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Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, July 2, 2025) An article in The New Lede, entitled Seeking answers to a cancer crisis in Iowa, researchers question if agriculture is to blame, documents case studies of cancer diagnoses linked to chemical-intensive agriculture. Current national cancer rates, according to the American Cancer Society, show that two million new cancer cases are projected to occur during 2025 in the U.S. Additional research predicts 618,120 cancer deaths this year as well, highlighting a crisis of great concern. A wide body of science links increased cancer risks with exposure to agricultural chemicals, including petrochemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Previous coverage from Beyond Pesticides showcases the disproportionate health risks to farmworkers and their families, as well as those living near agricultural fields, associated with exposure to harmful toxicants. Recent research ties pesticide use to cancer diagnoses among farmer populations through a literature review of clinical trials, as well as epidemiologic, case-control, and experimental studies, from not only the U.S. but Brazil, India, France, Egypt, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico, Italy, and Spain. (See Daily News here.) Additional risks for children, as reported in a study in GeoHealth, are noted in Nebraska as exposure to agricultural mixtures show statistically significant positive associations with […]
Posted in Agriculture, Cancer, Children, Farmworkers, Glyphosate, Iowa, Leukemia, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, PFAS | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 24th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, June 24, 2025) As changes in the executive branch of the federal government upend expectations among environmental stakeholders, the regulation of food safety in the United States is being revealed as a rickety structure built over a century with unpredictable and sometimes contradictory additions, extensions, remodels, and tear-downs. In the short term, clarity is unavailable, but there have been calls for revision and strengthening of regulatory processesârequiring lawmaker and regulator willingness to incorporate the vast body of evidence that pesticides do far more harm than good, and that organic regenerative agriculture is the surest path to human and ecological health. News reports out of Costa Rica in May brought public attention to drafted legislation to ban pesticides in the country that the World Health Organization (WHO) has defined as âextremely or highly hazardous, or those with evidence of causing cancer, genetic mutations, or affecting reproduction, according to the Globally Harmonized System (GHS).â The headline sparked a relook in this Daily News at the current and historical failure of U.S. policy, which allows cancer-causing pesticides in food production and land management, despite the booming success of a cost-effective and productive, certified organic sector for which petrochemical pesticides are not […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), Breast Cancer, Cancer, Endocrine Disruption, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Immunotoxicity, multi-generational effects, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Pesticide Mixtures, Pesticide Regulation, synergistic effects, Uncategorized, World Health Organization | No Comments »
Monday, June 23rd, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, June 23, 2025) At the close of National Pollinator week, Beyond Pesticides says in an action that all speciesâand their ecosystemâare threatened by the failure of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to perform its statutory duties under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Under FIFRA, EPA is required to register pesticides only when they pose no âunreasonable risk to man [sic] or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits.â Under ESA, EPA must, like all federal agencies, âseek to conserve endangered species and threatened species and shall utilize their authorities in furtherance of the purposesâ of the ESAâwhich are âto provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved, to provide a program for the conservation of such endangered species and threatened species, and to take such steps as may be appropriate to achieve the purposes of the treaties and conventionsâ through which âthe United States has pledged itself as a sovereign state in the international community to conserve to the extent practicable the various species of fish or wildlife and plants facing extinction.â In this context, Beyond Pesticides […]
Posted in Alternatives/Organics, Biodiversity, Birds, Children, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Pesticide Regulation, Pollinators, Take Action, Uncategorized, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 10th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, June 10, 2025) An industry-led campaign to quash lawsuits against chemical manufacturers because of their âfailure to warnâ about the hazards of their pesticide products has failed to move forward in nine state legislatures with significant GOP majorities (Iowa,âŻMissouri,âŻIdaho,âŻFlorida,âŻTennessee, Mississippi,âŻWyoming,âŻMontana, andâŻOklahoma). As the Making America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission released its first report to assess the root causes of childhood diseases and adverse health conditions, there continues to be an ongoing fight among forces within the Trump Administration on whether pesticides should even be mentioned. (See here for The New York Times coverage.) As federal funding cuts make their way through the Budget Reconciliation process, communities around the country are calling on their elected officials to protect their right to sue pesticide manufacturers with failure-to-warn claims; in an era of deregulation and ongoing failure of our regulatory agencies to assess potential associated harms, advocates demand the preservation of this legal right. Status Report on State-Level Legislation The only state that has active legislation, as of todayâs writing, is North Carolina. The failure-to-warn language was inserted into the annual state Farm Bill package (SB 639) in Section 19, leading to public outcry in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on […]
