History of Risk Assessments of the Organophosphate Pesticide Chlorpyrifos at the US Environmental Protection Agency, 1980‒2024

Bibliographic Data

ID11032160
AuthorsChristine Sellers (0000-0001-8909-4135, Christopher Sellers is with the History Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY. Ellen Kohl is with the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland—Baltimore County, Baltimore. Marianne Sullivan is with the Department of Public Health, William Patterson University of New Jersey, Wayne. Gretchen Gehrke is with the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, Durham, NC. Jessica Varner is with the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. M), Ellen Kohl (0000-0003-4713-6901, Christopher Sellers is with the History Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY. Ellen Kohl is with the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland—Baltimore County, Baltimore. Marianne Sullivan is with the Department of Public Health, William Patterson University of New Jersey, Wayne. Gretchen Gehrke is with the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, Durham, NC. Jessica Varner is with the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. M), Marianne Sullivan (0000-0002-4715-1143, Christopher Sellers is with the History Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY. Ellen Kohl is with the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland—Baltimore County, Baltimore. Marianne Sullivan is with the Department of Public Health, William Patterson University of New Jersey, Wayne. Gretchen Gehrke is with the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, Durham, NC. Jessica Varner is with the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. M), Gretchen Gehrke (0000-0002-1881-3291, Christopher Sellers is with the History Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY. Ellen Kohl is with the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland—Baltimore County, Baltimore. Marianne Sullivan is with the Department of Public Health, William Patterson University of New Jersey, Wayne. Gretchen Gehrke is with the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, Durham, NC. Jessica Varner is with the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. M), Jessica Varner (Christopher Sellers is with the History Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY. Ellen Kohl is with the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland—Baltimore County, Baltimore. Marianne Sullivan is with the Department of Public Health, William Patterson University of New Jersey, Wayne. Gretchen Gehrke is with the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, Durham, NC. Jessica Varner is with the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. M), Mark Chambers (0000-0002-6674-5211), Mark Milton Chambers (0000-0003-0772-2340, Christopher Sellers is with the History Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY. Ellen Kohl is with the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland—Baltimore County, Baltimore. Marianne Sullivan is with the Department of Public Health, William Patterson University of New Jersey, Wayne. Gretchen Gehrke is with the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, Durham, NC. Jessica Varner is with the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. M), the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative
Year2025
Volume115
Issue7
Pages1074-1084
Publication date2025-07-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-0036 • E-ISSN: 1541-0048
PublisherAmerican Public Health Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2105/ajph.2025.308073
PMID40311095
OpenAlexW4410004032
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited26

This article examines the history of risk assessments of the organophosphate pesticide chlorpyrifos at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), especially after a ban on household uses in 2000. Federal funding enabled more noncorporate and place-based scientific investigations of this pesticide’s harms, including child-cohort epidemiology of populations impacted through environmental injustices. This article argues, first, that their findings challenged the thin knowledge base, mostly from corporate-sponsored toxicology, that originally justified chlorpyrifos’s continued use. Second, for decades, outside a court-induced interval in 2015–2016, EPA’s risk assessments favored “de-placed” toxicological modes and standards of knowledge—forged in the controlled environment of experimental laboratories—while marginalizing science gathered from the actual places and people EPA is supposed to protect. Third, agency officials stuck with a quantifiable, laboratory- and modeling-centered calculus for assessing health risks in part because a united front of corporate and corporate-consultant scientists harped on the uncertainties of newer findings. The article concludes that the agency needs to rethink its risk assessment practices and dependence, as well as more effectively account for financial conflicts of interest in evaluations of policy-relevant science. ( Am J Public Health. 2025;115(7):1074–1084. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308073 )

Agency (philosophy) · Biology · Chlorpyrifos · Computer security · Environmental health · Organophosphate · Pesticide · Risk assessment · Computer Science · Environmental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology · Medicine · Pesticide and Herbicide Environmental Studies · Pesticide Exposure and Toxicity

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