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Dow takes issue with chlorpyrifos bill

Dow AgroSciences takes issue with a bill introduced by five Democrats in the U.S. Senate to ban its pesticide chlorpyrifos. Dick Durbin of Illinois is one of the sponsors of the Protect Children, Farmers and Farmworkers from Nerve Agent Pesticides Act.

A statement provided to Brownfield Ag News from Dow:

Current regulatory safety standard for chlorpyrifos rests on five decades of experience in use, health surveillance of manufacturing workers and applicators, and more than 4,000 studies and reports examining the product in terms of health, safety and the environment. A full weight of evidence evaluation from thousands of studies, along with a critical examination of the studies being cited by some who have raised safety questions, shows that current uses of chlorpyrifos meet the regulatory standard of a “reasonable certainty of no harm” for humans, including children. Authorized uses of chlorpyrifos products, when used as directed, offer wide margins of protection for human health and safety.   

The senators cite one study that says the pesticide is a danger to children’s health.