When farmers use spray pesticides on their property, some of the toxic material can drift away.
Yet according to The Hill, last week Trump’s EPA announced it would shrink the areas that farmers need to regulate to the boundaries of their farms.
After the rule change, farmers won’t need to worry about preventing exposure outside of their farm.
Additionally, family members that live on the farm will no longer be required to leave the property during pesticide application.
Andrew Wheeler, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that rule changes would be more “effective and easier to implement.”
However, Iris Figueroa an attorney at Farmworker Justice said, “The bottom line is that it threatens to increase exposure to toxic pesticide drift…off-target drift was a significant public health problem and that simply requiring no contact was not sufficient.”
Many have expressed concerns about the rule change and the direction of the EPA.
Last week several organizations obtained a court order forcing the EPA to assess the risks of pesticides to protected plants and animals.
Then, on Wednesday, several organizations released a new report on the dangers of pesticides to endangered wildlife in America.
The report describes how the massive overuse of pesticides in America is pushing many animals towards extinction.
“There’s no denying that pesticide use in the U.S. is out of control, and these beautiful and highly endangered animals are paying the price,” said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
“With the so-called pesticide regulators in Trump’s EPA more invested in the pesticide industry profits than protecting wildlife, it’s up to all of us to act to protect these animals, before it’s too late.”
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