Several states want to join a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s decision to keep a widely used pesticide on the market, despite studies showing it can harm kids’ brains.
Led by New York, the coalition of states filed a motion Wednesday to intervene in the legal fight over the continued spraying of chlorpyrifos on food. Massachusetts, Maryland, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia also joined the suit.
The states claim that Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt violated the law by ending his agency’s push to ban the pesticide sold by Dow Chemical after federal scientists concluded it can interfere with the brain development of fetuses and infants.
Public-health advocates have been pushing for years to ban chlorpyrifos.
EPA says it is reviewing the lawsuit.