(Beyond Pesticides, November 27 – December 1, 2024) This Thanksgiving, as we navigate a new chapter in our nation’s history, the staff and board of Beyond Pesticides are honored and thankful to partner with and support those leading campaigns, from small to large, that are essential to our livable future. Local communities are where change happens, creating examples of practical solutions for the nation and world.  

• We believe deeply in the power of people and organizations, armed with scientific information and models for change, to push for the adoption of organic practices and policies—from local to global—that ensure that we, and our children, will have the future we envision and are working to achieve. 

• We recognize the difficult work of changing the status quo—dependency on practices and products that harm people and contaminate the ecosystems on which life depends—in the face of existential health, biodiversity, and climate crises. 

• We know that the critical importance of elevating diverse voices—from scientists, advocates, victims of chemical exposure, those disproportionately affected, land managers and practitioners, to responsible corporations calling for the urgent phaseout of petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers—to the prevention of catastrophic collapse of the natural systems that sustain life. 

From the opportunity to join together with inspiring leaders this fall during the Forum, to partnering with dozens of communities across the country to see our organic land management projects come to life in parks, playing fields, and open and public spaces, our appreciation of local changemakers who seek to protect the earth through their tireless efforts to advance the organic solution in their local communities cannot be overstated.  

In this spirit, we celebrate for a second year a Thanksgiving Address and prayer (the Ohèn:ton Karihwatéhkwen) of the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois Confederacy or Six Nations—Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora) that reflects their relationship to the Earth by giving thanks for life and the world around them. It is a prayer that is appropriate at any time, but especially on a holiday celebrating the abundance of the Earth’s gifts. 

Translated more literally, Ohèn:ton Karihwatéhkwen is “what we say before we do anything important.”  

As you read this prayer, please choose actions to protect our relationship with the natural world and her inhabitants. Beyond Pesticides thanks all of you for your support! 

The People  

Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as people.  

Now our minds are one.  

The Earth Mother  

We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of time. To our mother, we send greetings and thanks.  

Now our minds are one. 

The Waters  

We give thanks to all the waters of the world for quenching our thirst and providing us with strength. Water is life. We know its power in many forms- waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to the spirit of Water.  

Now our minds are one.  

The Fish  

We turn our minds to all the Fish life in the water. They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water. They also give themselves to us as food. We are grateful that we can still find pure water. So, we turn now to the Fish and send our greetings and thanks.  

Now our minds are one.  

The Plants  

Now we turn toward the vast fields of Plant life. As far as the eye can see, the Plants grow, working many wonders. They sustain many life forms. With our minds gathered together, we give thanks and look forward to seeing Plant life for many generations to come.  

Now our minds are one. 

The Food Plants  

With one mind, we turn to honor and thank all the Food Plants we harvest from the garden. Since the beginning of time, the grains, vegetables, beans, and berries have helped the people survive. Many other living things draw strength from them too. We gather all the Plant Foods together as one and send them a greeting of thanks.  

Now our minds are one.  

The Medicine Herbs  

Now we turn to all the Medicine herbs of the world. From the beginning they were instructed to take away sickness. They are always waiting and ready to heal us. We are happy there are still among us those special few who remember how to use these plants for healing. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to the Medicines and to the keepers of the Medicines.  

Now our minds are one.  

The Animals  

We gather our minds together to send greetings and thanks to all the Animal life in the world. They have many things to teach us as people. We are honored by them when they give up their lives so we may use their bodies as food for our people. We see them near our homes and in the deep forests. We are glad they are still here and we hope that it will always be so.  

Now our minds are one. 

The Trees  

We now turn our thoughts to the Trees. The Earth has many families of Trees who have their own instructions and uses. Some provide us with shelter and shade, others with fruit, beauty and other useful things. Many people of the world use a Tree as a symbol of peace and strength. With one mind, we greet and thank the Tree life.  

Now our minds are one.  

The Birds  

We put our minds together as one and thank all the Birds who move and fly about over our heads. The Creator gave them beautiful songs. Each day they remind us to enjoy and appreciate life. The Eagle was chosen to be their leader. To all the Birds-from the smallest to the largest-we send our joyful greetings and thanks.  

Now our minds are one.  

The Four Winds  

We are all thankful to the powers we know as the Four Winds. We hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe. They help us to bring the change of seasons. From the four directions they come, bringing us messages and giving us strength. With one mind, we send our greetings and thanks to the Four Winds.  

Now our minds are one.  

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Art page highlight! Our thanks to Margaret from Orlando, Florida for sharing her photo, “Appalachian Ridge (Green Mountain, NC).”

(Beyond Pesticides, November 26, 2024) A study in Environment International finds that young children who exhibit higher levels of pesticide metabolites in their urine show more pronounced neurobehavioral problems at the age of ten. Researchers in China document how exposure during early childhood, especially during the sensitive window before the age of two, is linked to hyperactivity/inattention problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

While adding to the body of science connecting pesticide exposure to learning and developmental disorders, this study offers a “novel perspective on characterizing the fluctuation in repeated measurements of multiple environmental chemicals and identifying the potential critical windows,” the authors share. (See previous Daily News coverage here, here, and here.)

The researchers analyze data from questionnaires and urine samples through the ongoing Sheyang Mini Birth Cohort Study (SMBCS), which is a long-term prospective cohort study that associates environmental chemical exposure during pregnancy and childhood to negative health effects. This data addresses combined pesticide exposures in young children with neurobehavior analyses at the age of ten to determine any correlation.

Within the SMBCS, a total of 1303 pregnant women are enrolled. When the children reached ages one, two, three, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten years old, each mother–child pair participated in follow-up visits. During these visits, urine samples were collected and analyzed for pesticide metabolites including pentachlorophenol (PCP), 3,5,6-Trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy), and carbofuran phenol (CFP). These represent different classes of pesticides: organochlorines, organophosphates, and carbamates, respectively.

A “Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire” was utilized that covered “various behavioral domains including emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behavior,” the authors share. They continue, “ADHD symptoms were assessed using the ADHD Criteria of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (ADHD-DSM-IV) rating scale.”

Complete samples and questionnaires were available for 415 children within SMBCS and are included in this study. In assessing children between ages one to ten, the researchers segmented the data into three phases including infancy and toddlerhood (ages one to two), preschool age (ages three to seven), and early school age (ages eight to ten) to track the periodic changes in trajectories and the stages of children’s growth and development within those phases.

The hyperactivity/inattention scores from questionnaires are significantly positively correlated and showed significant differences among the three childhood phases. The detection rates of the three metabolites (PCP, TCPy, and CFP) in all urine samples collected during the follow-up visits ranged from 95.2% to 100% and were significantly positively correlated in each childhood phase.

The most significantly elevated scores were identified for the group with higher levels of metabolites occurring during infancy and toddlerhood. These results reveal “significant positive associations between pesticide exposure during early life (1∼2 years) and hyperactivity/inattention symptom in 10-year-old children,” the researchers report. They continue, “[I]ndividuals with higher urinary concentrations of the three pesticide metabolites during infancy and toddlerhood (1∼2 years) had elevated hyperactivity/inattention scores compared to those with continuously low exposures (1∼10 years) and those with higher exposure levels during pre-school age (3∼7 years).”

These results highlight that early childhood, especially before the age of two, represents a critical window regarding neurobehavioral developmental effects of pesticide exposure. This is explained by the combination of children’s weak pesticide metabolism capabilities and high brain plasticity before two years of age. Prior research supports that exposure at a young age, and even during gestation, can cause developmental delays and disorders. (See here, here, here, and here.)

Since children are rapidly growing and developing, they are particularly susceptible to the adverse health effects of pesticides and are disproportionately at risk. “The timing of pesticide exposure is crucial in determining the neurotic damage inflicted, as children’s metabolic function and the growth rates of the nervous system change with age,” the researchers note. “In particular, the period of early childhood is deemed critical for the prefrontal cortex (PFC), implicated in various psychiatric disorders such as ADHD, to establish the foundational neural circuitry essential for higher cognitive functions in later life. Thus, early experiences, including early-life environmental exposure, may shape the trajectories of the PFC and have lasting implications for behavioral regulation throughout life.”

As the authors state, “Children require more attention in risk assessment than adults due to their unique exposure patterns and special susceptibilities to pesticides, which may occur at different stages of development. They may encounter pesticides through multiple routes, either simultaneously or sequentially. For instance, newborns and infants may ingest pesticides via breast milk contamination. Young children, who often engage in exploratory behaviors, are more prone to accumulating pesticides settled in dust and soil while playing and crawling, leading to increased non-dietary ingestion through frequent hand-to-mouth contact. In addition, children generally breathe more air, drink more water, and consume more food than adults by body weight, resulting in higher doses at the same environment contamination level.”

Chemical exposure at an early age increases the body burden of harmful toxicants, many of which can stay in the body for a lifetime, and escalates the risk for certain diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Learn more about the hazards of pesticides for children’s health and how “Children and Pesticides Don’t Mix.”

With multiple routes of exposure, reducing children’s exposure to harmful chemicals is critical. By adopting organic land management strategies, this exposure can be mitigated. Beyond Pesticides promotes healthy environments for learning and recreation for children. Alternatives are available for schools and for creating sustainable parks that do not unnecessarily put children’s health at risk. Make The Safer Choice to avoid hazardous home, garden, community, and food use pesticides to protect children as they grow and develop.

There are serious long-term health implications for children and youth exposed to the toxic soup of pesticide and chemical residues found in conventionally grown food. Take action to tell your U.S. Representative and Senators to cosponsor S. 5084, which increases the funding available for schools to purchase safe school meals and expands funding for the Organic Certification Cost-Share Program to compensate organic farmers.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source:

Ding, J. et al. (2024) Identifying childhood pesticide exposure trajectories and critical window associated with behavioral problems at 10 years of age: Findings from SMBCS, Environment International. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412024006652.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 25, 2024) 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 & Technology (2022) asserts that use of synthetic chemicals are now exceeding planetary boundary, “the point at which human-made changes to the Earth push it outside the stable environment of the last 10,000 years.“ In this context, the universal adoption of organic practices has become an urgent necessity, with Congressional, administration, and private sector support at the highest level.

In its brochure Making the Transition to Organic Production and Handling, USDA states the following:

“Organic agriculture uses cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that support the cycling of on-farm resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Conservation practices are typically bundled into a conservation system to maintain or enhance soil and water quality as well as conserve wetlands, grasslands, forests, and wildlife habitats. Avoiding the use of synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering are paramount to organic farming.”

USDA has identified organic agriculture as climate-smart, recognizing that organic soil management practices sequester atmospheric carbon while eliminating the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Beyond this, USDA describes what it has been doing to support the growth of organic as a niche market, without the goals necessary to eliminate petrochemical pesticide and fertilizer use and production:

“USDA has made significant investments in organic agriculture, including through its Organic Transition Initiative (OTI), a $300 million investment that delivers wrap-around technical assistance to producers interested in transitioning to organic. The initiative includes mentoring and advice, direct farmer assistance through conservation financial assistance, and targeted organic market development grants. Among OTI’s comprehensive suite of programs is the Organic Market Development Grant (OMDG) program which has, with the final awards announced in August, provided $85 million for 107 projects around the country. OMDG is supporting the development of new and existing organic markets to increase the consumption of domestic organic agricultural products. Another component, the Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP), supports farmers transitioning to organic by connecting them with mentors, providing community building, technical assistance, workforce development, and helping producers overcome challenges during and following certification. Additionally, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) supports conservation practices required for organic certification and leverages partnerships to expand relationships within the organic community. NRCS and its partners offer field days, workshops, and one-on-one technical assistance to producers working to meet organic standards. OTI is a part of the USDA food system transformation initiative to support local and regional food systems, expand access to markets for more producers, and increase the affordable food supply for more Americans while promoting climate-smart agriculture and ensuring equity for all producers.” 

The steps being taken are important but do not match the threat, according to Beyond Pesticides. Small and important steps, as welcomed as they are by advocates, are not viewed as expediting the transition to organic as a national priority.

Thank USDA for expanding access to organic dairy in schools. Tell USDA and Congress that kids deserve all-organic school lunches.

