![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/reidM.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nReid Maki is the director of child labor advocacy at the National Consumers League and he coordinates the Child Labor Coalition.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Something really curious is happening in New York State. In June, the New York Assembly passed a bill to ban the nasty pesticide chlorpyrifos<\/a>,<\/span> which damages the development of children. But that\u2019s not the weird part.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What\u2019s surprising is that Governor Andrew Cuomo has not signed the bill, despite the fact that the NY Attorney General Letitia James joined five other attorneys general in suing<\/a> the Trump Administration\u2019s federal Environmental Protection Agency because it overturned an Obama Administration ban on the pesticide.<\/p>\n \u201cChlorpyrifos is extremely dangerous, especially to the health of our children,\u201d said\u00a0Attorney General Letitia James. \u201cYet, the Trump Administration continues to ignore both the science and law, by allowing this toxic pesticide to contaminate food at unsafe levels. If the Trump EPA won\u2019t do its job\u00a0and protect the health and safety of New Yorkers, my office will take them to court and force them to\u00a0fulfill their responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n The other states that joined the suit are Washington, Maryland, Vermont, Massachusetts, and California\u2014the latter is the country\u2019s largest agricultural producer (measured by cash receipts) and has decided to remove chlorpyrifos from the market in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n Studies have also linked chlorpyrifos to autism, cancer, Parkinson\u2019s disease, reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention deficit disorders, and delayed motor development.<\/p>\n Nationally, home use was banned in 2001 because of its impact on children\u2019s developing brains. In 2018, Hawaii became the first state to enact a complete ban on its use, which includes farms.<\/p>\n Chlorpyrifos is also thought to damage male reproductive<\/a> organs to the point that it can make men sterile.<\/p>\n Since food safety authorities determined that there was no safe exposure level to chlorpyrifos\u2014that any trace of the pesticide was too dangerous<\/a>\u2014the European Union is expected to ban entry of food products contaminated with the pesticide next year.<\/p>\n In August, the National Consumers League (NCL) and the Child Labor Coalition<\/a> (CLC)<\/span>, which NCL co-chairs, joined 80+ groups\u2014including many from New York\u2014on a letter<\/a>, urging Governor Cuomo to sign the chlorpyrifos ban. We were na\u00efve enough to think he would.<\/p>\n