Farmworker groups ask EPA to ban Dursban, Lorsban

A nationwide coalition of farmworker and community health groups, including the Farmworker Association of Florida, Thursday petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to immediately ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, sold under the brand names Dursban and Lorsban, because it harms workers and their families. Jeannie Economos, pesticide safety and environmental health project coordinator at the Farmworker Association of Florida, said a class of pesticides known as chlorphyrifos is widely used in Florida agriculture on nursery plants and vegetable crops. Economos said the EPA banned the pesticide, manufactured by Dow Chemical Co., for residential use over a decade ago after two studies in the Northeast linked it to developmental problems in children.