The $15 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the $17.2 billion that USDA spent on the school lunch program in 2023 to provide low-cost or free lunches to children in public and nonprofit private schools (grades pre-kindergarten–12) and residential childcare institutions. However, any support for organic food in schools leads to greater health for growing minds and bodies, and schools should be serving our nation’s children meals that are wholly supportive of human and planetary health.  

There are serious long-term health implications for children and youth exposed to the toxic soup of pesticide and chemical residues found in food grown in chemical-intensive practices. Research published in Environmental Pollution in 2022 identified children with higher levels of certain pesticide metabolites are more likely to go through early puberty. The American Academy of Pediatrics concludes in a study published this year that the proliferation of antimicrobial-resistant infections, resulting from overreliance on antibiotics in animal agriculture leads to potentially severe health risks for infants and children. Additionally, a 2024 study, published in Environment International finds 60 biomarkers of pollutants and pesticides in hair analyses of children throughout France, which highlights the global crisis resulting from the inadequate regulation of toxic chemicals. Despite the known health impacts of pesticide exposure, Congress may end up removing 200-foot pesticide spray “buffer zones” around 4,028 U.S. elementary schools contiguous to crop fields depending on how Farm Bill negotiations move forward, according to an analysis by Environmental Working Group.  

There are additional associated benefits for children who consume organic food. Sticking to an organic diet has reduced toxic pesticide residues in the bodies of U.S. children and adults, based on several studies published in 2019 in Environmental Health, and in two 2015 studies published in Environmental Health Perspectives and by the Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health. A particularly noteworthy study published in 2014 in Environmental Research found that organophosphate pesticide metabolites in the urine of adults were reduced after just a week-long organic diet. A 2019 study published in Environmental Health, led by Barcelona Institute for Global Health, found that organic food consumption among children is directly associated with higher test scores, after measuring for fluid intelligence and working memory. Conversely, lower scores on fluid intelligence tests are associated with, among other factors, children’s fast-food intake.  

The transition to organic food in school cafeterias is not a new policy concern. In a 2004 article published in Pesticides and You, School Lunches Go Organic: Science supports growing movement, numerous examples across the nation demonstrate a pathway forward for broader adoption of organic mandates. “Stonyfield Farm has sponsored organic programs at schools in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire and Connecticut,” according to the article. Additionally, the authors wrote, “An organic salad bar started at Lincoln Elementary School in Olympia, Washington has proven so popular and economically feasible, all grade schools in Olympia now have one. California school districts in Berkeley, Santa Monica, and Palo Alto also have organic food programs. In 2004, the Seattle school district adopted H61.01, Breakfast and Lunch Program Procedure, a policy banning junk food and encouraging organic food in school cafeterias.” More recently, Beyond Pesticides called for requiring organic school lunches in order to eliminate obesogenic pesticide residues. 

In September, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced S. 5084, Safe School Meals Act (SSMA), identifying four objectives: 

• Directing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to set safe limits for heavy metals in school meals. The limits will be based on a threshold of reasonable certainty of no harm to school-age children from aggregate exposure. If the agencies fail to set these limits within two years, the limits will automatically be set to non-detectable until the agencies can determine a safe level of exposure. 
• Banning glyphosate, paraquat, and organophosphate pesticide residues in school meals. Certified organic farms would automatically meet this requirement. 
• Banning PFAS, phthalates, lead, and bisphenols in food packaging in school meals. 
• Directing FDA to reevaluate food additives with known carcinogenic, reproductive, or developmental health harms, such as artificial food dyes, and ban their use in school meals prior to the completion of FDA’s analysis. 

According to Senator Booker, “School meals should be a child’s safest source of nourishment, not another source of toxic exposure.” Although S. 5084 does not require organic school meals, the only way for a school to meet these objectives without bearing a large expense for testing is to buy organic food. Unfortunately, as pointed out by Kate Mendenhall, executive director of Organic Farmers Association, “Most organic and small farms have not traditionally had access to school food purchasing programs.” S. 5084 will provide a strong incentive for schools to buy organic food for school lunches and thus, according to Ms. Mendenhall, will “open new markets for organic foods and help make organic certification affordable for small farmers.” 

The Food Quality Protection Act, passed in 1996 as an amendment to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), requires regulation of endocrine-disrupting impacts of pesticides. Almost two decades later, EPA has failed to regulate endocrine-disrupting pesticides.  

The review process in S. 5084 would mandate that at least every five years the Commissioner of Food and Drugs must “determine potential adjustments to the maximum permissible levels of heavy metals and toxic metalloids.” Similar provisions exist for other toxic materials that this legislation is intended to regulate. Permissible levels of toxic substances—including PFAS, heavy metals, industrial chemicals, and pesticides—are now calculated without consideration given to the cumulative impacts (or toxic burden) across all exposures. In 2020, FDA acknowledged that half of food samples tested by the agency have toxic pesticide residues and one in ten samples have levels that violate legal limits established by EPA, according to the Pesticide Residue Monitoring Report. Consumer Reports recently updated its analysis of pesticide residues in common grocery store products, finding that 20% of the foods tested pose a “high risk” to the public and 12 specific commodities are so dangerous that children or pregnant people should not eat more than one serving per day. 

5084 also establishes a pathway forward for acknowledging organic food production as a public good and service by expanding funding for the Organic Cost-Share Program to fully compensate farmers for certification costs, a long-term policy goal for organic advocates across the nation. It increases the funding available for schools to purchase safe school meals. Supporters of the bill include a broad spectrum of educational, health, environmental, and organic advocates, who welcome the continued leadership of Senator Booker in pushing forward legislation that eliminates a number of toxic residues from the National School Lunch Program and the elevation of organic food production on the national stage.

Thank USDA for expanding access to organic dairy in schools. Tell USDA and Congress that kids deserve all-organic school lunches.

Letter to Congress
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it is allocating $15 million to the Organic Dairy Product Promotion Program to expand access to organic dairy products in schools. The program will be funded by the Commodity Credit Corporation, with the goal of increasing consumption of organic dairy products among children and young adults while creating new opportunities for small and mid-sized organic dairy producers. $15 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the total of $17.2 billion that USDA’s school lunch program spent in 2023. School meals should be a child’s safest source of nourishment, not another source of toxic exposure, so they should be made up of organic food.

In September, Sen. Cory Booker introduced S. 5084, Safe School Meals Act, to:

*Direct the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to set safe limits for heavy metals in school meals, based on a threshold of reasonable certainty of no harm to school-age children from aggregate exposure. If the agencies fail to set these limits within two years, the limits will automatically be set to non-detectable until the agencies can determine a safe level of exposure.

*Ban glyphosate, paraquat, and organophosphate pesticide residues in school meals. Certified organic farms would automatically meet this requirement.

*Ban PFAS, phthalates, lead, and bisphenols in food packaging in school meals.

*Direct FDA to reevaluate food additives with known carcinogenic, reproductive, or developmental health harms, such as artificial food dyes, and ban their use in school meals prior to the completion of FDA’s analysis.

Although S. 5084 does not require organic school meals, buying organic food is a cost-effective way for schools to meet the bill’s requirements. EPA has still failed to advance the protections for children mandated by the Food Quality Protection Act, passed in 1996. In 2020, FDA acknowledged that half of food samples tested by the agency have toxic pesticide residues and one in ten samples have levels that violate legal limits. Consumer Reports recently updated its analysis of pesticide residues in various common grocery store products, finding that 20% of the foods tested pose a “high risk” to the public and 12 specific commodities are so dangerous that children or pregnant people should not eat more than one serving per day.

The serious long-term health implications for children exposed to pesticide and chemical residues found in food grown in chemical-intensive agriculture include early puberty and the proliferation of antimicrobial-resistant infections resulting from overreliance on antibiotics in animal agriculture.

Children benefit from organic food. An organic diet reduces toxic pesticide residues in the bodies of U.S. children and adults, based on several studies published in 2019 in Environmental Health, and in two 2015 studies published in Environmental Health Perspectives, and by the Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health. A study published in 2014 in Environmental Research found that organophosphate pesticide metabolites in the urine of adults declined after just a week-long organic diet. A 2019 study published in Environmental Health, led by Barcelona Institute for Global Health, found that organic food consumption among children is directly associated with higher test scores. Conversely, lower scores were associated with, among other factors, children’s fast-food intake.

1. 5084 also expands funding for the Organic Cost-Share Program to fully compensate farmers for certification costs and increases the funding available for schools to purchase safe school meals. Supporters of the bill include a broad spectrum of educational, health, environmental, and organic advocates.

I urge you to support S. 5084 and to direct USDA to require organic food in school lunches it underwrites.

Thank you.

Letter to USDA
Thank you for expanding access to organic dairy products in schools by allocating $15 million to the Organic Dairy Product Promotion Program for that purpose. However, $15 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the total of $17.2 billion that USDA’s school lunch program spent in 2023. School meals should be a child’s safest source of nourishment, not another source of toxic exposure, so they should be made up of organic food.

EPA has still failed to advance the protections for children mandated by the Food Quality Protection Act, passed in 1996. In 2020, FDA acknowledged that half of food samples tested by the agency have toxic pesticide residues and one in ten samples have levels that violate legal limits established by EPA. Consumer Reports recently updated its analysis of pesticide residues in various common grocery store products, finding that 20% of the foods tested pose a “high risk” to the public and 12 specific commodities are so dangerous that children or pregnant people should not eat more than one serving per day.

The serious long-term health implications for children and youth exposed to pesticide and chemical residues found in food grown in chemical-intensive agriculture include early puberty and the proliferation of anti-microbial resistant infections resulting from overreliance on antibiotics in animal agriculture.

Children benefit from organic food. An organic diet reduces toxic pesticide residues in the bodies of U.S. children and adults, based on several studies published in 2019 in Environmental Health, and in two 2015 studies published in Environmental Health Perspectives, and by the Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health. A study published in 2014 in Environmental Research found that organophosphate pesticide metabolites in the urine of adults declined after just a week-long organic diet. A 2019 study published in Environmental Health, led by Barcelona Institute for Global Health, found that organic food consumption among children is directly associated with higher test scores. Conversely, lower scores on fluid intelligence tests were associated with, among other factors, children’s fast-food intake.

I urge you to require organic food in school lunches.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 22, 2024) With numerous campaigns at the state and federal level to ban the weed killer paraquat and nearly 6,000 individual lawsuits alleging exposure to it causes Parkinson’s disease (PD), U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and six Senators on October 31 called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the chemical. Citing that “[f]armworkers and rural residents are disproportionately exposed to paraquat,” the Senators’ letter to EPA stating that, “Paraquat has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, thyroid cancer, and other health harms such as kidney, liver, and respiratory damage, and reproductive harm, including neurodevelopmental impact on developing fetuses [and] [i]n rural areas, exposure to paraquat and other pesticides during pregnancy can increase the risk of leukemia.”

Most of the 6,000 cases against paraquat’s manufacturer, Syngenta, have been consolidated into Multi-District Litigation (MDL) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. In April, the MDL judge ousted the plaintiffs’ expert witness regarding causality, which resulted in the first five cases ready for trial being tossed out. The defendant sells paraquat globally and is doing everything it can, according to investigative news reports, to discredit any link between paraquat and Parkinson’s, including the use of misdirection, disinformation, and character assassination.

A series of recent news reports have collectively dissected Syngenta’s malfeasance—and its power. These investigations include an October 2024 report by Evy Lewis of Investigate Midwest; a June 2023 report by Carey Gillam at The New Lede, including its documents archive; The Guardian’s October 2022 expose by Gillam and Aliya Uteuova; a March 2021 report by Crispin Dowler and Laurent Gaberell of Greenpeace’s Unearthed; and U.S. Right to Know’s series on paraquat.

See also Beyond Pesticides’ coverage of paraquat health hazards, regulation, and litigation, as well as our work on conflicts of interest in science, attacks on scientists such as Tyrone Hayes, PhD, and industry influence on federal agencies.

