California banned chlorpyrifos in 2020. It was banned from household use in 2001. Now parents are claiming that it caused severe brain damage in their children. Those parents have sued Dow Chemical and its successor company Corteva Inc., claiming the brain damage is the result of exposure to chlorpyrifos while the children were very young or still in the womb.
Chlorpyrifos was banned from household use in 2001, but it continues to show up as contaminants in households today. The pesticide has contaminated 100,000 homes and the entire contents of those homes. "We have found it in the houses, we have found it in carpet, in upholstered furniture, we found it in a teddy bear, and we found it on the walls and surfaces," Stuart Calwell, lead attorney in the lawsuits, told the AP. "Then a little child picks up a teddy bear and holds on to it."
From 1974 through 2017, 61 million pounds of the pesticide were applied in Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare counties, where the lawsuits were filed, according to AP. Calwell also filed related lawsuits in 2020 on behalf of farmworkers who his firm said, "spent years marinating in the pesticide."
SOURCE: Drugs.com and Associated Press July 13, 2021