The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has given the Environmental Protection Agency 90 days to decide whether to allow the use of chlorpyrifos.

A California Senate bill calling for a complete ban on the broad-spectrum pesticide chlorpyrifos passed the Health committee yesterday by a vote of 5-1, with three members abstaining, and will now be heard in the committee for Environmental Quality.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has given the Environmental Protection Agency 60 days to revoke all food tolerances and cancel all registrations for the widely used insecticide chlorpyrifos.

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation should list chlorpyrifos as a toxic air contaminant, a state scientific panel has recommended following review of a comprehensive risk assessment of the widely used insecticide.

The Senate has unanimously passed a bill to reauthorize the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act, which allows the Environmental Protection Agency to charge fees for pesticide registration that fund about one-third of the operations of the Office of Pesticide Programs.