The MDL expert witness conflict is a perfect example of industry’s self-protective gyrations. The plaintiffs’ sole causation expert was Martin Wells, PhD, a Cornell University statistician and epidemiologist. Dr. Wells found in a meta-analysis that, in study participants occupationally exposed to paraquat, the incidence of Parkinson’s nearly tripled. The court found that Dr. Wells’ work was methodologically suspect and that, since his analysis was not generally accepted by his peers, he must be isolated from the scientific community—a marker of unreliability, according to a legal backgrounder by the conservative Washington Legal Foundation. Judges have wide latitude to determine the “reliability” of expert testimony under the “Daubert Standard.”

About 10 million pounds of paraquat a year are used in the U.S., mostly to control weeds in soy, corn, cotton, peanuts, almonds, grapes, and other crops. No residential use is approved, and more than 60 countries have banned paraquat. Concern has been mounting for decades based on its extreme acute toxicity and accumulating evidence of its neurological hazards even in lower chronic exposures. In July 2021, EPA conducted a reregistration review and decided to leave paraquat on the market with further restrictions, saying “the Agency concluded that the weight of evidence was insufficient to link paraquat exposure from pesticidal use of U.S. registered products to PD in humans.” Its most recent action, taken only under pressure from environmental groups, is to reexamine paraquat’s toxicity with results due in 2025.

But paraquat’s life is much longer than the suits filed in 2021 and afterward, as is the knowledge that paraquat damages the nervous system of animals. In a breathtaking example of scientific malpractice, the company that discovered paraquat’s herbicidal talents in 1955—Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI)—simply declared, as was also done in the case of the herbicide glyphosate, that something that kills plants would have no effect on animals. (Syngenta, the successor to ICI, is now owned by Sinochem, a Chinese state-owned company.) The industry has known for decades that paraquat kills plants via oxidative stress, a process common to bacteria, fungi, and animals as well.

The history of pesticides lays bare the mistake made by governments to leave scientific research to the entities that would be profiting from the product. Despite the assertion of no harm to animals, an ICI scientist wrote in an internal 1958 memo that dipyridyl, an active ingredient in paraquat (which is marketed in the U.S. as Gramoxone), had “moderate toxicity mainly by affecting the central nervous system” and could be absorbed through the skin. Hypocrisy is a powerful political tool.

The art of character assassination is well developed at Syngenta. Ray Dorsey, MD is a neurologist known for his proposal, analyzed by Beyond Pesticides here, that two types of Parkinson’s may be the same disease caused by chemical exposures moving through different body systems to the brain. Dorsey was dragged into the MDL by Syngenta in a bizarre and intrusive attempt at discrediting him.

Dr. Dorsey had declined to be an expert witness, but Syngenta served him with a discovery subpoena to produce documents used to prepare a co-written opinion piece in Movement Disorders, a publication of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. The piece asserted that paraquat causes Parkinson’s. Dr. Dorsey cited Syngenta’s half-century campaign to suppress evidence of paraquat’s neurological effects. He called Syngenta’s behavior “agnotology,” or “the deliberate production of ignorance.” His discussion was based on the The Guardian investigation. Syngenta attacked Dr. Dorsey simply because his opinion piece, supported by scientific evidence and investigative journalism, had attracted a lot of public attention. Apparently, Syngenta considered this unfair. The court sided with Dr. Dorsey. But Syngenta still won the skirmish in convincing the court to exclude Dr. Wells, leaving the defendants without a causation expert.

The Guardian exposé also revealed Syngenta’s extensive character assassination of neurotoxicologist Deborah Cory-Slechta, PhD, whose research has shown that paraquat crosses the blood-brain barrier and, when inhaled, travels up the nose to the olfactory bulb, whence it is distributed throughout the brain. But Syngenta knew paraquat reached the brain much earlier and might have lingering effects there. According to Investigate Midwest, “In 2008, Syngenta internally re-evaluated paraquat’s safety. In its report, it listed several ‘major sources of uncertainty,’ including the question of how long paraquat remained in the brain and the possibility the braincell death caused by paraquat exposure could progress even without further exposure.”

All these actions recall Syngenta’s scurrilous attacks on Tyrone Hayes, PhD, the University of California Berkeley researcher who demonstrated atrazine’s endocrine-disrupting effects. As detailed in a 2014 New Yorker article by Rachel Aviv, Syngenta went so far in the late 1990s to spread the rumor that Dr. Hayes was mentally unstable. Eventually, the company mounted an all-out and largely successful (at least temporarily) destruction of Dr. Hayes’ academic and public reputations. See Beyond Pesticides Daily News analyzing the Hayes case and Syngenta’s misinformation campaign against a class action suit. Dr. Hayes delivered the keynote speech at Beyond Pesticides’ 31^st National Pesticide Forum.

EPA focuses only on toxicological tests provided by the manufacturer, which are outmoded and fail to capture the real effects of pesticides on the biosphere. Standard tests usually do not include examination of brain tissue in animal models except to assess developmental effects in offspring. Thus, Syngenta has been able to ignore evidence such as that cited in the Investigate Midwest story in which a Japanese woman died of paraquat poisoning in 1968 and an autopsy subsequently found paraquat in her brain. An ICI doctor wrote that the levels found were “rather higher than we would have expected, particularly in the brain, considering the relatively small quantity that was taken.”

The Guardian investigation cited the case of a farmworker showing degenerative changes in the brain after paraquat exposure. And in an especially scurrilous attack, a completely unqualified columnist at the American Council on Science and Health, an industry-supported group, wrote last year that the MDL cases are unfounded because “paraquat probably can’t cross the blood-brain barrier efficiently enough to cause the neurological damage at the root of PD.” His statement is based on a 2021 “review of reviews” in NeuroToxicology by Douglas Weed, MD, PhD, a consultant who has worked with industry partisans to deny glyphosate’s carcinogenicity.

According to Investigate Midwest, both EPA and Syngenta have argued that animal studies on paraquat do not apply to workers using paraquat because the animal studies involve injecting huge amounts into the animals and humans are more likely to inhale, lick their lips, or have dermal exposure, “usually in very small quantities.”

The logic of toxicology testing is incredibly skewed. This argument shows that the EPA test requirements are tailored to acute exposures, not chronic ones. It also assumes inhalation is not a relevant exposure route, which is completely inaccurate. Further, one has to ask why, if the high-dose tests are irrelevant, they are being used to decide whether human health effects are plausible. In fact, in the Wells ruling, the MDL judge noted that both parties had warned against relying on animal studies to determine human causes of health effects. At the same time, however, the industry relies on arguments that denigrate human epidemiology as unreliable. The end result is the neutralization of the only methods available to enlighten the issue. Why the court does not recognize this double-dealing is unclear, especially given that evidence produced in the litigation—easily available to the judge—demonstrates how much deception and personal attack Syngenta and other pesticide companies routinely engage in.

In the words of a 2006 Lancet commentary on developmental toxicology by environmental health experts Philippe Grandjean, MD, and Philip Landrigan, MD, “The two main impediments to prevention of neurodevelopmental deficits of chemical origin are the great gaps in testing chemicals for developmental neurotoxicity and the high level of proof required for regulation.” Eighteen years later these obstacles remain. Syngenta’s concerted disinformation, deceptive science, and character assassinations are still working. Citizen pressure must force EPA to bring its regulatory practices into alignment with modern, ethical, and transparent science. Courts would likely then follow suit.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources:

Syngenta spent decades attempting to quiet health concerns about its profitable herbicide
by Evy Lewis, Investigate Midwest
October 23, 2024
https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/10/23/herbicide-paraquat-sygenta-legal-troubles-parkinsons-disease-health-claims-lawsuits

The Paraquat Papers: How Syngenta’s bad science helped keep the world’s deadliest weedkiller on the market
by Crispin Dowler and Laurent Gaberell
Greenpeace Unearthed
March 24, 2021
https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2021/03/24/paraquat-papers-syngenta-toxic-pesticide-gramoxone/
details international paraquat overdose problems and syngenta’s refusal to include an adequate emetic in its formulations

Syngenta’s “SWAT” team- Internal files reveal secret strategies to influence science
by Carey Gillam
The New Lede
https://www.thenewlede.org/2023/06/syngentas-swat-team-internal-files-reveal-secret-strategies-to-influence-science/

Assault on Science what is getting in the way of using science to protect health and the environment?
Beyond Pesticides – Pesticides and You, Winter 2017–2018
https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/infoservices/pesticidesandyou/documents/TyroneHayesProtectingLife.pdf

Beyond Pesticides Urges Ban of Weed Killer Paraquat Using Same Criteria Used in the Landmark Dacthal Ban
Beyond Pesticides, October 1, 2024
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2024/10/beyond-pesticides-urges-ban-of-weed-killer-paraquat-using-same-criteria-used-in-the-landmark-dacthal-ban/

Biden EPA Reapproves Paraquat with Weaker Protections than Trump Administration Proposed
Beyond Pesticides, August 10, 2021
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2021/08/biden-epa-reapproves-paraquat-with-weaker-protections-than-trump-administration-proposed/

California Bill Would Ban Deadly Weedkiller, Paraquat, Linked to Parkinson’s Disease in Face of EPA Inaction
Beyond Pesticides, April 16, 2024
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2024/04/california-bill-would-ban-deadly-weedkiller-paraquat-linked-to-parkinsons-disease-in-face-of-epa-inaction/

Parkinson’s Disease Explodes as Researchers Find Connection to Pesticide Exposure and Genes
Beyond Pesticides, May 3, 2024
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2024/05/parkinsons-disease-explodes-as-researchers-find-connection-to-pesticide-exposure-and-genes/

Research Links Parkinson’s and Lewy Body Disease with Chemical Effects on Brain and Gut
Beyond Pesticides, April 19, 2024
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2024/04/research-links-parkinsons-and-lewy-body-disease-with-chemical-effects-on-brain-and-gut/

Uncertain Harvest: Examining the globe-spanning relationship of chemical companies, academics and regulators, and the powerful toxins and genetically modified seeds used to grow food in many parts of the world.
Scientists Loved and Loathed by an Agrochemical Giant
by Danny Hakim
New York Times, December 31, 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/business/scientists-loved-and-loathed-by-syngenta-an-agrochemical-giant.html

New Report Showcases Atrazine Manufacturer’s Efforts to Discredit Critics
Beyond Pesticides, June 21, 2013
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2013/06/new-report-showcases-atrazine-manufacturers-efforts-to-discredit-critics/

(Beyond Pesticides, November 21, 2024) Be it Patagonia Provisions or Brooklyn Brewery, there is a buzz around organic beer that is increasingly evident given interest by brewing and food companies. The expansion of the organic beer market in the United States would not have been possible without the leadership of advocates, farmers, breweries, and the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), which led to the strengthening of organic standards for beer back in 2010. The growth of this sector and transition to truly organic beer speaks to the spirit of “continuous improvement,” the original design of the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA), and the importance of mobilizing the public to engage in the public input process that continues to keep organic law strong in opposition to those seeking an easier path to the organic label.

Continuous Improvement and Organic Hops

In the original drafting of OFPA, advocates came together to determine how to encourage the development of certified organic sectors despite the lack of available, verifiable organic inputs for many products—beer included. With this spirit in mind, the improvement of standards for beer encapsulates the significance of OFPA in the context of its flexibility, incentives, and the statutory intent to encourage public input to strengthen the integrity of organic standards. This oversight process—with public, organic grower, and scientific input, and the authority of the stakeholders (environmentalists, consumers, growers, retailers, certifiers, and scientists) on the NOSB to manage the allowed substances in organic production and processing—operationalizes the underlying principle of continuous improvement in the law. Nonorganic ingredients, up to five percent of total product ingredients, are allowed in products labeled organic with the showing that these ingredients are not “commercially available.” This allowance was intended by the drafters of the law to incentivize innovation, development of environmentally sensitive materials, and expansion of organic production by those seeking a market opportunity for organically produced ingredients. In the spirit of continuous improvement, the American Organic Hop Growers Association and their formal 2009 petition urged the removal of the exemption that allowed nonorganic hops in organically labeled beer.

Beer is mostly water, and so, in the early years of OFPA, beer producers could rely on non-organic hops since this ingredient is less than five percent of total product ingredients and still label their beer organic. The situation created a bit of a chicken-and-the-egg problem, because as long as the law allowed the use of nonorganic hops, brewers were not looking for organic hops, and growers did not produce them in large quantities. In other words, even though growers of hops showed that the crop could be grown organically, it was not produced to supply the market because lower-cost, conventional (nonorganic) hops were permitted in processing organic beer. In addition, many breweries and wholesalers were locked into contracts with conventional hop growers. As a result, after the filing of the petition and getting the issue on the agenda of the NOSB, organic hop growers descended on the 2010 NOSB meeting, testifying to the fact that they could fill the demand for organic hops and challenging their “not commercially available” status.

