- President Biden’s list of planned executive actions included an order to reexamine chlorpyrifos, a controversial insecticide that is widely used to reduce insect damage to a variety of crops, including row crops, fruits, and vegetables. Chlorpyrifos has been the subject of several lawsuits and petitions that point to its potential adverse effects on human and wildlife health as reasons to ban its use in the United States.
- The Obama administration had proposed a ban on the insecticide in its final months in 2016, but the Trump administration later reversed that decision, saying that more research was needed to determine the extent of chlorpyrifos’s risks. California and Hawaii are among the U.S. states that have joined the European Union in banning the chemical.
- Reconsidering the use of chlorpyrifos is just one goal in a lengthy list of Trump administration actions that the Biden team plans to review. One other related rule that the team plans to review is the Trump administration’s decision to reduce buffer zones around fields that limit exposure to pesticides for farmworkers. Keller and Heckman will continue to monitor updates on the potential chlorpyrifos ban and other actions in the new presidential administration.