Posted in Bayer, Corporations, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Failure to Warn, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Label Claims, Litigation, Mississippi, Missouri, Monsanto, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Preemption, Tennessee, Uncategorized, Wyoming | No Comments »
Monday, June 2nd, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, June 2, 2025) One focus of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission report* is children’s exposure to environmental chemicals and its link to health risks, particularly cumulative risk and chronic disease. With the evidence showing that the current approach to regulating pesticides and other chemicals fails to protect children’s health, it remains to be seen whether next steps will seek an overhaul and reorientation on the United States’ current reliance in chemical-intensive agriculture on hazardous pesticides that have been proven unnecessary by productive and profitable organic food production and land management systems, according to advocates. Beyond Pesticides and advocates are calling on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to promote organic practices and protect children’s health from pesticides through the setting of pesticide tolerances on food, or allowable levels of pesticide residuesâtaking back an authority given to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under a memorandum of understanding. The Food and Drug Administration, under HHS, is authorized to set tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), and EPA is authorized to register pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The predictable response from […]
Posted in Children, Department of Health and Human Services, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Pesticide Regulation, Pesticide Residues, Take Action, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, May 5th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, May 5, 2025) With North Dakota on April 24 being the first state to enact chemical industry legislation that blocks poisoning victims from suing manufacturers for their failure to warn about their products’ hazards, a national fight over accountability and compensation has escalated. Legislation to quash lawsuits against chemical manufacturers because of their âfailure to warnâ about the hazards of their pesticide products is being pushed through state legislatures. Failure-to-warn claims serve as the basis for the overwhelming majority of pesticide injury litigation of the past decade, according to legal professionals, including Brigit Rollins, JD, staff attorney at theâŻNational Agriculture Law Center. The litigation is also an important check on the chemical industry in a national climate of deregulation and the Trump Administration’s dismantling of environmental and public health programs. “Failure-to-warn” is a legal argument grounded in the common law of state court systems across the nation. âAlmost every pesticide injury lawsuit filed in the past ten years has included a claim that the pesticide manufacturer failed to warn the plaintiff of the health risks associated with using their product and that such failure caused the plaintiff’s injury,â says Ms. Rollins. [See below for action steps advocated by Beyond Pesticides and local […]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, April 4th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, April 4, 2025) In March, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced the launch of SprayDays California, âa first-of-its-kind statewide system designed to provide transparent, accessible and timely notifications and information about the use of specific pesticides[,]â according to the agencyâs press release. The state says that notification will occur in âadvance of the scheduled use of California restricted material pesticides in production agriculture.â Growing out of the passage of AB 617 Community Emissions Reduction Act in California, passed in 2017, farmworker safety advocates have long been urging an implementation strategy that provides notification of pesticide spraying. In late 2017, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) began implementation of AB 617, a bill enacted with the stated intent of addressing the air quality crisis in many communities of predominantly people of color who are disproportionately harmed by toxic chemicals. While the overall goal of the law is to reduce air pollution in these communities, farmworker advocates have sought to operationalize a pesticide spraying notification system to warn communities when nearby spraying is scheduled to take place. The idea behind notification programs and transparency in government is that it enables those potentially exposed to take precautionary measures to […]
Posted in California, Environmental Justice, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Farmworkers, Pesticide Drift, Pesticide Regulation, State/Local, Telone, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 1st, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, April 1, 2025) With the second largest award of nearly $2.1 billion (see reporting on largest), a jury in Georgia state court on March 21 found the pesticide manufacturer Bayer/Monsanto guilty of causing a manâs non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after use of the companyâs glyphosate-based weedkiller RoundupTM product. The juryâs award includes $65 million in compensatory and $2 billion in punitive damages, as reported by the Associated Press and Courtroom View Network. This verdict in Barnes v. Monsanto (2025) comes amid a concerted effort by Bayer and other chemical and agribusiness groups to take away the main legal argument, âfailure-to-warn,â for the type of litigation that pesticide exposure victims have commonly used to hold companies accountable. This is happening as Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia considers signing into state law a pesticide immunity bill that will prevent future litigation like this in the state. In a deregulatory environment, the courts and state governments are viewed as critical backstops, given the dismantling of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyâs (EPA) regulatory apparatus and extremely limited Congressional oversight. History of Litigation Bayer has lost almost all of the cases filed against it for compensation and punitive damages associated with the plaintiffsâ charge that […]
