the damage done to our communities, it is about upholding human dignity and our right to humane labor standards as a whole,” said Mily Trevino-Sauceda, Executive Director of Alianza Nacional De Campesinas.

“Farmworker children suffer neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral impacts from organophosphate exposure with no safety net of support for their farmworker families, who already experience low wages and poor housing and working conditions. This affects families and whole communities. This is an issue of health justice! Enough is enough! The people who feed this country deserve better,” said Jeannie Economos, Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project Coordinator Farmworker Association of Florida.

“Farmworkers face repeated exposure to organophosphate residues on the crops they tend. EPA’s backtracking has put children and farmworker health at risk by purposely overlooking the harms shown in past studies. Our fields must be made safe for farmworkers, and our fruits and vegetables must be safe for our children,” said Anne Katten, director of Pesticide and Work Health and Safety Project at CRLA Foundation.

“Considering the fact that EPA’s own scientists have publicly expressed concern about EPA risk analyses for organophosphates not adequately addressing exposures to infants and children, it is unconscionable that the EPA continues to regulate OPs based on industry’s economic interests rather than sound, health-protective science,” said Margaret Reeves, Ph.D., senior scientist at Pesticide Action and Agroecology Network.

“The EPA has long known of the dangers posed by OP pesticides. Its failure to cancel registrations for these deadly chemicals is a grave disservice to farmworkers and their children,” said Farmworker Justice Staff Attorney Rebecca Rosefelt. “Each day the EPA fails to take action, more may be exposed to OP pesticides’ hazardous life-long effects.”

“EPA’s own science shows the dangers, but promises without action mean nothing. We need real protections, not more broken promises. Protecting our communities from the harms of pesticides is critical for a more just food system and progressing environmental justice,” said Dr. Val Schüll, Water Equity and Ocean Program Director at GreenLatinos.

“Farmworkers are the first to face harm, but close behind are people, including children, who live or attend schools near treated fields, or visit ‘pick-your-own’ farms where crops are treated with pesticides,” said Dr. Jennifer Sass, Senior Scientist at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council).