Amid Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt’s long list of personal scandals and the Trump administration’s wide-ranging war on science, a trio of lawsuits filed Wednesday charge that the administration has actively endangered farmworkers and the environment by blocking pesticide regulations at the behest of chemical corporations.
“Pesticides are meant to be poisonous.”
—New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood
The three suits offer a glimpse into the fight aimed at defeating President Donald Trump’s pesticide agenda, largely enacted by Pruitt.
One case focuses on the EPA’s decision to abandon an assessment of the dangers of malathion, which is among the most harmful pesticides available. The other two cases—brought by environmental groups and three state attorneys general—target the agency’s indefinite suspension of a training mandate that’s meant to help pesticide handlers avoid being poisoned on the job.
“Pesticides are meant to be poisonous,” noted New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood. “Yet, Trump EPA is purposefully denying farmworkers the tools they need to protect themselves and their families from these dangerous chemicals.”
The Obama administration revised the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS), the federal rulebook on pesticide safety, in 2015 to require enhanced training for anyone who handles pesticides—but in December, the Trump administration announced plans to gut the WPS, and suspended the training requirement.
Underwood, who is challenging the move along with the attorneys general from Maryland and California, called the suspension “reprehensible” and “illegal.”
“This is outrageous and immoral,” declared Richard Witt, executive director of the Rural & Migrant Ministry. Witt’s group is one of many farmworker organizations that have joined with Earthjustice to issue a second challenge to the EPA suspension.
“We are calling on the Trump administration to put people’s lives and their health over cutting corners for corporate gain.”
—Mónica Ramirez, Alianza Nacional de Campesina
“This should be a no-brainer,” said Earthjustice attorney Hannah Chang about moving forward with the upgraded training materials. “But because of EPA’s refusal, thousands of farmworkers will not receive the pesticide training they need to know their rights in the workplace, and to protect themselves and their families from pesticide exposure.”
Mónica Ramirez, president of Alianza Nacional de Campesina—which has also signed on to the Earthjustice suit—pointed out that “rigorous review by scientists and others has already determined that it was necessary to provide more training and increase regulation of these dangerous chemicals to protect the health of workers and community members.”
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