End Planet-Warming Pesticide Use, California Air Regulator Urged

California’s top air regulator was urged to phase out an insecticide for its potent greenhouse gas warming effects and harms to human health in a legal petition filed Thursday by environmental groups.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Californians for Pesticide Reform want the California Air Resources Board to start rulemaking on sulfuryl fluoride, a neurotoxin, to phase out its use. The pesticide is used to kill a wide range of pests, including bed bugs, termites, rats, and mice.

“Dangerous fumigants like sulfuryl fluoride pose a grave threat to public health and global warming and we need state air resource ...