The process of continuous improvement worked as intended. Listening to the facts, the NOSB passed a recommendation to remove hops grown with chemical-intensive practices from the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances by adopting language that, by January 1, 2013, removed hops from 7 CFR § 205.606 (Nonorganically produced agricultural products allowed as ingredients in or on processed products labeled as “organic”) under OFPA. This gave the breweries time to transition organic labeled beer to organically grown hops without breaking existing production contracts.

In 2012, two years after Beyond Pesticides (as an NOSB board member at the time), growers, and advocates across the nation came together to speak out against chemical-intensive hops in “organic” beer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in a new rule that hops must be grown in compliance with the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances in order for beer products to meet USDA organic certification standards. (See Daily News here and here.)  

Cracking Open the Organic Beer Sector

Patagonia Provisions, the food brand branch of Patagonia, speaks to some of the underlying barriers to the widespread expansion of organic beer markets. “The key factors that have disincentivized breweries from producing organic beer include cost, supply, quality of ingredients, accessibility and distribution, competitive pricing and brand recognition. For example, commercial nonorganic grains can be up to six percent cheaper than organic grains. . .. Any costs or losses need to be covered by the brewery, forcing them to raise prices, which may discourage customers with less disposable income from purchasing the beer,” said Ruvani de Silva, a freelance writer who worked with Patagonia Provisions and conducted a market analysis of price and flavor profiles. “Until recently, certain beer ingredients, particularly organic hops, were also considered inferior products whose flavors weren’t up to the standard of traditional varieties. And the question of loyalty also comes into play. A beer brewed with organic ingredients may taste different from the beers a brewery may be known for, and they may not want to risk alienating their core market who come for the same flavor experience every time.” See the full analysis, Shifting the Beer Industry, Organically.

Growing consumer interest in organic beer is reflected in the growth of breweries sourcing least-toxic ingredients. In a recent article published in The Philadelphia Tribune, a growing list of craft breweries are switching to fonio, an ancient grain originally from West and sub-Saharan Africa, as a main ingredient substitute and/or supplement to barley and wheat for their beer. Pierre Tham, a Senegalese chef who inspired Brooklyn Brewery to incorporate beers with a blend of fonio and malted barley, believes that fonio “could have a transformative impact on economic growth and sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa.” Fonio is significant for its importance within various African cultures, but also for the fact that it does not require toxic pesticides or fertilizers for a productive harvest, due to its growth for thousands of years without toxic synthetic inputs. See Food Revolution for a deep dive into the legacy of the supergrain here. Brooklyn Brewery approached other breweries, including Thornbridge Brewery, Omnipollo, Carlsberg, Jing-A Brewing, Guinness, Russian River Brewing, and others to develop a “coordinated fonio beer push” to create a competitive market for beer that relies on ingredients that can easily be grown with organic principles and practices.

Research on Pesticide Residues in Beer

There is a distinction between organic and nonorganic certified beer products. Glyphosate residues have been found in dozens of popular beer brands in the United States and Germany based on research from U.S. Public Interest Research Group (2019) and Munich Environmental Institute (2016). In a study published in Toxicology Reports in 2023, researchers conducted a comparative analysis of mycotoxin and pesticide levels in both craft and mainstream beer brands in Spain. “Only one sample was free from residues. This was a craft beer with organic certification, which was the only certified organic sample in the survey.” The 2023 study found that craft beers generally contained higher levels of toxic pesticides, while the 2019 U.S. PIRG study found the beer samples had just slightly lower average levels of residues than wine tested, the highest being Tsingtao beer with 49 parts per billion (ppb). Miller Lite, Corona, and Budweiser ranged from 25-30 ppb. Samuel Smith’s Organic Lager had a 5.7 ppb glyphosate concentration, and Peak Beer Organic IPA was the only sample with no detectable level of glyphosate. Given its status as a possible carcinogen, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and its association with potential adverse effects on the gut microbiome, establishing “safe” levels for exposure to glyphosate has been called into question, especially given its widespread contamination of the environment and food commodities.

In a first-of-its-kind study published earlier this year in Environmental Pollution, researchers determined a methodological approach to calculate multiple pesticide residues and their cumulative body burden. All participants contained pesticide residues, with findings of more than 10 pesticides in the bodies of more than 80 percent of the study subjects. The most common pesticides include boscalid, triazoles, and simazine, among other toxic pesticides with documented adverse health impacts, including impacts on central nervous system development, triggering oxidative stress, and acting as an endocrine disrupter, respectively. Despite increasing documented cases of multiple exposures, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues to take “a siloed approach” to the cumulative and disproportionate impacts of multiple chemical exposures, according to a 2023 Office of the Inspector General report. See Daily News here for an in-depth analysis.

As of 2021, there are 40 organic hops farms in the United States valued at $20.3 million, based on data gathered from USDA. Advocates across the nation are interested in enjoying food, including an ice-cold beer, without fear of pesticide exposure and their associated adverse, long-term health effects. Stay abreast of key issues that affect health, biodiversity, and climate with Beyond Pesticides’ Keeping Organic Strong webpage. See Eating with a Conscience to learn about the potential impacts on the ecosystems and farmworkers where various types of produce are grown with petrochemical pesticides. For more information on the pesticides to which we are daily exposed, see Gateway on Pesticide Hazards and Safe Pest Management and Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database. See also Why Organic to learn more about the biodiversity, environmental justice, and public health implications of choosing certified organic products.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides. 

Sources: The Philadelphia Tribune, Toxicology Reports, Patagonia Provisions

(Beyond Pesticides, November 20, 2024) The perpetual use of pesticide coated seeds and tillage changed the composition of various beetle, spider, and other epigeal arthropod communities on New Hampshire farmland, according to a recent study published in Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment. Researchers fell short of finding conclusive results about the multi-variable impacts of both practices on biodiversity but raise notable issues on the impact of treated seeds. This research builds on the existing peer-reviewed scientific literature that highlights the threats of toxic pesticides and pesticide-coated seeds. Environmental and public health advocates are in agreement with organic and agroecological farmers who reject chemical-intensive land management practices.

“At the root of the cascading crises of public health collapse, biodiversity loss, and the climate crisis is a reliance on petrochemical-based toxic products, rather than public policy and investments that strengthen consumer and institutional trust of nature-based, organic systems,” says Max Sano, organic program associate at Beyond Pesticides. “This is consistent with various interactions I have had with advocates across New England who are demanding action to stymie the impending biodiversity collapse enabled by government inaction.”

Background and Methodology

This study was coauthored and led by environmental researchers at the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of New Hampshire. The report authors are specialized in plant biology, conservation, and entomology with numerous studies in peer-reviewed publications.

The goal of this three-year field study was to “quantify the effects of pesticide seed treatment (crops grown from seeds coated with pesticides versus uncoated seeds) and tillage system (full-tillage with a moldboard plow, strip-tillage, and no-tillage) on epigeal arthropod communities in a long-term conventionally managed annual feed grain rotation experiment.”

The study itself was conducted between 2017 and 2019 growing seasons at the University of New Hampshire Kingman Research Farm. On this site, tillage system experiments began in 2013 and pesticide seed treatment experiments began in 2016 as part of a separate long-term study. Corn and soybeans were the crop of choice for previous experiments, as well as the focus of this study. Tillage treatments were applied for three years before adding treated seeds as an additional variable, and by the end of the study (2019) the treated seed versus no treated seeds component had been in place for four growing seasons.

All plots were sprayed with the weed killer glyphosate pre- and post-planting. The research plots included the following: full-tillage treated with glyphosate and then tilled with two different devices (moldboard plow and industrial-scale plow); strip-tillage treated with glyphosate and then tilled with one industrial-scale plow; and no-tillage sprayed but no plowing occurred.

The epigeal arthropod (including insects that decompose organic matter and other ecosystem services) communities sampled for this study include approximately “1669 individual arthropods, representing 47 species.” The researchers go on to list the various species from the collection periods in both 2018 and 2019. “In 2018, carabid beetles, including P. melanarius, H. erraticus, H. fuscipalpis, H. pensylvanicus, Stenolophus ochropezus Say, S. lecontei (Chaudoir), and Anisodactylus sanctaecrucis (Fabricius) accounted for 34.8 % of the total captures, while other arthropods, including individuals from Gryllidae, Formicidae, Lygaeidae, Scolytidae, Curculionidae, Meloidae, Cydnidae, and Araneae accounted for the remainder (65.2 %). In 2019, carabid beetles (P. melanarius, H. pensylvanicus, B. quadrimaculatum, Chlaenius tricolor, S. lecontei, C. tricolor, Zuphium sp.) represented 12.2 % of total captures, while the remainder (87.8 %) included individuals from Orthoptera, Gryllidae, Formicidae, Coccinellidae, Scolytidae, Curculionidae, Meloidae, Cydnidae, and Araneae.”

Results and Discussion

Researchers find the four following discoveries from this experiment:

1. “Tillage and pesticide seed treatments affected epigeal arthropod community composition.
2. Activity-density was lower in full-till compared to strip-till and no-till.
3. Spider abundance in strip-till was reduced by pesticide seed treatment.
4. Weed seed predation was higher in strip-till compared to full-till.”

Weed seed predation refers to the ecosystem service that wildlife provides in consuming seeds of weeds that would otherwise be treated with pesticides in chemical-intensive agriculture. The main variable in 2018 was pesticide seed treatment, whereas the main variable in 2019 was the degree of tillage. The “activity densities of Pterostichus melanarius (Illiger) [rainbeetles] were higher in the strip-till compared to full-till treatment in 2018.” The authors conclude, “These data provide evidence that both pesticide seed treatments and tillage systems can influence the communities of epigeal arthropods that inhabit annual row crop agroecosystems relatively late in the growing season, when the majority of pesticide residues have likely dissipated, and that the weed seed predation services provided by members of this community can be strongly negatively impacted by intensive tillage.”

The researchers also find that arthropod diversity was higher in full-till versus no-till plots in 2019, however they do acknowledge that “it is possible that had sampling of the epigeal arthropod community occurred earlier in the growing season a stronger pesticide treatment effect would have been detected.” The researchers remain unclear on why treated seeds did not impact spider abundance in the no-till and full-till plots. The variability can be attributed to other factors as well, including the corn-soybean crop rotation model used for this study.

The results of this experiment highlight the compounding impacts of chemical-intensive agricultural practices on biodiversity. Farmers who acknowledge the interconnected systems of agriculture and ecosystems understand the long-term impacts of soil disturbance through tilling disrupts microbial life and biodiversity, not to mention the impacts of glyphosate applications and pesticide-treated seeds can have on soil and human health.

Rise of Organic No-Till Farming

Beyond Pesticides has reported on organic no-till as a potential solution to the issue of toxic inputs and practices. Rodale Institute’s 40-year comparative field study on organic versus non-organic farming finds that, “No-till and organic no-till are not created equal. Conventional no-till utilizes herbicides to terminate a cover crop, whereas organic systems use tools like the roller crimper. We have found that organic no-till practices year after year do not yield optimal results, so our organic systems utilize reduced tillage, and the ground is plowed only in alternating years.” The Rodale Institute’s website adds that, in order to model standard agricultural approaches, GM (genetically modified) crops and no-till were introduced to the conventional plots in 2008 when those techniques became common in the U.S. (See Daily News here.)

The Institute’s Farming Systems Trial (FST) on its 12-acre Pennsylvania parcel uses 72 experimental plots, with three broad approaches:

• Organic manure, representing a typical organic dairy or beef operation, featuring long rotations of annual feed grain crops and perennial forage crops, fertilized through legume cover crops and periodic applications of composted manure, and using diverse crop rotations as primary defenses against pests;
• Organic legume, representing a typical cash grain operation, featuring mid-length rotations of annual grain crops and cover crops, deploying leguminous cover crops as the sole fertilizers, and using only crop rotations as pest defense;
• Conventional synthetic, representing a typical U.S. grain-producing enterprise, using synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, and controlling weeds with synthetic herbicides (according to recommendations of Penn State University Cooperative Extension).

