25
Apr
Petrochemical Pesticides and Fertilizers Linked to “Shocking” Health and Environmental Crises
(Beyond Pesticides, April 25, 2023) Today, Beyond Pesticides released a special issue, Transformative Change: Informed by Science, Policy, and Action of its journal, Pesticides and You, with a compendium of “shocking scientific findings that compel us to act in our communities, states, and as a nation and world community.” The 168-page issue documents the last year of scientific, peer-reviewed articles, policy deficiencies, and action for change that intersect not only with petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers, but with existential health crises, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency.
Included in the issue of reviews of published articles spanning three categories—health, biodiversity, and climate. They include:
Human Health Threats: Children’s health—Motor skill deficiency; Respiratory disease; Prenatal exposure and ear infections; Oxidative stress, DNA damage, and cancer; Pediatric cancer; Childhood diabetes; Developmental delays; Biomonitoring of pregnant women; Kidney cancer; Early onset puberty; Autism; Gut microbiome—Disinfectant/antimicrobial and inflammatory bowel disease; Metabolic distress; General—Parkinson’s disease; Farm exposure and effects; Multigenerational effects and cancer; Environmental injustice: Disproportionate exposure and impacts; Post-hurricane water contamination; Global pesticide hazard footprint; Military exposure hazard: Gulf War illness; Male infertility; Alzheimer’s/Neurodegenerative disease; Thyroid cancer; Endocrine disruption; Hazardous inert ingredients underregulated; Covid: Elevated disinfectant hazards.
Biodiversity: Insect decline; Biodiversity collapse; Bee gut microbiome; Honey bee susceptibility to pathogens; Pollination disturbed; International warning; Ecosystem services; Benefits of nature; Inerts harm pollinators; Multigenerational effects to birds; Aquatic ecosystem threatened; Contaminated sediment; Weed killer destroys soil life; Tree spraying destroys biological control; Antibiotic/Antifungal resistance; Glyphosate induces antibiotic resistance; Monarchs threatened by store-bought plants; Greenhouse gas from house fumigation; Chemical no-till contributes to climate crisis; Soil management, carbon sequestration, organic.
Climate: Greenhouse gas from house fumigation; Chemical no-till contributes to climate crisis; Sulfuryl fluoride ban petitioned; Soil management carbon sequestration, and organic. [The pieces cited in this issue are supplemented by the Beyond Pesticides’ Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database.]
Failed policies reviewed in this publication include: widespread PFAS contamination; subsidies drive environmental collapse; continued use of neurotoxic organophosphate insecticides and deadly wood preservatives; and efforts in Congress to further weaken federal pesticide law and codify a prohibition of local authority to restrict pesticides more stringently than state and federal law.
In addition, this issue cites current actions in communities that chart a course for a livable future, including: local ordinances that ban toxic pesticides and fertilizers; European Union (EU) bans park pesticides; compost outperforms fertilizers; organic food in schools; and state laws that increase protections for pollinators.
Beyond Pesticides cites this collection of pieces in Transformative Change as foundational in demonstrating the vital need for a transformation to land and building management systems that align with nature and, at the same time, are more effective and efficient at producing food while contributing to quality of life.
Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, writes in the publication’s introduction, “The transformative solution is a partnership with nature, practices that have been adopted in organic systems. With this approach, we honor all organisms who play a role in ecological systems on which life depends and we seek the rapid adoption of those practices and materials that are already available to us or can be incentivized to become widely available quickly.”
An electronic version of the issue with links to citations can be found at bp-dc.org/transformativechange.