Posted in Bayer, Failure to Warn, Georgia, Glyphosate, Litigation, Monsanto, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Preemption, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 26th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, March 26, 2025) State legislation to quash lawsuits against chemical manufacturers because of their âfailure to warnâ about the hazards of their pesticide products is moving forward in seven state legislatures (Iowa, Missouri, Idaho, Florida, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Oklahoma) across the United States. After three bills failed to pass (Mississippi, Wyoming, and Montana) and one bill is awaiting signature into law by the Governorâs Office (Georgia), Beyond Pesticides, working with a broad coalition, is pushing back. (See Beyond Pesticidesâ Failure to Warn resource hub, background materials, and opportunities for action.) If adopted, the âimmunity from litigationâ legislation would set a dangerous precedent for state common law claims against any manufacturers of products with toxic ingredients. Currently, pesticide labels under federal and state law generally do not warn of potential chronic effects, such as cancer, reproductive effects, infertility, birth defects, Alzheimerâs and Parkinsonâs disease, diabetes, cardiovascular damage, and more (see Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database), but warn of acute effects, such as rashes, headaches, stinging eyes, and more. After years of large jury awards, preemptive settlements, and lost appeals in cases involving exposure to the weedkiller glyphosate, Bayer/Monsanto is trying to stop the companyâs financial hemorrhaging with a state-by-state strategy […]
Posted in BASF, Bayer, Corporations, Corteva, Failure to Warn, Monsanto, Preemption, Syngenta, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, March 10th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, March 10, 2025) Following International Womenâs Day, celebrated on March 8, 2025, the poignant findings on women, gender, and hazardous substances in a United Nations report raise critical issues of concern and cause for urgent action to phase out petrochemicals. The Report of the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes, by Marcos Orellana, was delivered to the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in July 2024. Excerpts from the report follow: âWomen make up roughly 60 to 70 per cent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries where pesticides and pesticide handling are especially poorly regulated. In Zambia, for example, two thirds of the labour force is engaged in agriculture, and 78 per cent are women farmers and peasants. Women there play a significant role in pesticide application, often without any or adequate personal protective equipment, especially during activities such as weeding, harvesting, and washing pesticide-laden clothes.â âIn higher-income countries, women who do agricultural work are often poor and/or migrants; pesticides are one of many dimensions of marginalization and damage to their well-being. The European agriculture sector uses many seasonal and […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Breast Cancer, Cancer, Endocrine Disruption, Environmental Justice, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Farmworkers, Take Action, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, February 24th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, February 24, 2025) The sweeping firing of federal workers, including an estimated 200,000 probationary employees (under one to two years of employment), will have a broad impact on programs to protect health and safety as well as the environment, leaving a critical need for local and state government to fill some of the gaps in critical programs, where possible. A headline in Science magazine warns, âMass firings decimate U.S. science agencies,â and the dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University told Oregon Public Broadcasting, âWeâve lost half of our teams, and all of these up-and-coming young scientists. . .so itâs like weâve lost the next generation of scientists in agriculture and natural resources.â The same applies to important positions across the federal government, affecting every aspect of work necessary to protect public health and biodiversity and address the climate crisis. In response to President Trumpâs executive orders and actions, there has been, as The New York Times reports, ânew lawsuits and fresh rulings emerging day and night,â raising what experts fear may become a constitutional crisis. With the upheaval in the federal government, attention turns to the importance of state and local policies and […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Take Action, Uncategorized, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) | No Comments »
Monday, February 10th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, February 10, 2025) With the shutting down of key federal government programs, Beyond Pesticides is urging the public to speak out, especially on issues that preserve state and local authority to protect public health and safety in the absence of adequate federal standards. In this context, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering a petition with a proposed policy that would, if adopted, prohibit states from issuing warnings of pesticide hazards, like cancer, on product labels. EPA is taking public comment through February 20, 2025, on the petition, filed by the Republican attorneys general (AGs) of 11* states.  The petition asks EPA to prohibit âany state labeling requirements inconsistent with EPA findings and conclusions from its human health risk assessment on human health effects, such as a pesticide’s likelihood to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm.â [*The 11 states filing the petition include: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, and South Dakota.] According to Beyond Pesticides: âThe only conclusion that can be derived from this petition is that the AGs do not care if the people, including farmers, of their states are harmed by pesticides, and they should not be able […]
