The California Environmental Protection Agency announcing that virtually all use of the chlorpyrifos in California will end next year. The announcement follows an agreement between the Department of Pesticide Regulation and pesticide manufacturers to withdraw their products. Regulators cite evidence that chlorpyrifos is associated with serious health effects in children.
The agreement with Dow AgroSciences and other companies means that use of chlorpyrifos will end sooner than anticipated. Under the settlement, the companies agreed that all sales of chlorpyrifos products to growers in California will end on February 6, 2020. Growers will no longer be allowed to possess or use chlorpyrifos products in California after December 31, 2020.
Until then, all uses must comply with existing restrictions, including a ban on aerial spraying, quarter-mile buffer zones and limiting use to crop-pest combinations that lack alternatives. Chlorpyrifos is used to control pests on a variety of crops, including alfalfa, almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes and walnuts. It has declined in use over the past decade as California growers have shifted to alternatives.