Lynn R. Goldman, the Michael and Lori Milken Dean of the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH), recently participated in a telebriefing about proposed federal legislation on use of pesticides.
The briefing, held on Aug. 4 by U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representative Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), introduced pesticide reform legislation to prevent the use of toxic pesticides that harm children, farmworkers and consumers in the United States. The Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act of 2020 (PACTPA) represents the first comprehensive update since 1996 to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which is the law that governs pesticide use.
Dean Goldman discussed the environmental and public health impact of this legislation. Approved pesticides that contain harmful ingredients often remain for sale for decades, even when scientific evidence shows a pesticide causes harm to public health or the environment. The proposed legislation would institute reforms to update protections and close dangerous loopholes that prevent adequate pesticide review. The legislation would also ban some of the most damaging pesticides to human health, including Organophosphates, which have been linked to neurodevelopmental damage in children. Goldman said research increasingly showed that the pesticides, once thought to be safe, likely caused developmental problems and birth defects.
Dean Goldman is considered an expert on environmental regulation. Her broad and deep public policy experience includes serving from 1993 to 1998 as the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).