The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule Monday to ban the use of the pesticide carbofuran on food crops because it poses an unacceptable health risk, especially to children.

The insecticide, sold under the brand name Furadan, has been under EPA review for years. Its granular form was banned in the mid-1990s because it was blamed for killing millions of migratory birds. The agency began its effort to remove the pesticide from the market in 2006.

Furadan's manufacturer, FMC Corp. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has fought the federal action. In March, the company voluntarily scaled back its uses, in hopes of heading off broader restrictions.

FMC Corp. officials could not be reached immediately for comment. The company said on its Web site that Furadan "remains a useful product, vital to the sustainability of agriculture " and that its proper use "does not create a risk to human health, wildlife or the environment."

The EPA said it was revoking all allowable tolerance levels for carbofuran on food crops, including those imported, and in the coming months will move to ban the chemical's use altogether, including on nonfood crops, because of risks to farm workers and to the environment.

Even though the manufacturer said it would cut back its U.S. use of carbofuran to a smaller number of crops, the EPA said the chemical still poses "an unacceptable dietary risk, especially to children, from consuming a combination of food and water with carbofuran residues."

The ban goes into effect at the end of the year.

In a fact sheet, EPA says carbofuran "can overstimulate the nervous system, causing nausea, dizziness, confusion and, at very high exposures, respiratory paralysis and death."

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