WASHINGTON (CN) - The Environmental Protection Agency will not allow the insecticide methamidophos to be used on cucumbers, eggplants and melons, because no entity has registered that it still wants to use the agent on those crops.
The EPA's rules will allow the insecticide to be used on cabbage and broccoli, however, because Bayer CropScience and the Canadian Horticultural Council requested this to allow imports of these commodities from Canada.
Commonly used in Asia on rice fields, the insecticide is a neurotoxin which, in large enough doses, irreversibly inactivates acetylcholinesterase, which is essential to nerve function in insects, humans, and many other animals.
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