As reported, each of those three is further divided into “no-till” and “tillage” strategies (tillage being the practice of digging up, turning over, or otherwise agitating the soil with mechanical tools — typically a plow or disc). This yields six different systems in the FST.

The FST finds:

1. Organic systems achieve 3–6 times the profit of conventional production;
2. Yields for the organic approach are competitive with those of conventional systems (after a five-year transition period);
3. Organic yields during stressful drought periods are 40% higher than conventional yields;
4. Organic systems leach no toxic compounds into nearby waterways (unlike pesticide-intensive conventional farming;
5. Organic systems use 45% less energy than conventional; and
6. Organic systems emit 40% less carbon into the atmosphere. 

See Beyond Pesticides’ National Forum session, Tackling the Climate Emergency (see November 29, Session 3 recording), with presentation by Rodale Institute’s Andrew Smith, PhD and coauthor of several landmark reports on soil biology and carbon sequestration — including the just-released Farming Systems Trial — 40-Year Report.

Call to Action

Advocates view both pesticide-treated seeds and high-tillage farming systems as extensions of the chemical-intensive agriculture and land management systems that perpetuate public health crises, undermine biodiversity integrity, and amplify the climate emergency.

Various studies indicate the failure of chemical-intensive no-till farming systems, including a 2022 study published in Nature which finds widespread herbicide resistance on pesticide-intensive corn and soybean farms leads to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions due to need for more tillage. Conversely, reporting from Vermont Public Radio in 2021 highlights the perspective of a retired state scientist, Nat Shambaugh, who found “regenerative” no-till farms increase use of toxic herbicides that ultimately run off into surrounding waterbodies, undermining ecosystem health.

A 2023 study published by American Bird Conservancy finds “a single corn kernel coated with a neonicotinoid can kill a songbird. Even a tiny grain of wheat or canola treated with the oldest neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, can poison a bird.” This report builds on previous studies, including a 2022 study published in Environmental Pollution finding that parents’ ingestion of pesticide-treated or contaminated seeds results in chronic exposure that adversely impacts offspring health, even at “sublethal” doses. (See additional Daily News coverage on neonicotinoid insecticide impacts on wildlife here and here.) With neonicotinoid insecticides in particular, a recent study published this year in Frontiers in Toxicology uncovered serious flaws in the pesticide registration process for five neonic insecticides (acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam) in terms of potential adverse effects on human health. The issue of pesticide-treated seeds continues to surface in various state legislatures, with New York and Vermont passing the first laws in the nation to restrict the use of pesticide-treated seeds beginning in 2029, pending rulemaking. (See Daily News here and here.)

Earlier this year, advocates across the nation called on EPA to not exempt pesticide-treated seeds and paint from thorough risk assessment and examination. (See Action of the Week here.) To learn more on how to engage in strengthening USDA organic standards, see Keeping Organic Strong.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment

(Beyond Pesticides, November 19, 2024) Researchers at Stanford University recently published a study in Cancer, an international interdisciplinary journal of the American Cancer Society (ACS), that reveals a correlation for numerous pesticides with increased prostate cancer occurrence and associated death. The study finds that exposure to 22 pesticides is positively associated with prostate cancer. The 22 pesticides include 2,4‐D, acephate, azoxystrobin, bifenthrin, carbaryl, chloropicrin, cloransulam‐methyl, cyhalothrin‐lambda, diflufenzopyr, diuron, glyphosate, hexazinone, linuron, methyl parathion, pendimethalin, propiconazole, sulfosate, thiamethoxam, thifensulfuron, tribenuron methyl, trifloxystrobin, and trifluralin. (See more on 2,4-D and cancer prevalence here and here.)

As prostate cancer is a leading national health concern, the authors investigate agricultural pesticide exposure and compared it to prostate cancer incidence and mortality across counties in the contiguous U.S. “The geographic variation in prostate cancer incidence and mortality suggests that regional environmental factors, such as pesticide exposure, may contribute to the development of prostate cancer,” the researchers postulate.

In comparing county‐level associations of 295 pesticides and prostate cancer reports, the authors were able to conduct an environment‐wide association study (EWAS) to determine any statistically significant links. “We acquired annual estimated total usage data (kg per county) for all pesticides reported and applied to agricultural crops grown in the United States from 1997 to 2006 from the National Water‐Quality Assessment Project through the U.S. Geological Survey Pesticide National Synthesis Project,” the researchers note. “We selected these years to allow for lag‐time between exposure and prostate cancer outcomes.”

The prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates were acquired for the timeframes of 2011–2015 and 2016–2020 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Cancer Institute. This data is U.S.‐wide, county‐level, and age-adjusted. The final data is compiled from 3,107 counties within the 48 states. Two cohorts were created based on the pesticide data for 1997–2001 and 2002–2006 and were then compared to cohorts for the prostate cancer data. Of the 295 pesticides that are analyzed, the authors focus on those that are available in both cohorts and that appear in at least 35 counties.

To further explain their methodology, the researchers say, “We used linear regression models examining 5‐year cumulative pesticide use separately for each of the 295 individual pesticides measured in 1997–2001 and age‐adjusted prostate cancer incidence rates from 2011–2015 (discovery cohort). We conducted parallel analyses for pesticide use in 2002–2006 among the same 295 pesticides and prostate cancer incidence rates in 2016–2020 (replication cohort).”

As a result, the discovery cohort with the 2011–2015 data shows 953,204 prostate cancer diagnoses and 140,086 deaths, while the replication cohort from 2016–2020 increased to 1,063,671 diagnoses and 156,687 deaths.

Statistical analyses reveal exposure to the 22 pesticides is positively associated with prostate cancer incidence in both cohorts. “The 22 candidate pesticides identified by this EWAS approach include pesticides previously reported to be associated with the incidence of prostate cancer: 2,4‐D, linuron, and carbaryl… Of the 19 candidate pesticides not previously reported as associated with the incidence of prostate cancer, many have been evaluated by the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] for their potential carcinogenic effects, although not explicitly in relation to prostate cancer, with seven of these pesticides classified as possible human carcinogens,” the researchers report. They continue, “[F]our of these candidate pesticides [cloransulam‐methyl, diflufenzopyr, thiamethoxam, and trifluralin] were associated with prostate cancer mortality, highlighting their potential relevance to the development of clinically significant prostate cancer.”

In the results connecting four pesticides to an increase in death from prostate cancer, further investigation into these classes of pesticides is needed. Three of the pesticides are herbicides, but come from different classes—trifluralin (dinitroaniline), cloransulam‐methyl (triazolopyrimidine), and diflufenzopyr (aryl‐carboxylates)—while thiamethoxam is a neonicotinoid insecticide. Of these, EPA considers only trifluralin as a possible human carcinogen. The other three are considered not likely to be carcinogenic or have evidence of non-carcinogenicity. Advocates are calling for EPA to fully evaluate all chemicals regarding endocrine disruption, carcinogenicity, and other long-term effects, as many currently registered pesticides lack chronic epidemiological studies.

There are many studies (see here and here) connecting pesticides with an increased prostate cancer risk. Beyond Pesticides has also highlighted this link through Daily News coverage over the last 10+ years here, here, and here. The correlation between pesticide exposure and endocrine disruption is also heavily documented. As reported in 2017, alterations in gene expression, such as with oxidative stress and endocrine disruption, can occur after contact with pesticides. One study finds that these DNA changes and “subsequent gene inactivation has been consistently associated with prostate cancer.” (See additional coverage here and here.)

ACS estimates that prostate cancer incidence in the U.S. for 2024 will include 299,010 new cases and 35,250 deaths. They also note that about 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, as it is the most common cancer among men in the U.S., second to skin cancer. Regarding cancer deaths in U.S. men, prostate cancer ranks second, with lung cancer being first. This translates to 1 in every 44 men dying from prostate cancer, which is lower than in past decades as early detection and treatment options have increased. ACS also finds that globally prostate cancer is the most diagnosed cancer type in men for 66% of the world (118 countries).

With the high prevalence of prostate cancer, and many other cancers, within the U.S. and worldwide, contributing factors such as pesticide use and exposure from drift need to be addressed. As the study authors conclude, “Public health efforts to reduce the burden of prostate cancer should consider pesticides as environmental exposures that may contribute to the incidence of, and mortality related to, prostate cancer.” Beyond Pesticides has not only called for more extensive testing but the adoption of alternative practices and products that eliminate toxic pesticide use to safeguard human health and the environment.

In organic land management, the reliance on petrochemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers is removed. Instead, least-toxic alternatives are used to effectively manage insects, rodents, and weeds without exposing any organisms or the environment to harmful chemicals. You can make The Safer Choice to avoid hazardous home, garden, community, and food use pesticides and eat with a conscience.

Choosing organic food rejects hazardous agricultural practices, mitigates climate change, protects farmworkers and farm families, and promotes healthy systems. Whether buying organic products or growing your own organic food, you can support the organic solution. Become a member of Beyond Pesticides today and sign up for Action of the Week and Weekly News Updates delivered right to your inbox!     

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source:

Soerensen, S. et al. (2024) Pesticides and prostate cancer incidence and mortality: An environment-wide association study, Cancer. Available at: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.35572.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 18, 2024) With the reported appointment of former U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin (R-NY) to the position of Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Senate confirmation hearings will be an important process that is intended to shine a light on individual nominations, the policies of an administration, and the science (or lack thereof) behind them. There have been reports in the media that the Trump administration may attempt to circumvent the “advice and consent” rule of the U.S. Senate by making recess appointments. Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers: No. 76 that Senate confirmation hearings act as a safeguard against the appointment of “unfit” officials.

Numerous interviews and critiques are painting a picture of what the future holds for environmental protection and all that means for addressing the serious catastrophic threats of ongoing and escalating health, biodiversity, and climate crises. “Mr. Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax,” has targeted “every one” of Mr. Biden’s policies designed to transition the United States away from fossil fuels,” according to The New York Times reporting on June 26, 2024. The Guardian reported on October 1 after Hurricane Helene, “As the hurricane continued to ravage the region over the weekend, the former president dismissed global warming in a Saturday speech, and the following day referred to the climate crisis as “one of the great scams of all time.” “More than 230 people have been killed from Hurricane Helene, which unleashed devastation across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee,” ABC News reported on October 7. The intensity and severity of hurricanes are directly related to climate change, according to Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

French researcher and professor Barbara Demeneix, PhD points out in her article, “How fossil fuel-derived pesticides and plastics harm health, biodiversity, and the climate,” in The Lancet, that, ”[Rachel] Carson [now over 60 years ago] showed that the decline in bird and fish populations was due to the pesticide DDT— 30 years before research showed that DDT acted through endocrine mechanisms. Oil is used to make chlorobenzene, which in turn is used to synthesize DDT. Similarly, many pesticides such as neonicotinoids, pyrethroids, and glyphosate are produced from gas and oil.” Plastics, PFAS, and more, are a part of this list. Tracey Woodruff, PhD (professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and the director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment and the EaRTH Center), School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, earlier this year wrote the article ”Health Effects of Fossil Fuel–Derived Endocrine Disruptors” in The New England Journal of Medicine, highlighting the urgent need to address the widespread chemical pollution stemming from the petrochemical industry and underscoring the dire implications for public health. In addition to the effects on climate, Dr. Woodruff points out that, “Many of these fossil-fuel-based chemicals are endocrine disruptors, meaning they interfere with hormonal systems, and they are part of the disturbing rise in disease.”  (See Daily News.) [Shortly, Beyond Pesticides will be posting Dr. Woodruff’s keynote to Beyond Pesticides’ National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency, on November 14.]

It is expected that the Trump administration will withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, which is considered “the most important UN [United Nations] process to tackle climate change,” according to the BBC. The BBC reports that, “The agreement saw almost all the world’s nations—for the first time—agree to cut the greenhouse gas emissions which cause global warming.”

