Frequently Asked Questions about the Current Status of Chlorpyrifos and Anticipated Path Forward

EPA’s 2021 rule revoking chlorpyrifos tolerances was challenged by a chlorpyrifos registrant and several grower groups in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. On Nov. 2, 2023, the Eighth Circuit issued a decision vacating EPA’s 2021 final rule and remanding the matter to EPA for further proceedings. The Eighth Circuit’s mandate issued on Dec. 28, 2023, reinstating all chlorpyrifos tolerances. On Feb. 5, 2024, EPA issued a notice in the Federal Register as a technical correction to the Code of Federal Regulations to reflect the Eighth Circuit’s reinstatement of chlorpyrifos tolerances: Chlorpyrifos; Reinstatement of Tolerances.

The Eighth Circuit’s decision stated that the Agency had identified 11 crops for retention in the 2020 Proposed Interim Registration Review Decision (PID) for chlorpyrifos. Since 2022, chlorpyrifos registrants requested voluntary cancellation of food/feed uses except for the 11 crops and submitted amended labels reflecting these cancellations. On Sept. 30, 2024, EPA approved amended labels reflecting these cancellations and the geographic restrictions on use and application limitations identified in the 2020 PID and 2020 Drinking Water Assessment.    

EPA issued a proposed rule to revoke all tolerances for chlorpyrifos, except for the tolerances necessary to cover use of chlorpyrifos on the 11 food and feed crops. These 11 food uses are alfalfa, apple, asparagus, cherry (tart), citrus, cotton, peach, soybean, strawberry, sugar beets, and wheat (spring and winter) and are limited to specific states that were assessed in the 2020 PID. 

The registration review process for chlorpyrifos is ongoing. EPA plans to issue an amended PID for chlorpyrifos for public comment in 2026 followed by an Interim Decision (ID). EPA will continue to keep the public updated as it evaluates and takes any actions related to chlorpyrifos pesticide use. 

1. Can chlorpyrifos be used in the 2025 growing season?
2. What does the reinstatement of chlorpyrifos tolerances mean for cancelled products?
3. What are the 11 uses from the 2020 Chlorpyrifos Proposed Interim Decision for which EPA will retain tolerances?
4. What other restrictions are expected for these 11 uses?
5. What products have been cancelled or amended and may not be used on food crops?
6. Which products may be use on food and when?
7. When did EPA approve amended labels deleting all food uses except for the 11?
8. What are the next steps in registration review for chlorpyrifos?
9. Has a decision been made regarding the 10X FQPA Safety Factor?
10. What uses are considered to be food uses?
11. What uses are considered to be non-food uses?
12. When did EPA implement the NMFS Biological Opinion and what are the next steps for ESA?

1. Can chlorpyrifos be used in the 2025 growing season?

For the most recent labels please refer to: Pesticide Product and Label System | US EPA. It should be noted that several states have prohibited or placed additional restrictions on the use of chlorpyrifos, including California, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, New York and Oregon. Users should check with their state if there is a question about chlorpyrifos use.

2. What does the reinstatement of chlorpyrifos tolerances mean for cancelled products?

Final cancellation orders, including terms for existing stocks of products subject to those cancellation orders and related return programs for chlorpyrifos products, remain in place, unless and until amended by EPA. Registrants that are interested in making their cancelled uses or registrations available for use again will have to submit registration applications through EPA’s Registration Division.

3. What are the 11 uses from the 2020 Chlorpyrifos Proposed Interim Decision for which EPA proposed to retain tolerances?

The 11 uses are: alfalfa, apple, asparagus, cherry (tart), citrus, cotton, peach, soybean, strawberry, sugar beet, wheat (spring and winter).

4. What other restrictions are expected for these 11 uses?

The 2020 PID and the updated drinking water assessment assessed risk from the 11 uses assuming certain geographic, application rate, and maximum number of applications per year restrictions. For each of the 11 permitted use sites, use is restricted to the subset of states as identified in the table below.

Please review the 2024 amended labels for the most recent updates. For the most recent labels please refer to: Pesticide Product and Label System | US EPA.

It should be noted that several states have prohibited or placed additional restrictions on use of chlorpyrifos, including California, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, New York and Oregon. Users should check with their state if there is a question about chlorpyrifos use. EPA may propose additional mitigation measures in the future as chlorpyrifos is currently undergoing registration review.

5. What products have been cancelled or amended and may not be used on food crops?

Several registered chlorpyrifos products have been cancelled or amended to terminate food uses.

Products that have been amended and may not be used on food crops are:

Products that have been cancelled and may not be used are:

6. Which products may be used on food and when?

The following products were required, by June 30, 2025, to have updated labeling that limited food uses to only those crops that are consistent with questions 3 and 4 above. Use under previously approved labeling is no longer permitted. The following products may be used on specific food uses in accordance with the updated labeling only:

7. When did EPA approve amended labels deleting all food uses except for the 11?

EPA worked with registrants who submitted their amended labels and approved and stamped the labels by the end of September 2024.

