The US banned a brain harming pesticide on food. Why has it slowed a global ban?

Farmers can't use chlorpyrifos on food because it damages children's brains but an EPA official questions restrictions under global treaty

• This article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden announced that his administration planned to scrutinize a Trump-era decision to allow the continued use of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that can damage children's brains. And with great fanfare, the Environmental Protection Agency went on to ban the use of the chemical on food.

Ending the use of chlorpyrifos on food will help to ensure children, farmworkers, and all people are protected from the potentially dangerous consequences of this pesticide," the head of the EPA, Michael Regan, said in his announcement of the decision in August 2021. EPA will follow the science and put health and safety first."

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