Gateway on Pesticide Hazards and Safe Pest Management

Updates from the Daily News Blog

Honey Bee Queens' Exposure to Pesticides Weaken Reproductive Success and Colony Development
April 9, 2020

Maryland Legislature Passes Limited Ban on Chlorpyrifos Insecticide
March 24, 2020

Major Manufacturer of Chlorpyrifos Drops Out of Market, But EPA Continues to Allow Use
February 12, 2020

Brain Function Damage from Exposure to Organophosphate Pesticides, including Chlorpyrifos, Documented with Imaging
August 30, 2019

European Regulators Issue Warning on Danger of Chlorpyrifos Prior to Release of Full Review
August 22, 2019

EPA Allows Continued Use of Neurotoxic Insecticide Chlorpyrifos on American Food
July 22, 2019

Take Action: As EPA Fails to Act, States Take Up the Responsibility to Protect Health and the Environment
May 20, 2019

New York Bans Chlorpyrifos, Pressuring EPA to Impose Country-Wide Protections Against Brain-Damaging Pesticide
May 7, 2019

Federal Court Orders EPA to Justify Use of Chlorpyrifos within 90 Days
April 24, 2019

Focus on Pesticide Bans Continues in U.S. and EU, While Toxic Pesticide Use Continues
April 8, 2019

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Chlorpyrifos

General Information

• Fact Sheet: Chlorpyrifos.pdf
• Product Names:

  Chemsico roach control (Chemiso)
  Pyrinex mole cricket bait (Micro-Flo)
  Dursban (Dow AgroSciences)
  Lorsban (Dow AgroSciences)
  Ortho Ant Stop (Solaris Group), formulated with Calcium silicate, Aromatic petroleum distillates
  Ortho Dursban Lawn & Garden Insect Control (Solaris Group), formulated with Calcium silicate
  Bonide Termite & Carpenter Ant Dust (Bonide Products)
  Raid Ant Bait (SC Johnson)
  Hot Shot Maxattrax Roach Bait (Spectrum Brands) 

• Chemical Class: Organophosphate insecticide
• Uses: food and feed crops, golf courses, as a non-structural wood treatment, and as an adult mosquitocide
• Alternatives: Agriculture, Nonresidential buildings
• Beyond Pesticides rating: Toxic

Health and Environmental Effects

• Cancer: Not documented
• Endocrine Disruption: Yes (30)
• Reproductive Effects: Yes (6)
• Neurotoxicity: Yes (8)
• Kidney/Liver Damage: Yes (17)
• Sensitizer/ Irritant: Yes (4)
• Birth/Developmental: Yes (6)
• Detected in Groundwater: Yes (6)
• Potential Leacher: Yes (6)
• Toxic to Birds: Yes (8)
• Toxic to Fish/Aquatic Organisms: Yes (8)
• Toxic to Bees: Yes (8)

Residential Uses as Found in the ManageSafe™ Database

• Tree-boring Caterpillars
• Wasps and Yellowjackets
• Carpenter Bees
• Cockroaches
• Bed Bugs
• Ticks

Additional Information

• Regulatory Status:
  • Beyond Pesticides' California Department of Pesticide Regulation Human Health Effects comments (2017)
  • Beyond Pesticides' comments on EPA Tolerance Revocations (2017)
  • EPA denies a petition requesting that EPA revoke all tolerances for the pesticide chlorpyrifos (2017)
  • EPA Requests for Columbia Study's Data (2017)
  • Revised 2016 Human Health Risk Assessment
  • NMFS Biological Opinion for Pesticides: Chlorpyrifos, Diazinon, and Malathion (2017)
  • EPA Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) signed (7/2006)
  • Beyond Pesticides' EPA Risk Assessment comments (2000)
• Supporting information:
  • Daily News Blog entries (Beyond Pesticides)
  • Widely Used Pesticide in Food Production Damages Children’s Brains (Beyond Pesticides, 2017)
  • Asthma, Children and Pesticides (Beyond Pesticides)
  • The Low Down on Dursban (Beyond Pesticides)
  • Alternatives to Using Chlorpyrifos (Beyond Pesticides)
  • Safer Choice (Beyond Pesticides)
  • NCAP Chlorpyrifos Factsheet (Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides)
  • Extoxnet Chlorpyrifos Factsheet (Extension Toxicology Network)
  • PAN Pesticides Database:Chlorpyrifos (Pesticide Action Network)
• Studies:
  • Brain anomalies in children exposed prenatally to a common organophosphate pesticide. Rauh VA, Perera FP, Horton MK, et al. 2012. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 109(20):7871-6.
  • Chlorpyrifos exposure and urban residential environment characteristics as determinants of early childhood neurodevelopment. Lovasi GS, Quinn JW, Rauh VA, et al. 2011. Am J Public Health. 101(1):63-70.
  • Impact of prenatal chlorpyrifos exposure on neurodevelopment in the first 3 years of life among inner-city children. Rauh VA, Garfinkel R, Perera FP, et al. 2006. Pediatrics.118(6):e1845-59.
  • Long-term sex selective hormonal and behavior alterations in mice exposed to low doses of chlorpyrifos in utero. Haviland, J. A., Butz, D. E., Porter, W.P. 2009. Reproductive Toxicology. 29(1):74-79
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