Environmentalists sue EPA for reversing Obama-era move to ban pesticide

The EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, has ignored the scientific recommendation of his own agency to allow continued use of chlorpyrifos, despite its links to brain damage

Environmental groups have filed a complaint against the US government over its support of a pesticide linked to brain damage in children, one week after Donald Trump's administration rejected federally backed science and reversed an Obama-era policy.

The Pesticide Action Network and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed the case against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday, seeking to force the government to follow through with the Obama administration's recommendations to ban an insecticide widely used in agriculture.