Pesticides Ban: EU proposes pesticide ban, but key documents still secret - by STAFFAN DAHLLÖF

Time is running out for chlorpyrifos, the pesticide designed to kill insects, and a cause of brain damage to human fetuses and newly-born children.

The EU Commission and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have both publicly stated the present approval should not be renewed.

Yet a final decision scheduled for December cannot be taken for granted.

In August EFSA experts declared that no detectable residues of chlorpyrifos in food can be accepted.

Sometime in September the commission informed EU member states it will propose a total ban on chlorpyrifos and related substance chlorpyrifos-methyl at the end of the year.

Read more: EU proposes pesticide ban, but key documents still secret

USA: Trump directs EPA to begin dismantling clean water rule

 President Trump stepped up his attack on federal environmental protections Tuesday, issuing an order directing his administration to begin the long process of rolling back sweeping clean water rules that were enacted by his predecessor.

The order directing the Environmental Protection Agency to set about dismantling the Waters of the United States rule takes aim at one of President Obama’s signature environmental legacies, a far-reaching anti-pollution effort that expanded the authority of regulators over the nation’s waterways.

The contentious rule had been fought for years by farmers, ranchers, real estate developers and others, who complained it invited heavy-handed bureaucrats to burden their businesses with onerous restrictions and fines for minor violations.

Obama’s EPA argued that such claims were exaggerated and misrepresented the realities of the enforcement process of a rule that promised to create substantially cleaner waterways, and with them healthier habitats for threatened species of wildlife.

The directive to undo the clean water initiative is expected to be closely followed by another aimed at unraveling the Obama administration’s ambitious plan to fight climate change by curbing power plant emissions.

“It is such a horrible, horrible rule,” Trump said as he signed the directive Tuesday aimed at the water rules. “It has such a nice name, but everything about it is bad.” He declared the rule, championed by environmental groups to give the EPA broad authority over nearly two-thirds of the waterways in the nation, “one of the worst examples of federal regulation” and “a massive power grab.”

Read more:Trump directs EPA to begin dismantling clean water rule