Beyond the climate crisis, as the Trump administration is preparing to take office, the nation and world face existential crises that require urgent action. Human actions are contributing to an ongoing Holocene or sixth mass extinction, as well as crises in human disease. Humans and the biosphere will suffer if President-elect Trump’s new EPA Administrator follows a course destructive of EPA’s mission. Although some have called the environmental record of Mr. Trump’s nominee Lee Zeldin “mixed,” citing his past acknowledgment that climate change is real and support for regulating PFAS, he has shown his loyalty by supporting the former president through his first impeachment trial and challenges to the 2020 election results.  

>> Tell your U.S. Senators, under their responsibility to provide “advice and consent” for presidential appointments, to fully vet Lee Zeldin—for the position of EPA Administrator—on his understanding of the current existential environmental crises and the mission of EPA.

According to Mother Jones magazine, “By tapping former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency, President-elect Donald Trump opted to put his planned radical rollback of climate policy in the hands of a staunch ally who is skilled at projecting an image of a moderate conservationist.” 

Climate change is a real crisis and requires serious action. It is one of multiple crises that are compounding one another. Continued reliance on petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers is a major contributor to the release of greenhouse gases and the failure to reverse the threat through atmospheric carbon sequestration in healthy soils. While climate change may be most apparent—128 degrees F in Death Valley, heat waves in India, the U.S., and globally, the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, another wildfire season, etc.—there are also crises in human disease and biodiversity collapse. Heat makes the health effects of pesticides more serious. Climate change is intensifying the impacts of habitat destruction and toxic chemicals on biodiversity. The urgency to act is made more apparent every day. 

Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Zeldin have made clear that the mission of the new EPA Administrator is to enact “deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses.” Of course, businesses and the environment can coexist if industry adapts to the need for practices and products that are compatible with a healthy environment.

The stated mission of EPA is “to protect human health and the environment,” ensuring that:

• Americans have clean air, land, and water; 
• National efforts to reduce environmental risks are based on the best available scientific information; 
• Federal laws protecting human health and the environment are administered and enforced fairly, effectively and as Congress intended; 
• Environmental stewardship is integral to U.S. policies concerning natural resources, human health, economic growth, energy, transportation, agriculture, industry, and international trade, and these factors are similarly considered in establishing environmental policy; 
• All parts of society—communities, individuals, businesses, and state, local and tribal governments—have access to accurate information sufficient to effectively participate in managing human health and environmental risks; 
• Contaminated lands and toxic sites are cleaned up by potentially responsible parties and revitalized; and 
• Chemicals in the marketplace are reviewed for safety. 

Unless Mr. Trump is successful in evading the U.S. Senate confirmation hearing process, Senators will have an opportunity to probe the nominee’s knowledge of environmental crises and how his deregulatory mission aligns with the mission of protecting human health and the environment. 

How does Mr. Zeldin’s support of profligate energy use and petroleum-based industries further EPA’s mission to protect public health, in view of their numerous adverse existential impacts on human health, biodiversity, and climate? How does he intend to ensure that Americans have clean air, land, and water, while pursuing a deregulatory agenda? How will he guarantee that EPA acts on the best independent science? How will EPA limit use of chemicals to those that are thoroughly reviewed for possible impacts on human health, biodiversity, and climate? 

>> Tell your U.S. Senators, under their responsibility to provide “advice and consent” for presidential appointments, to fully vet Lee Zeldin—for the position of EPA Administrator—on his understanding of the current existential environmental crises and the mission of EPA. 

Letter to U.S. Senators
I am writing to ask you to use the confirmation hearing of President-elect Trump’s nominee for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to shine a light on the environmental plans of the new administration. It is critical that you exercise your responsibility to provide advice and consent for all presidential appointments, especially those that have a dramatic impact on the health and well-being of the people of our state and nation. Do not permit the circumvention of Senate confirmation hearings, which, as Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers, act as a safeguard against the appointment of “unfit” officials.

The nation and world face existential crises that require urgent action. Human actions are contributing to an ongoing sixth mass extinction, as well as crises in human disease and climate change. We cannot politicize science that informs public policy intended to protect public health and the environment. Although some have called the environmental record of President-elect Trump’s nominee Lee Zeldin “mixed,” citing his past acknowledgment that climate change is real and support for regulating PFAS (or per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances known as “forever chemicals”), the EPA Administrator must exercise a first loyalty to the mission of the agency and health of the environment that sustains our lives. 

Both President-elect Trump and Mr. Zeldin have made clear that the mission of the new EPA Administrator is to enact “deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses.” In contrast, the stated mission of EPA is “to protect human health and the environment.” Both can be achieved as industry adapts to the need for practices and products that are compatible with a healthy environment. EPA’s mission has been clearly nonpartisan and focused on the health of everyone and future generations. 

EPA states that it works to ensure that: 

*Americans have clean air, land, and water;

*National efforts to reduce environmental risks are based on the best available scientific information;

*Federal laws protecting human health and the environment are administered and enforced fairly, effectively, and as Congress intended;

*Environmental stewardship is integral to U.S. policies concerning natural resources, human health, economic growth, energy, transportation, agriculture, industry, and international trade, and these factors are similarly considered in establishing environmental policy;

*All parts of society–communities, individuals, businesses, and state, local, and tribal governments–have access to accurate information sufficient to effectively participate in managing human health and environmental risks;

*Contaminated lands and toxic sites are cleaned up by potentially responsible parties and revitalized; and

*Chemicals in the marketplace are reviewed for safety.

Senate confirmation hearings must shine a light on the policies of the new administration and the science behind them. How can Mr. Zeldin’s address energy use and petroleum-based industries within the context of EPA’s mission to protect public health, recognizing the existential crises, identified by independent scientific analyses, that threaten human health, biodiversity, and climate stability? How does he intend to ensure that Americans have clean air, land, and water while pursuing a deregulatory agenda? How will he guarantee that EPA acts on the best independent science? How will EPA limit use of chemicals to those that are thoroughly reviewed for possible impacts on human health, biodiversity, and climate?

Thank you for your consideration. I would appreciate knowing that you intend to fulfill your important advice and consent responsibility on presidential appointments, and help the nation unify on the protection of our health, the health of our nation’s children, and the health of the environment for future generations.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 15, 2024) There are many pie-in-the-sky ideas to address the climate crisis while allowing business as usual in the extractive and industrial systems that are causing the crisis. Prominent among them are geoengineering to block sunlight and building industrial plants to prevent carbon dioxide (CO₂) from reaching the atmosphere, known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).

Like geoengineering, CCS is a “solution for the future that always will be.” It has garnered decades of hype, research, and government funding of prototype projects without doing much of anything to remove carbon and keep it out of the atmosphere.

The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) contains numerous revenue streams aimed at coping with the climate crisis, including CCS. But it is a mixed bag of good and bad ideas. Beyond Pesticides analyzed the IRA in 2022, lauding the act’s “provision of unprecedented sums to address the existential threats we face related to climate, biodiversity, and health.” These include about $21 billion for “climate smart” agriculture and programs to reduce petrochemically dependent farming. But the analysis also details the many provisions for infeasible and counterproductive projects.

Rather than complex and expensive technological projects, the best practitioners of CCS are plants and soil. In fact, soils hold more than three times the carbon in the atmosphere. This is why agriculture—organic agriculture—can provide the simplest and most direct counter to the catastrophic load of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Industrial methods have made agriculture a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions by virtue of deforestation, soil erosion, nutrient depletion, and general degradation of landscapes. More than half the entire soil carbon loss since agriculture began has occurred in the last 150 years, according to Farming Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis, a report from Project Drawdown. But organic methods offer a route to re-capture much of that carbon and prevent further emissions. Another report from American Farmland Trust, Combatting Climate Change on US Cropland, notes that the U.S. has almost 400 million acres of cropland, offering an enormous opportunity to rebuild soil organic carbon, capture atmospheric carbon, and reduce emissions. Just adopting cover crops and no-till practices could reduce emissions “equal to 40% of 2018 U.S. agricultural emissions,” the report states, and if proper practices are applied, “soil carbon emissions could be halved from 2010 levels by 2050.”

Thus, decoupling agriculture from fossil fuels should be a primary goal of any climate mitigation plan, yet it takes second place to more technological proposals in federal initiatives and is being actively obscured by fossil fuel companies. Many of the touted elements of industrially-based carbon reduction programs include materials that are of doubtful utility at best, such as biofuels including biochar and ethanol. Further, pesticides, which are mostly derived from fossil fuels, add directly to carbon emissions. At least one pesticide is actually a greenhouse gas itself, sulfuryl fluoride, which is used to kill termites, moths, bedbugs and beetles.

The policymakers, corporate interests, and researchers focusing on climate solutions tend to concentrate on the energy balance of technologies in the hope that a carbon capture or prevention method will also produce more energy than it consumes. This strong emphasis on combining carbon control with energy production can compromise the former and often results in more energy being expended than is produced. The approach also omits consideration of unintended consequences and harms to public and worker health that may be present in any climate solution application. In other words, technological and economic benefits take precedence over human and ecological protections without actually mitigating climate change.

The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) has just issued a report with a number of recommendations for how we may manage carbon without harming communities already vulnerable to multiple environmental stressors. The first recommendation is that all types of carbon capture should undergo analysis of their “environmental impacts (including Soil), human and public health risks and impacts, cumulative impacts, explosion and seismic risks, full life cycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions outcomes, and co-pollutant emissions related to these projects.” The report addresses how climate policy decisions may themselves contribute to the injustices faced by groups already bearing the brunt of industrial practices and their effects on climate: communities of color, Native American tribes, farmworkers, and poor people.

The WHEJAC report takes aim at the CCS variant Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). This involves burning biomass to produce energy and capturing the resulting carbon emissions. BECCS is widely considered a crucial element in an overall climate-saving strategy, and is supported by the IRA.

But the WHEJAC report details a number of substantial concerns with BECCS methods, which “contribute to soil erosion, nutrient depletion, and degradation of soil quality, and … are painted as carbon negative [climate-protective] despite the fact that BECCS ‘leads to significantly more carbon emissions in the grid than the current average.’” Moreover, BECCS projects compete with actual crop production and require major inputs of land and water. Some proposals even suggest burning existing forests to provide energy, the logic of which is incomprehensible. And according to a Natural Resources Defense Council analysis, in at least one typical BECCS scenario, the CO₂ emissions occurring along the biomass supply chain would offset 60 percent of the captured emissions at the biomass power station.

Another as-yet-unworkable idea, carbon markets, has also been promoted as a way to reduce emissions since the Kyoto Protocol enabled them in the 1990s. The idea is that carbon emitters can buy credits from others who did not use their allotted carbon emissions, and producers can “offset” carbon emissions in other ways, such as paying for tree planting elsewhere. But last year the Guardian reported that 90 percent of the offsets traded in the world’s largest offset program were “phantom” credits and resulted in zero carbon reductions.

Further, as Beyond Pesticides covered in the August 27 Daily News, carbon markets have also had another serious negative consequence. Carbon offset and reduction concepts inspired pesticide companies to set up purported “sustainable” programs based on the continued use of agrochemicals including pesticides and pesticide-treated seeds, greenwashing them by claiming they are useful in reduced or no-till agriculture and cover cropping and can conserve soil carbon.

Pesticides, treated seeds and biochar contamination are serious issues both for organic practitioners generally and for vulnerable populations. The WHEJAC report warns that any climate mitigation programs based on carbon capture, biomass burning, and biochar must be thoroughly vetted and required to specify the types of feedstocks used and ensure that public health risks are taken into account.

Beyond Pesticides covered a particularly egregious version of converting biomass to energy in 2021. According to a Guardian investigation, a company called AltEn in Mead, Nebraska produced ethanol from unused seeds. Unfortunately, the seeds were coated with toxic pesticides, including bee-killing neonicotinoids. Ethanol plants typically sell their leftover fermented seeds to livestock farmers as “spent grains.” But the company recognized that its spent grains were too poisonous for livestock, so they sold them to farmers as a soil amendment. This merely spread the toxicity around more, and farmers and the community objected. Finally the state banned the sale of the spent grains, so the company piled them up around the ethanol plant, where the level of the neonicotinoid cloathianidin reached 427,000 parts per billion. Another neonicotinoid was measured in a wastewater storage pond at over 300 times its acceptable level in drinking water. Two days after the state shut the company down in 2021, a pipe burst and spilled millions of gallons of tainted wastewater. The state is now conducting a cleanup of the site at the scale of a Superfund site, although the plant is not so designated.

