Chlorpyrifos fact check

I was going through my file of screen clips that I take of articles I feel are important but I haven't had (or taken) the time to fact check.  I ran across this post.  It's really scary, IF its true. So, I decided to do some fact-checking. 

My findings are that the claim is basically absolutely true!  Scary!   The EPA had been forced by the courts to make a final decision on Chlorpyrifos before Trump took office. It decided to ban the chemical. Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate. Tabun and Sarin gases are two of the world's most notorious military nerve gases and both are organophosphates.

Yes, Scott Pruitt – known for being anti-EPA and then made the EPA director by Trump - reversed the EPA decision to ban the chemical. It was banned in Europe in 2008 Singapore in 2009, and South Africa in 2010.

 The CEO of Dow Chemical, Andrew Liveris, was appointed by Trump to a White House manufacturing working group, and his company did donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. Liveris also was scrutinized over reports that he met with Pruitt prior to his announcement reversing the ban. I can't find this either denied or confirmed.  The info is out there but I decided that I had learned what I needed.  But, yes, the fact is that this 180 degree change came at a point in time just after the Dow CEO had gained access to the President and after Dow Chemical donated $1 million.

The only things which isn't 100% accurate is the claim that it was a Nazi nerve drug, but even here it isn't far off. A German researcher, named Gerhard Schrader, discovered that organophosphates interact with cholinesterase, which is an enzyme that aids in the production of an important neurotransmitter. Schrader was trying to develop an insecticide but he found that it was exceptionally toxic and he even ended up hospitalized due to contact. That was 1930. So, whereas Chlorpyrifos wasn't developed as a nerve gas by the Nazis for the military, organophosphate compounds known as Tabun and Sarin grew out of Schrader's research and did become a military weapon.

This does confirm the complaint against the Trump Administration, and it definitely makes one wonder about the EPA under Pruitt's leadership. No one, and I mean NO one, argues that organophosphates are not extremely and dangerously toxic, yet our government is allowing it to be sprayed on your fruits and vegetables.  How comfortable is that?

The EPA now says that the previous EPA science was flawed. Are they allowed to say “science”?  The Trump EPA says that Chlorpyrifos is safe as mixed by Dow. Of course, that doesn’t instill much confidence since it is the same Trump EPA that says exposure to radiation equal to 5,000 chest x-rays is safe. 

Think about this when you bite into that apple.