Posted in and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), California, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Failure to Warn, Pesticide Regulation, Preemption, Take Action, U.S. Supreme Court, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 6th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, February 6, 2025) Months after publishing a June 2024 study regarding concentrations of pesticides discovered in legal (and illegal) cannabis products in California, the Los Angeles Times has released a follow-up exposĂŠ highlighting extensive pesticide contamination, including from âhiddenâ pesticides that regulators have not monitored. The authors conclude that in Californiaâs legal weed market, over half of available smoking products are found to contain hidden chemicalsâtoxic pesticides present in products but not regulated or monitored by state authorities. Since 2015, Beyond Pesticides has laid out health, safety, and environmental concerns related to the contamination of cannabis by pesticides (and fertilizers) alongside an imperative need to mandate an organic systems approach to cannabis production. Yet ten years later, it appears nationally that California state regulators are alone in moving forward in 2021 with state organic cannabis certification. There are other marketplace-based cannabis certification labels that require comparable organic certification practices (see Beyond Pesticides reporting here and here). For more information, please see past Pesticides and You reporting here and here. The Los Angeles Times analyzed the results from state licensed laboratory testing of more than 370 legal cannabis products, representing 86 brands. In addition to the 66 chemicals required […]
Posted in Acephate, Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), Bifenthrin, California, Cannabis, chlorfenapyr, contamination, Fungicides, Integrated and Organic Pest Management, National Organic Standards Board/National Organic Program, organophosphate, Pesticide Regulation, pymetrozine, trifloxystrobin, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 5th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, February 5, 2025) A study in PLOS One finds acute and chronic impacts of nontarget toxicity on the American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus, with neonicotinoid insecticide exposure. In assessing environmentally relevant concentrations of the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid with N. americanus, the researchers note both mortality and behavioral effects that leave the species at high risk of predation. These effects mean the American burying beetle âmay be at greater risk to insecticide exposure than previously thought and vulnerable to episodic, low-dose neonicotinoid exposure,â the authors say. This data sheds important light on a species that has been listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as threatened. Burying beetles provide important ecosystem services within the environment such as âburying carrion, increasing available nutrients in soil, and expediting carrion decomposition, while acting as a food source for secondary consumers,â the researchers state. (See more on ecosystem services and beneficial insects here, here, and here.) The N. americanus species are habitat generalists and can be found in grasslands, wet meadows, and forested areas that neighbor agricultural lands and introduce the beetles to pesticide drift and soil residues. While acute and chronic effects vary in duration and severity, pesticide exposure resulting […]
Posted in behavioral and cognitive effects, Beneficials, Death, Ecosystem Services, Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Imidacloprid, Pesticide Drift, Pesticide Residues, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 28th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, January 28, 2025) Beyond Pesticides is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to move more cautiously in  its proposal for âstreamlined . . . registration review decisions for several biopesticides,â subject to a public comment period through February 10, 2025. The organization is raising EPA review process concerns. The organization states: âAlthough the biopesticides listed in EPA’s proposal for streamlining the registration review process for âlow risk biopesticidesâ can be considered relatively low risk compared to conventional pesticides, the precedent for relying on the original or previous registration data and review is troublesome. EPA’s rationale for registration reviewâthat âscience is constantly evolving, and new scientific information can come to light at any time and change our understanding of potential effects from pesticides,â should guide the agency in its decisionsâespecially when previous decisions have depended on limited actual data, data waiver request rationales, and purported absence of new data or adverse incidents reported.â While Beyond Pesticides advocates for allowance of pesticides compatible with organic standards that are protective of human health, biodiversity, and healthy ecosystems, it urges EPA to establish rigorous standards in its registration review of these materials. The issue of biopesticide review is made complicated by the […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Biodiversity, Biological Control, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Integrated and Organic Pest Management, Pesticide Regulation, Take Action, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 15th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, January 15, 2025) There is robust scientific literature that unpacks the adverse human health effects of pesticide exposure, however immunological impacts do not receive adequate attention in regulatory review processes, according to an in-depth literature review. In a piece published in Frontiers in Immunology (2024) critiquing recent peer-reviewed scientific studies, as well as unpublished research produced by the Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine in partnership with the National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Argentina, researchers assess immune system effects of pesticide exposure, which creates the conditions for deadly health conditions including various forms of cancer. The focus of this study, according to the authors, is âto critically review fundamental aspects of toxicological studies conducted on PPPs [Plant Protection Products] to provide a clearer understanding of the risks associated with exposure to these compounds on human health.