Florida Halts Use of Controversial Pesticide on Citrus Crops
State Overrides Trump EPA Approval of Toxic Pesticide Aldicarb
April 22, 2021
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In a victory for farm workers, public health, and the environment, yesterday the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services denied AgLogic Chemical LLC's state pesticide registration application for the pesticide aldicarb on citrus crops in the State of Florida. In January 2021, in a last minute approval by the Trump Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conditionally approved aldicarb to address bacterial citrus greening disease, a major threat to Florida's citrus industry.
Aldicarb is a pesticide that causes nausea, blurred vision, tremors, and other neurotoxic symptoms at extremely low exposure levels, and is also toxic to birds, mammals, and fish. It has been banned in more than a hundred countries across the world. WHO has classified the pesticide as "extremely hazardous." Aldicarb use in citrus is a serious threat to human health. In 2010, after finding that continued use of aldicarb, particularly in citrus groves, posed high dietary risks to infants and young children, EPA and Bayer agreed to terminate its use in the U.S. EPA also identified significant risks to farmworkers exposed to aldicarb.
In response to this news, Center for Food Safety's Policy Director Jaydee Hanson issued the following statement:
"We applaud the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' decision to prevent spraying of aldicarb in Florida. Aldicarb is banned in most of the world, but was approved at the last minute by Trump EPA to control citrus greening. States should not have to do EPA's work. EPA should ban aldicarb immediately."
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