Biochar is a very popular component of many carbon reduction programs. It is basically biomass—either waste material or grown for the purpose—reduced to carbon in a low-oxygen environment so that CO₂ does not form. The heat energy produced in that process can be tapped for human use. And the biochar, used as a soil amendment, sequesters carbon.

Biochar can have other virtuous applications, such as removing pollutants from water. But, as a 2024 study found, its virtue is also its Achilles heel; like charcoal, it can absorb and retain just about anything, including heavy metals and pesticides in soil. Further risks from biochar depend on the chemistry of the source material, which can include hemp, wood, wheat chaff, and many other plants. For example, depending on source and processing, levels of toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as naphthalene may vary in the end product. It is not a neutral and uniform material that will save the planet without careful management.

The WHEJAC report expresses concern for workers and others exposed to biochar. Particulates, high temperatures and contaminants can lead to respiratory, skin and eye injuries. There may be allergenic potential in some types of biochar, and contaminants in feedstocks may be transferred to soil and water. Currently, the report says, few of the downstream or unintended consequences like these are considered in climate projects.

Pesticides contribute directly to climate change in multiple ways. According to a 2022 Pesticide Action Network report, “99 percent of all synthetic chemicals—including pesticides—are derived from fossil fuels.” Production of one kilogram of pesticide takes about ten times more energy than one kilogram of fertilizer, resulting in proportionally more greenhouse gas emissions. And just as nitrogen fertilizers do, fumigant pesticides multiply formation of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide in soils, which then escapes to the atmosphere.

Wetlands, which are extremely important carbon sinks, can be turned into carbon emitters by pesticides, according to a July 2024 study. For example, the authors cite research indicating the fungicide tridemorph increases methane production in flooded rice fields; in the authors’ direct experiment, the herbicides glyphosate and 2,4-D combined increased CO₂ production in wetland sediment.

As we showed in our Daily News last May, sulfuryl fluoride has been known to be a greenhouse gas since 2008 and was listed as such by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2013. Sulfuryl fluoride use has increased since the 1987 Montreal Protocol on the ozone layer led to reduction in methyl bromide applications. In 2009, Beyond Pesticides reported on a study showing that sulfuryl fluoride absorbs infrared light at a high rate and lasts a long time in the atmosphere—at least 30 to 40 years, and possibly as long as 100 years. It is up to 4,000 times as effective at trapping heat as CO₂. When used indoors, 90 percent of it escapes to outdoor air within two hours.

Nor is sulfuryl fluoride benign otherwise. Several cases of acute exposure resulting in death have been documented. The chemical can also result in cancer, endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity, and impacts on reproduction and development. EPA allows it to be used in the production of raw and processed foods. U.S. emissions of sulfuryl fluoride are highest in southern California, according to a study published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment last April. The study includes an analysis of imagery showing that after the chemical is applied inside tents, plumes of the gas drift over residential areas. This pesticide does double duty as a threat to the climate and directly to human and ecosystem health.

Taken together, the evidence shows that conventional agriculture using industrial chemicals does more harm than good with respect to climate change. Tying progressive agricultural CCS to energy production hamstrings the climate benefits. Endorsing BECCS, biochar, pesticide-treated seeds, and the like by commercial interests and policy experts without serious consideration of unintended consequences will likely fail to have the desired effect and produce numerous additional harms to humans and ecosystems.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources:

Recommendation Report 2 White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council Recommendations: Carbon Management
White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC)
October 4, 2024
https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-10/whejac-carbon-management-recommendations-october-2024.pdf#page51

Unregulated Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Potent Pesticide Impact Climate Crisis and Public Health
Beyond Pesticides, May 2, 2024
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2024/05/unregulated-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-potent-pesticide-impact-climate-crisis-and-public-health/

Harnessing soil carbon sequestration to address climate change challenges in agriculture

Project Drawdown
Soil and Tillage Research
Volume 237, March 2024
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167198723003264

Combatting Climate Change on US Cropland: Affirming the Technical Capacity of Cover Cropping and No-Till to Sequester Carbon and Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
American Farmland Trust
https://s30428.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/AFT_Carbon-WP-2020_FNL-web.pdf

The energy return on investment of BECCS: is BECCS a threat to energy security?
Mathilde Fajardyab and Niall Mac Dowell
Energy & Environmental Science 2018
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2018/ee/c7ee03610h

Pesticides and Climate Change: A Vicious Cycle
Pesticide Action Network 2022
https://www.panna.org/resources/pesticides-and-climate-change-a-vicious-cycle/

Historic Federal Support Could Effectively Take on Climate, Health, and Biodiversity Crises—with Grassroots Advocacy
Beyond Pesticides, August 19, 2022
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2022/08/historic-federal-support-could-effectively-take-on-climate-health-and-biodiversity-crises-with-grassroots-advocacy/

Carbon Markets Entrench Pesticide Use
Beyond Pesticides, August 27, 2024
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2024/08/carbon-markets-entrench-pesticide-use/

Termite Insecticide a More Potent Greenhouse Gas than Carbon Dioxide
Beyond Pesticides, January 26, 2009
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2009/01/termite-insecticide-a-more-potent-greenhouse-gas-than-carbon-dioxide/

Ethanol Plant Processing Pesticide Coated Seeds Contaminates Nebraska Town
Beyond Pesticides, January 13, 2021
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2021/01/ethanol-plant-processing-pesticide-coated-seeds-contaminates-nebraska-town/

Exploring negative emission potential of biochar to achieve carbon neutrality goal in China
Deng et al.
Nature Communications 2024
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45314-y

Common use herbicides increase wetland greenhouse gas emissions
Cornish et al.
Science of the Total Environment
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724030286

(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 (“The Bay”), according to a company press release. It is unclear to local communities if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will permit the company’s 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 October), leading to “an estimated 68 million gallons of spilled pollution has been reported so far across seven counties, a number that is likely a vast undercount and sure to rise as wastewater managers learn more about how facilities fared,” according to a separate Tampa Bay Times analysis.

As extreme weather events occur with higher frequency and severity due to the climate emergency, frontline communities are increasingly concerned about the potential for worsening toxic spills from existing and planned petrochemical infrastructure, particularly in the Southeast and Gulf of Mexico regions, but also nationwide. Advocates prefer a wholesale transition to organic land policies and practices, rather than continuing to invest in infrastructure (e.g., carbon capture and storage/carbon credits, phosphate mines) framed by industry as climate solutions.

Florida Phosphate Mines

Florida is the hub of domestic phosphate production. In 2017, the Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCAMP) initiative through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published a historical, geospatial analysis of the legacy of phosphate production in the state going back to the 1880s. (See here for the full report.)

Four of the nation’s nine currently operating plants are located in the Sunshine State, according to a Mineral Commodities Summary for phosphate conducted by USGS and published in January 2024. “More than 95% of the phosphate rock mined in the United States was used to manufacture wet-process phosphoric acid and super phosphoric acid, which were used as intermediate feedstocks in the manufacture of granular and liquid ammonium phosphate fertilizers and animal feed supplements,” according to the report. Phosphate rock is also produced in Idaho, North Carolina, and Utah. While the report is technically correct that “there are no [elemental] substitutes for phosphorus in agriculture,” organic and agroecological farmers point to the availability of phosphorus-containing substances compatible with national organic standards (e.g., liquid fish products and squid byproducts containing phosphoric acid), as well as manure and compost.

Phosphate facilities, both active and retired, pose demonstrable environmental and public health impacts. In 2021, over 200 million gallons of contaminated wastewater was pumped into Tampa Bay from the retired Piney Point phosphate plant in Manatee County. In a previous Daily News, Beyond Pesticides covered the immediate aftermath of this crisis. (See here.) The phosphogypsum stacks at Piney Point storage “pond” contain uranium and its decay products, such as the isotope radium-226 (which has a half-life of 1,600 years and decays into radon); these are highly radioactive elements. The stacks also contain toxic elements, such as lead and arsenic. In the Piney Point incident, the concern—beyond the potential tsunami of wastewater had the holding pond been breached—was that the stacks might then collapse and send radioactive waste in the flood waters. The plant was built in 1966 to process phosphate rock into synthetic fertilizer, and for decades there was a pattern of mismanagement resulting in the release of polluted wastewater into The Bay. (See here for a timeline developed by Tampa radio station WUSF.)

Petrochemical Infrastructure and Permissible Harms

There are extensive analyses and documentation of the existing and projected impacts of petrochemical infrastructure on ecological and public health.

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) released a report earlier this year, The U.S. Petrochemical Buildout: America’s Next Big Climate Mistake, outlining the greenhouse gas emissions impacts of petrochemical pesticide and fertilizer sectors. According to CIEL analysis, “planned petrochemical projects across the US could add a staggering 153.8 million metric tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) emissions annually. This is equal to the emissions of nearly 40 coal power plants or all US domestic commercial aviation emissions.” The development of these planned projects will exacerbate existing inequalities for frontline communities in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” as well as Gulf South and Ohio River Valley communities who have faced decades of toxic exposure to the fossil fuel supply chain.

According to the website of American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), the leading petrochemical trade association in the U.S., there are 311 petrochemical facilities in the United States. Additionally, AFPM describes U.S. refineries and petrochemical facilities as “among the most technologically advanced and efficient in the world.”

Publicly available data paints a different picture. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) releases reports on national pipeline performance measures and tracks various leaks from fossil fuel infrastructure, including crude oil, refined petroleum, and biofuel pipelines. According to most recently published DOT data, there have been approximately:

• 12,494 reported leaks on federal lands (not including the National Park System) between 2010 and 2023;
• 20 serious incidents [defined as “a fatality or injury requiring overnight, in-patient hospitalization”] between 2005 and 2023 for “crude oil/refined petroleum/biofuel” pipelines, with operator failure as the leading cause; and
• 1,189 “accidents impacting people or the environment” between 2010 and 2023, with the four leading causes being corrosion, equipment failure, material failure of pipe/weld, and incorrect operation.

Environmental and public health advocates are not surprised by the expectation of allowable harms borne from toxic substances in the context of U.S. energy production, given the pervasiveness of tolerances EPA sets for the permissible amount of pesticides that can be legally allowed in food, drinking water, and other sources, as set by Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

As previously reported, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) releases annual pesticide residue reports through the Pesticide Data Program (PDP). Each year, USDA finds a vast majority of tested products have some level of residues in food products, yet spins the findings as a positive: “More than 99 percent of the products sampled through PDP had residues below the established EPA tolerances.” According to the latest data released in the 32^nd Annual Summary Report, over 72 percent of tested commodities contain residues. The tolerance setting process has been criticized as highly deficient because of a lack of adequate risk assessments for vulnerable subpopulations, such as farmworkers, people with compromised health or preexisting health conditions, and children, as well as a failure to fully assess serious health outcomes such as disruption of the endocrine system (which contributes to numerous serious diseases). For example, in a Consumer Reports review also published earlier this year, seven years of PDP analyses show that 20% of the foods tested pose a “high risk” to the public and 12 specific commodities are so dangerous that children or pregnant people should not eat more than one serving per day. (See Daily News here.)

Call to Action

See the latest Action of the Week, EPA Must Not Register Pesticides Without Sufficient Data Demonstrating No Endocrine Disruption, to demand EPA consider complete data for endocrine disruption and call upon Congress to ensure that EPA follows through in not registering pesticides without sufficient data demonstrating no endocrine disruption.

Talk with Beyond Pesticides about creating a livable future: Attend Beyond Pesticides’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency. The Forum Session 2 will be held today, November 14 at 1:00pm (EST). Tracey Woodruff, PhD, will be speaking on issues she published earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine on the impact of petrochemical pesticides, fertilizers, and plastic linked to severe health consequences, including endocrine disruption. (See Daily News here.) Dr. Woodruff, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) senior scientist and policy advisor, is director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, and professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. 

