A new federal proposal could tie the hands of regulators, leaving children and communities exposed to proven toxins for decades.

Section 453 is buried in the U.S. House appropriations bill for fiscal year 2026, which begins Oct. 1. It is a short clause that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from updating pesticide warnings in a timely fashion.

The EPA conducts a full review of the safety of individual chemicals only once every 15 years. Section 453 would lock pesticide safety standards in place between reviews, even if strong new evidence of harm emerges.

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Legal experts warn that not only would it prevent updating the label at the time new evidence of toxicity is discovered, but it could also prevent states from enacting stronger protections while they wait for the EPA to update the label. The experts further state that it could also shield pesticide companies from lawsuits, even when new studies show their products cause harm.

Please take a minute to let this sink in. Pesticide companies use the legal defense that they should not be liable for harms such as cancer if their users follow the label (even if new studies show harm) because the label is the law. And now, perhaps to make it even harder to sue them, they are sponsoring this new language, which actually prevents the EPA from updating its label before the every-15-year scheduled review.

Science Can’t Wait 15 Years

This is not a hypothetical concern. Just last month, a landmark study proved that Hawai‘i’s 2018 decision to ban chlorpyrifos for agricultural use was the right call. Researchers from Columbia University found that children exposed in utero to chlorpyrifos still showed profound brain damage on MRI scans more than 15 years later. These children carry an invisible but devastating legacy of exposure.

Back in 2018, Hawai‘i legislators banned chlorpyrifos. We were the first state in the U.S. to do so, and we were later followed by the rest of the country and the European Union.

The evidence our legislators considered included earlier studies in California and New York showing brain damage in children exposed during pregnancy, unusually heavy use of chlorpyrifos on Kaua‘i’s agricultural fields, testimony from scientific bodies and community organizations, and some evidence of a higher incidence of developmental delays in children in towns near the spraying. Section 453 could have blocked that statewide ban, leaving our communities without protection while federal regulators waited another decade or more for their next scheduled review.

History Shows What Delay Costs

We’ve seen this pattern before:

• lead poisoning persisted long after scientists documented harm
• asbestos was conclusively tied to cancer well before regulations caught up
• the U.S. surgeon general warned about smoking in 1964, but it took 28 years before the EPA officially classified secondhand smoke as a carcinogen.

In every case, industry pressure drove the delay, not a lack of science. Section 453 would risk making such paralysis even more difficult to reverse.

Hawai‘i’s Leaders Are Standing Up

Thankfully, our Hawai‘i congressional delegation is standing firm. Rep. Jill Tokuda and Rep. Ed Case have both come out strongly against Section 453. Their voices matter, and their courage in prioritizing the health of our keiki over the lobbying power of big agriculture deserves recognition.

But we cannot stop there. The Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee passed Section 453. Lawmakers, who would rather protect pesticide corporations than protect children, are advancing this section. They want the House to accept section 453 and ultimately cross over to the Senate.

If allowed to become law, this language could silence science, block state authority, and leave families unprotected.

A Call To Action

What could possibly go wrong if we hand pesticide companies this kind of shield? The answer is written in the MRI scans of children who will never recover from chlorpyrifos exposure.

Section 453 is not just bureaucratic language; it is an assault on public health and state sovereignty. It benefits pesticide companies at the expense of our keiki and our environment.

We should applaud the courage of Reps. Tokuda and Case, but we must also intensify our efforts to hold accountable those in Congress who are willing to compromise public safety for industry profits.

I hope that columns like this can help spread the word that a particularly dangerous curtailment of EPA protection is coming up for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and must be defeated.