â PPPs are pesticide products that contain more than one active ingredient, and can include synergistic ingredients that supercharge them alongside inert ingredients that pesticide companies are not legally required to disclose under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), but are often manipulated biologically and chemically active. Most studies analyze the toxicological impacts of active ingredients in isolation rather […]
Posted in Bayer, Cancer, Chemical Mixtures, Chlorpyrifos, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Glyphosate, Immunotoxicity, organophosphate, Pesticide Regulation, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, January 13th, 2025
(Beyond Pesticides, January 13, 2025) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is officially taking comments on whether to issue new restrictions on the herbicide atrazineâs use. Beyond Pesticides is telling the agency that it is time to recognize the biodiversity destruction that atrazine is causing and the viability of alternative organic management practices. The group has released an action and is asking the public to join this campaign to ban atrazine. As a yardstick for what is possible under existing federal pesticide law (the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act), EPA on August 7, 2024 announced that it was taking emergency action to ban the weed killer Dacthal (or DCPA–dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate), leaving many people asking, âWhy Dacthal and not other very hazardous pesticides?â The weed killer atrazine (in the triazine chemical family) poses similar elevated hazards to people and the environment, has proven to be impossible to contain, and has viable alternatives. Therefore, we need to challenge EPA to apply the same standard that removed Dacthal from the market to the long list of pesticides that are contributing to a health crisis, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency. In its current proposal, EPA is choosing to downplay atrazine’s risk to ecosystems, allow more contamination with […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »
Thursday, December 19th, 2024
(Beyond Pesticides, December 19, 2024) As The New York Times reported last month, the government in South Africa declared a national emergencyâ23 children died and nearly 900 people were sickened from pesticide poisoning in Johannesburgâs Soweto township. The illnesses and fatalities have been traced to small amounts of highly neurotoxic pesticides, including the insecticides terbufos and aldicarb, found in local food items. These chemicals, described by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa as âstreet pesticides,â are being increasingly used (legally and illegally) for pest infestations in the townships and informal settlements of South Africaâs poorest communities, where poverty and inadequate waste collection exacerbates the pest management challenges. Without formal electricity, running water, or municipal garbage collection, many residents rely on highly toxic pesticides for pest infestations in their homes and makeshift markets, resulting in food inadvertently being contaminated with pesticides. The announcement highlights the dangers of allowing these highly toxic agricultural chemicals to be used in farming, with tragic consequences for vulnerable communities when they are diverted for use in urban settings. This tragic situation also draws attention to the elevated threat that pesticides pose when stringent enforcement mechanisms are not in place to ensure compliance with pesticide restrictions, even with […]
Posted in Agriculture, Aldicarb, Bayer, Children, contamination, Death, Environmental Justice, Farmworkers, Food Borne Illness, Imidacloprid, Monsanto, organophosphate, Paraquat, Pesticide Regulation, Pests, Poisoning, Rodenticide, Rodents, terbufos, thiacloprid, Uncategorized, United Nations | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 18th, 2024
(Beyond Pesticides, December 18, 2024) A bombshell investigation conducted by Canadaâs National Observer finds that Bayer, which acquired the Monsanto chemical company in 2018, colluded with environmental and public health regulators in Canada to obstruct a proposed neonicotinoid insecticide ban originally introduced in 2018. Advocates were stunned back in 2021 when Canadaâs Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA)âthe Canadian counterpart to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)âreversed its decision to phase out imidacloprid, clothianidin, and thiamethoxam by 2023. The weaponization of scientific institutions and regulatory processes is commonplace in the U.S. context, with U.S. Right to Know publishing a report earlier this year on the corrupting impact of pesticide manufacturers at the Entomological Society of America 2023 annual meeting. (See Daily News here.) There are numerous Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports signaling EPA corruption and failures, including persisting industry influence in the cancer risk assessment process, inadequate leadership in addressing community harms of a former creosote-treated wood preservative plant turned Superfund site in Pensacola, Florida, and failure to protect the public from endocrine-disrupting chemicals, to name several examples. In a recent press release, the David Suzuki Foundation, alongside numerous medical, legal, and civil society organizations, is calling on Health Canada […]
Posted in acetamiprid, Bayer, Canada, Clothianidin, Health Canada, Imidacloprid, Monsanto, neonicotinoids, Pesticide Regulation, thiacloprid, Thiamethoxam, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, December 13th, 2024
