Farmworker and public health groups represented by Earthjustice, sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to respond to a petition to ban organophosphates 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.
Pesticide overuse is driving declines in insect pollinator populations globally posing a threat to human food systems, terrestrial food webs, and global biodiversity.
For over a hundred years, the Antiquities Act of 1906 has protected America’s natural and historic wonders from mining, drilling, looting, and industrial development.