The news about employees being harmed from acute exposure to chlorpyrifos at Syngenta Kauai is distressing to all of us.

We care deeply about farmworkers in our communities. The health and safety of our community is of paramount importance and whether it’s farmworkers or children at an adjacent school, the health of our people should always come first.

Chlorpyrifos is one of the insecticides we have been raising concerns about for years now. All facts and statistics mentioned here about its use and impacts are available in the Center for Food Safety Pesticides in Paradise Report, including references for the studies mentioned.

It is an organophosphate, and by far the most heavily applied restricted use insecticide on Kauai. It is highly toxic, not just to people, but aquatic life as well. It has been shown to “wash” out of the atmosphere in rainfall events contaminating bodies of water.

Science suggests exposure to chlorpyrifos over time is linked to lung cancer, colorectal cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  A study of expectant mothers carried out in New York demonstrated an association between exposure to chlorpyrifos and reduced birth weight and length.

These diseases and disorders often have lag times between exposure and the onset of sickness and are often the result of low-level chronic exposure, so acute cases like this are particularly distressing.

The EPA began to phase out the use of chlorpyrifos in 2000, specifically banning it from schools to protect children from learning and neurological disorders it is linked to.

However, chlorpyrifos was consistently detected in the ambient air studies at Waimea Canyon Middle School, and in the homes of residents living over 1,500 feet from experimental field trials. It was identified in the Kekaha Ditch during the pilot streamwater testing conducted in 2013-2014 by the state.

How long do we have to wait for actions to be taken by regulators?

Currently the EPA is considering banning chlorpyrifos residues on food at the end of this year, but we know the corporations will fight back, trying to derail and stall this effort at all cost.

The governor, our Legislature and the Department of Agriculture should move to protect their people and ban the use of this known highly hazardous insecticide, immediately.