(Beyond Pesticides, December 13, 2024) In October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the registration applications of BASF Corporation and Mitsui Chemicals Crop & Life Solutions, Inc. for the use of different formulations of the L-isomer of glufosinate (also known as âL-glufosinateâ and âglufosinate-Pâ) as new active herbicidal ingredients. This decision marks one of the first times that EPA has employed its new Herbicide  Strategy Framework to determine the level of mitigation necessary to protect listed species and critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Glufosinate is an organophosphate, with known neurotoxic, reproductive/developmental effects, toxic to aquatic life, and mobile in soils (see Beyond Pesticides Gateway). Scientists have found that formulated glufosinate is generally more toxic to aquatic and terrestrial animals than the technical grade active ingredient. Manufacturers are introducing newer glufosinate products as alternatives for glyphosate-based herbicides, like Bayer/Monsantoâs âRoundupâ and dicamba. The Center for Biological Diversity notes in comments submitted to EPA on this decision, âL-glufosinate has the potential to be used on tens of millions acres of land every year given the crops EPA has proposed to register it on. The scale of potential use is far above most new active ingredients.â This first significant application […]
Posted in Agriculture, BASF, Chemical Mixtures, Chemicals, Endangered Species Act (ESA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), glufosinate, Herbicides, Lawns/Landscapes, Pesticide Regulation, Uncategorized, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | No Comments »
Monday, December 9th, 2024
(Beyond Pesticides, December 9, 2024) In recognition of the explosion of a chemical plant in Bhopal, India 40 years ago that was responsible for the death of 20,000 people, U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal introduced H.Res. 1604, âRecognizing the 40th year since the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster and helping to ensure that no other community suffers another chemical disaster, by supporting the designation of December 3 as National Chemical Disaster Awareness Dayâ and calling for support of survivors of the disaster and promoting public understanding of the dangers of chemical disasters. The Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) plant explosion released a cloud of highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas in the middle of the night, killing thousands of people immediatelyâestimates range from 1,754 to 10,000âand up to 20,000 subsequently. Estimates of the number suffering permanent disabilities or chronic disease range up to 95% of the affected population of 531,881. MIC is a precursor used in the manufacture of carbamate insecticides, including aldicarb, carbofuran, and carbaryl. In spite of this history and the many adverse effects of these extremely toxic pesticides and their precursors, EPA continues to register pesticides without considering cradle-to-grave risks. >> Tell EPA that harm done in the manufacture, transportation, […]
Posted in Aldicarb, Dow Chemical, methyl isocyanate (MIC), Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 25th, 2024
(Beyond Pesticides, November 25, 2024)Â When the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced at the end of October a $15 million program to expand access to organic dairy products in schools, it added funds to an agency effort underway that is intended to support and incentivize farmers to grow organic and make organic food more widely available. While the millions being invested is a fraction of what organic advocates say is necessary, Congress and USDA have established a framework that recognizes the need to address the current health, biodiversity, and climate crises with accelerated adoption of organic. The issue now is whether organic will garner the support necessary to meet the life-sustaining challenges in the next Farm Bill, which may not be taken up until the next Congress is sworn in and the new administration is inaugurated. The U.S commitment to organic has been building since the adoption of the Agricultural Productivity Act in 1983, which established the Low Input Sustainable Agriculture program (later becoming the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program) at USDA, and then the passage of the Organic Foods Production Act in 1990. However, among the articles published on the subject, research reported in Environmental Science & […]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, November 14th, 2024
(Beyond Pesticides, November 14, 2024) The destructive impact of Hurricane Milton, a climate-change-fueled extreme weather event that smashed into Florida in early October, led to the temporary closure of all phosphate mining facilities, integral to petrochemical fertilizer production, in the state after reported wastewater spillage, according to reporting by Tampa Bay Times. The Mosaic Company, the largest phosphate mining company in Florida, reported at least 17,500 gallons of wastewater from one of their processing plants leaked into Tampa Bay (âThe Bayâ), according to a company press release. It is unclear to local communities if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will permit the companyâs request earlier this year to test 1,200 tons of phosphogypsum, an industrial byproduct of phosphate rock mining, as a potential material in roadways. Local advocates find this alarming given a reported tear in a gypsum stack operated by Mosaic in one of its plants in New Wales. The wastewater was used as a storage medium for phosphogypsum, which when dissolved contains cancer-causing radon, according to reporting by Reuters. Besides phosphate waste leakage, over 30 waterways across Tampa Bay were polluted after back-to-back hurricanes (Tropical Storm Debby in August, Hurricane Helene in September, and Hurricane Milton in […]
Posted in Climate Change, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Fertilizer, Florida, Mosaic, Synthetic Fertilizer, U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Uncategorized, Water | No Comments »