1.1 	A resolution
1.2 	memorializing the United States Environmental Protection Agency to reinstate plans 
1.3 	to revoke all food tolerances and cancel all registrations of chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxic 
1.4 	pesticide.
1.5 	WHEREAS, chlorpyrifos is a crystalline organophosphate insecticide that was introduced 
1.6 	in 1965 and is known by many trade names; and
1.7 	WHEREAS, in agriculture, it is one of the most widely used organophosphate insecticides 
1.8 	in the United States, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); and
1.9 	WHEREAS, chlorpyrifos is one of the top eight agricultural pesticides used in Minnesota, 
1.10 	with 679,000 pounds of chlorpyrifos sold in the state in 2013; and
1.11 	WHEREAS, chlorpyrifos exposure has been linked to adverse effects on neurodevelopment, 
1.12 	reduced birth size, and endocrine disruption; and
1.13 	WHEREAS, infants and children, especially in agricultural areas and farmworker families, 
1.14 	are most vulnerable to the effects of chlorpyrifos exposure; and
1.15 	WHEREAS, prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos is associated with increased rates of autism 
1.16 	spectrum disorders, ADHD, lowered IQ scores, and impaired working memory; and
1.17 	WHEREAS, in 2012, the Minnesota commissioner of agriculture designated chlorpyrifos as 
1.18 	a pesticide of concern for surface water because of an increase in detection frequency and 
1.19 	concentration level measured in 2010 and 2011; and
1.20 	WHEREAS, off-site drift of chlorpyrifos has been documented in Minnesota; and
1.21 	WHEREAS, residential use of chlorpyrifos was prohibited in 2001 because of its 
1.22 	neurodevelopmental impacts on children; and
1.23 	WHEREAS, EPA scientists have made an unbroken series of findings that chlorpyrifos harms 
1.24 	children's brains at lower exposures than those used by the EPA in its previous risk assessments 
2.1 	and regulatory decisions, and that people would be harmed from virtually every use and every way 
2.2 	that people are exposed to the pesticide, with children, and particularly children one and two years 
2.3 	of age, most at risk; and
2.4 	WHEREAS, on October 30, 2015, the EPA proposed a ban on the insecticide based on the 
2.5 	findings of its own scientific reviews; and
2.6 	WHEREAS, the EPA has not published any information contradicting its finding that 
2.7 	chlorpyrifos is unsafe, nor does the EPA address how it can legally maintain chlorpyrifos tolerances 
2.8 	in the face of its findings that chlorpyrifos exposures are unsafe; NOW, THEREFORE,
2.9 	BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it urges the 
2.10 	Environmental Protection Agency to act on its findings that chlorpyrifos exposures are unsafe and 
2.11 	to establish short-term deadlines for the next steps in the revocation and cancellation processes for 
2.12 	chlorpyrifos.
2.13 	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is directed 
2.14 	to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the Environmental Protection Agency, the 
2.15 	President of the United States, the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the 
2.16 	Speaker and the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the chair and ranking minority 
2.17 	member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, the chair and ranking 
2.18 	minority member of the House Committee on Agriculture, the chair and ranking minority member 
2.19 	of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, the chair and ranking minority member 
2.20 	of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in 
2.21 	Congress.