Don’t use lanternfly as an excuse

Maryland failed to ban a harmful pesticide in this year’s General Assembly session because of fears pushed by the golf course, agriculture and chemical lobbyists (“Fears of lanternfly invasion cause Maryland lawmakers to abandon pesticide ban,” March 15). Sadly, these powerful industries won out against overwhelming evidence showing that chlorpyrifos harms children.

In 2015, after nearly 20 years of study, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists recommended chlorpyrifos be banned for all uses due to its confirmed links of prenatal exposures with impaired cognition, autism, ADHD, developmental delays, memory deficits and other serious neurodevelopmental issues. However, one of the EPA’s first decisions under the Trump administration was to reverse this recommendation.

Golf course and agriculture representatives say they want to keep chlorpyrifos as an option “in their toolbox.” But entomologists say plenty of far safer pesticide alternatives exist, and even golf course and agriculture literature recommend alternatives.

Any notion that we need this nerve agent pesticide to fight invasive species and bluegrass weevils is a ruse at best and a frightening idea at worst. There is simply no justification for this dangerous pesticide to be used in Maryland or elsewhere.