8. What are the next steps in registration review for chlorpyrifos?

9. Has a decision been made regarding the 10X FQPA Safety Factor?

In the chlorpyrifos PID issued in December 2020, EPA retained the FQPA 10X safety factor in its HHRA in order “to take into account potential pre- and post-natal toxicity and completeness of the data with respect to exposure and toxicity to infants and children.” FFDCA § 408(b)(2)(C). There has not been a change to the 10X FQPA safety factor for chlorpyrifos at this time. Any changes to the FQPA safety factor would be discussed in the upcoming updated HHRA.

10. What uses were considered to be food uses prior to the cancellation of all food uses except for the 11?

Chlorpyrifos food uses included:

• Terrestrial Food Crops and Greenhouse Food Crops including: Alfalfa, apple, asparagus, banana, bean (snap, lima), beet (sugar, table, including crops grown for seed), blueberry, brassica (cole) leafy vegetables (bok choy, broccoli rabe, broccoli, Brussels sprout, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, collard, kale, kohlrabi), caneberry, cherimoya, cherry (sour, sweet), citrus (lemon, orange, grapefruit and citrus, other), citrus orchard floor, corn (field, sweet, including crops grown for seed), cotton, cranberry, cucumber, date, feijoa, fig, grape, kiwifruit, leek, legume vegetables, mint, nectarine, onion (dry bulb), pea, peach, peanut, pear, pepper, plum, prune, pumpkin, radish (including crops grown for seed), rutabaga, sapote, seed and pod vegetables, sorghum (grain, milo), soybean, strawberry, sugarcane, sunflower, sweet potato, tree nuts (almond, filbert, pecan, walnut, other), turnip, wheat, and seed treatment.
• Food handling establishments, including food processing and food manufacturing establishments.
• Commercial Livestock Uses: Poultry houses, turkey barns, swine barns, dairy barns/areas, hog barns, cattle ear tags (as labeled prior to January 10, 2024, label amendments), empty chicken houses, calf hutches, calving pens, milking parlors, and milk rooms.

11. What uses are considered to be non-food uses?

• Ornamentals: Commercial production only (flowers, shrubs, evergreens, vines, shade, and flowering trees in nurseries or greenhouses only); Christmas trees; forest tree nurseries; commercial sod farms.
• Applications of chlorpyrifos to or around fruit and nut trees (almonds, citrus, filbert, apple, cherry, nectarine, peach, pear, plum, prune) are considered a non-food use provided applications are made to non-bearing trees (i.e., trees without fruit present at the time of application and that will not bear fruit within one year).
• Crops grown for seed (including grass): Food, feed, and non-food crops grown for seed are considered to be non-food/non-feed uses when covered by the following label restrictions:
  • There are extensive restrictions on the label for the pesticide used for treating the seed, including that the seed harvested from the crop bears labels with a prohibition against human consumption or use as an animal feed.
  • In addition, the label for the seed treatment pesticide states that "no portion of this seed crop may be used or distributed for food or feed for 1 year (365 days) after the last application of this product;" this includes all portions of the crop (e.g., forage, hay, meal, roots) and extends to grazing of animals in the fields.
• Forest trees: Plantations, forest seed orchards, felled trees, cut stumps.
• Tobacco.
• Commercial indoor non-residential: Warehouses, ship holds, railroad boxcars, industrial plants, or containerized baits.
• Commercial Livestock Uses: Cattle ear tags on beef and non-lactating dairy cattle, and on cattle in mating and cow-calf operations as long as the animals are not offered for slaughter within one (1) year of tag removal. 
• Outdoor residential public health uses: fire ant mound (individual), mosquito control.
• Outdoor non-residential: Golf courses, road medians, industrial plants, fence posts, utility poles, railroad ties, landscape timbers, logs, poles, and posts.
• Indoor residential: Ant and roach bait (containerized).
• Commercial outdoor: Underground utility cables and conduits; turf and ornamentals in road medians and industrial plant sites; interior treatment of warehouses, railroad boxcars, industrial plants, and manufacturing plants.
• Turf: Golf course turf, turf in road medians, and turf in industrial plant sites.
• Public health: USDA quarantine (i.e., soil treatment of containerized plants) in nurseries and greenhouses; fire ant mounds (individual mounds), and mosquito control.

12. When did EPA implement the NMFS Biological Opinion and what are the next steps for ESA?

On Jan. 18, 2017, as part of the registration review process and to meet its obligation under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), EPA issued nationwide biological evaluations (BEs) for the organophosphate insecticides chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion to assess risks to threatened and endangered (listed) species from registered uses of these organophosphate pesticides. EPA also initiated formal consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and reinitiated formal consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (together, “the Services”) based on the BE conclusions that these pesticides may affect certain listed species and/or their designated critical habitats. 

On March 2, 2022, EPA posted the NMFS draft biological opinion (BiOp) for chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion for public comment. Public comments on NMFS draft revised BiOp were accepted for 60 days in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2002-0172 at www.regulations.gov. On June 30, 2022, NMFS released its nationwide final BiOp for chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion. EPA implemented the BiOp for chlorpyrifos for the non-food-use pesticide products on March 29, 2024, with Bulletins and updated labels for these products. As of Sept. 30, 2024, EPA implemented the final BiOp for chlorpyrifos for the food-use pesticide products, with Bulletins and updated labels for these products.

EPA remains in consultation with the FWS towards their anticipated September 2028 BiOp.