Dr. Woodruff’s talk will be followed by a roundtable with panelists, including a former senior scientist focusing on ecosystem effects, a breast cancer activist, and two farmworker advocates who will share their experience and insight into both the regulation of hazardous materials (including endocrine disrupting chemicals) and strategies for connecting science (and the power of those adversely affected) to decisions that eliminate hazards—recognizing disproportionate risk to people of color. Tapping the experiences of the panelists, this discussion brings together strategic thinking that supports efforts by individuals and organizations to transition away from petrochemicals from a range of perspectives and a broadening of coalition efforts. The panelists include Les Touart, senior science and policy advisor, Beyond Pesticides—former senior EPA biologist and member of EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee; Janet Nudelman, director of program and policy, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (BCPP); and, Mily Treviño-Sauceda, executive director and co-founder and Amy Tamayo, national policy and advocacy director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Inc., the first national grassroots farmworker women’s organization. Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, will moderate.

Registration is complimentary, with contributions appreciated. 

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Tampa Bay Times

(Beyond Pesticides, November 13, 2024) A study in Chemosphere, conducted by researchers from the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Germany, reveals the varied lethal and sublethal effects of different glyphosate mixtures through tests on the South African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis (X. laevis). After exposing embryos to four glyphosate formulations, mortality, morphological defects, altered heartbeat rate, and impaired heart-specific gene expression are observed. Glyphosate, an herbicide and popular weed killer in many Roundup® products, is one of the most commonly detected pesticides in waterbodies worldwide, threatening aquatic organisms and overall biodiversity.

This study investigates the effects of Glyphosat TF, Durano TF, Helosate 450 TF, and Kyleo, four formulations containing glyphosate, as compared to the effects of pure glyphosate on embryonic development in amphibians. The formulations consist of varying concentrations of the active ingredient glyphosate, as well as other active and inert ingredients. The authors share that, “Glyphosat TF contains 34% glyphosate and 10–20% d-glucopyranose, while Durano contains 39–44% glyphosate and 1–5% N–N-dimethyl-C12-C14-(even numbered)-alkyl-1-amines. In Helosate most of the ingredients are listed – 50–70% glyphosate, 1–10% isopropylamine, 1–3% lauryl dimethyl betaine, 0.25–1% dodecyl dimethylamine. Kyleo only lists the active ingredients glyphosate (27.9%) and 2,4-D (32%).”

2-cell stage embryos (early stage of embryonic development) were utilized as the exposure start point to assess embryo developmental effects within the pesticide solutions. All solutions were prepared with glyphosate concentrations of 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, and 100 mg/L. “The exposure of embryos to 0.01–10 mg/L glyphosate reflects environmentally relevant concentrations already measured in different countries, with 100 mg/L glyphosate representing ‘worst-case’ scenarios (e.g., incorrect handling or improper disposal), but already measured in water bodies in Argentina,” the researchers state.

Embryos were observed for death every 30 minutes for the first two hours after the start of exposure, and then every 24 hours until they reached stage 44/45. Surviving organisms were analyzed for their general morphological phenotype and potential developmental retardation, as well as embryo mobility, heart rate measurements, immunostaining of the heart, brain and heart measurements, gene expression analysis, and cell apoptosis.

Lethal effects are seen with many of the formulations during the first few days of exposure. “100% embryo mortality was detected after four days (NF-stage 30) of exposure to 100 mg/L glyphosate in Durano,” the authors note. Three days of exposure to 100 mg/L glyphosate in Helosate also shows 100% mortality. Embryos exposed to Kyleo have the most severe lethal effects, as “exposure to Kyleo containing 100 mg/L glyphosate caused 100% mortality within two days (NF-stage 15), while even at 10 mg/L Kyleo exposure led to 96% mortality after five days (NF-stage 33/34).”  

In the surviving organisms, the formulations result in malformations such as reduced eye and head size. These sublethal concentrations are also linked to impaired heart morphology and function, as well as altered expression of heart-specific genes. As compared to the control group, a reduction of the embryos’ heart rate after exposure to all four glyphosate formulations is also seen.

Expression of key cardiogenic genes (mhcα, mef2d, and tnni3) aids in heart muscle cell differentiation and is critical for development. In exposing embryos to each of the four formulations, expression intensity and area were altered for these genes. The researchers report, “[E]xposure to Durano (0.1 mg/L glyphosate) increased the intensity of mhcα expression… Exposure to 0.1 mg/L glyphosate in Helosate led to an increase in the area and intensity of mhcα expression.”

Exposure to 0.1 mg/L glyphosate in both Glyphosat TF and Kyleo led to reduced intensity of mef2d expression. “Helosate (0.1 mg/L glyphosate), on the other hand, resulted in an increase in mef2d expression intensity,” the authors say. The gene tnni3 showed a reduced expression intensity with 0.1 mg/L glyphosate in both Glyphosat TF and Helosate, and helosate exposure also led to an increase in apoptotic cells with the embryos. A study in 2022 has shown that glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) like Roundup® induce DNA damage and alter biological mechanisms (gene regulatory microRNAs [miRNAs or miRs]) associated with cancer development (See more on altered genes here.)

“Exposure to glyphosate-based herbicides investigated in present study altered the expression levels (area and intensity) of the genes mhcα, mef2d and tnni3 to varying degrees depending on the specific formulation,” the researchers find. “Despite the differences in gene expression among formulations, all showed significant deviations from control embryos, confirming that these formulations disrupt cardiac differentiation in X. laevis embryos.” Altering the embryos of X. laevis down to a molecular level shows the adverse effects of glyphosate and its formulations on key species that can ripple throughout the ecosystem.

“The present study confirmed that glyphosate formulations can have both lethal and sublethal effects on X. laevis embryos. The different formulations selected for exposure experiments showed varying degrees of lethal effects at the same concentrations of the active ingredient glyphosate,” the researchers summarize. With the varied results, the authors hypothesize that the other ingredients play a role in toxicity. “The high lethal effect of the Kyleo formulation (starting at 10 mg/L glyphosate) may be due to the addition of the second active ingredient 2,4-D as this herbicidal active ingredient mimics the plant growth hormone auxin and overstimulates cell division leading to plant death,” they postulate. “[W]e attribute the high mortality observed with Kyleo primarily to a combination effect of different ingredients (glyphosate, 2,4-D, and other ingredients) in the formulation and not to glyphosate alone.”

Currently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) performs risk assessments on individual active ingredients, ignoring the potential synergistic effects of pesticide mixtures. Beyond Pesticides has long documented how synergy should be included in all pesticide registration processes, as well as the regulatory failures of EPA. (See more here and here.)

This study confirms that glyphosate formulations have a stronger effect on X. laevis embryogenesis than pure glyphosate, leading the authors to conclude that “it is crucial to evaluate the active ingredient and the co-formulations independently, as well as the combined, commercially available products, during pesticide risk assessments and renewal procedures of agrochemicals. The severe global decline of amphibians, partly due to herbicide use, highlights the need for strict and efficient monitoring of environmental pesticide loads and application areas.” (See previous coverage here.)

Formulations containing glyphosate as the active ingredient also incorporate other, often undisclosed, co-formulants. These additional components could alter or intensify the toxicity towards organisms like X. laevis. “To date, the herbicide glyphosate and its various formulations have been widely studied in laboratory, driven by the increasing concerns over their unanticipated effects on a wide range of non-target organisms (from soil microbes to vertebrates) and their potential risks they pose to human health,” the researchers emphasize. “Nevertheless, uncertainties remain regarding their toxicity and effects on aquatic non-target organisms.”

These uncertainties are threatening the health of all organisms, as well as the stability of both aquatic and terrestrial food webs. This study “highlights the importance of evaluating not only the active ingredients but also their combinations in formulations before new authorizations or renewals are granted,” the researchers note. “Given the substantial variation in lethal concentrations across different amphibian species, it is crucial to investigate the effects of herbicides, and more generally pesticides, across a diverse range of taxa to safeguard wildlife and ecosystem stability.”

Biodiversity loss is one of the major and escalating crises today. Impacts on biodiversity cascade to all natural ecosystems and the essential services they provide. “Amphibians are the most severely affected group of all vertebrates, with 40.7% of species facing an acute risk of extinction,” the authors state. With pesticide residues entering water bodies via various routes like spray drift, leaching, and run-off, these impacts on aquatic species need to be prioritized in risk assessments.

The current dependence on petrochemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers subjects all humans and wildlife to chemicals that bring a myriad of health effects. There is a wide body of science linking pesticide exposure to asthma/respiratory effects, birth/fetal effects, brain and nervous system disorders, cancer, sexual and reproductive dysfunction, learning/developmental disorders, diabetes, immune system disorders, and endocrine disruption.

As the researchers state, “Herbicides, including glyphosate-based formulations, have been widely suggested to act as endocrine disruptors, which is especially critical given the key role of thyroid hormones during the amphibian metamorphosis.” (See additional studies here and here.) Take action to tell EPA that it must consider all data concerning endocrine disruption and must not register pesticides without sufficient data to demonstrate no unreasonable adverse endocrine risk.

National Forum

To learn more, plan to attend Beyond Pesticides’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future! The second session, on Thursday, November 14, 2024, at 1 PM (EST), is with Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, the director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Woodruff’s work focuses on uncovering and addressing environmental determinants of disease and health inequities, and she has written groundbreaking material on endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Dr. Woodruff is the author of “Health Effects of Fossil Fuel–Derived Endocrine Disruptors,” published earlier this year in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Roundtable Discussion

Dr. Woodruff’s talk will be followed by a roundtable with panelists, including a former senior scientist focusing on ecosystem effects, a breast cancer activist, and a farmworker advocate who will share their experience and insight into both the regulation of hazardous materials (including endocrine disrupting chemicals) and strategies for connecting science (and the power of those adversely affected) to decisions that eliminate hazards—recognizing disproportionate risk to people of color. Tapping the experiences of the panelists, this discussion brings together strategic thinking that supports efforts by individuals and organizations to transition away from petrochemicals from a range of perspectives and a broadening of coalition efforts. The panelists include: Les Touart, PhD, senior science and policy advisor, Beyond Pesticides—former senior EPA  biologist and member of EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee; Janet Nudelman, director of program and policy, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (BCPP); Mily Treviño-Sauceda, executive director and co-founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Inc., the first national grassroots farmworker women’s organization; and her colleague, Amy Tamayo, national policy and advocacy director, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas. Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, will moderate.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source:

Flach, H. et al. (2024) Glyphosate formulations cause mortality and diverse sublethal defects during embryonic development of the amphibian Xenopus laevis, Chemosphere. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653524025244.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 12, 2024) With revelations reported last month by Investigate Midwest and previously by The Guardian showing that Syngenta, the manufacturer and registrant of paraquat, kept secret scientific information on the weed killer’s adverse effects related to Parkinson’s disease, there is increasing concern that endocrine-disrupting properties have not been fully disclosed. Endocrine-disrupting synthetic chemicals, derived from fossil fuels, will be the focus of Session 2 of Beyond Pesticides 41^st National Forum: Imperatives for a Sustainable Future on Thursday, November 14 from 1:00-3:00pm (EST).

Keynote Speaker

The keynote speaker, Tracey Woodruff, PhD, will address the scientific, health, and regulatory issues associated with societal reliance on these chemicals. Dr. Woodruff, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) senior scientist and policy advisor, is the director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, and professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. 

Roundtable Discussion

Dr. Woodruff’s talk will be followed by a roundtable with panelists, including a former senior scientist focusing on ecosystem effects, a breast cancer activist, and a farmworker advocate who will share their experience and insight into both the regulation of hazardous materials (including endocrine disrupting chemicals) and strategies for connecting science (and the power of those adversely affected) to decisions that eliminate hazards—recognizing disproportionate risk to people of color. Tapping the experiences of the panelists, this discussion brings together strategic thinking that supports efforts by individuals and organizations to transition away from petrochemicals from a range of perspectives and a broadening of coalition efforts. The panelists include Les Touart, PhD, senior science and policy advisor, Beyond Pesticides—former senior EPA  biologist and member of EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee; Janet Nudelman, director of program and policy, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (BCPP); Mily Treviño-Sauceda, executive director and co-founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Inc., the first national grassroots farmworker women’s organization; and her colleague, Amy Tamayo, national policy and advocacy director, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas. Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, will moderate.

Paraquat.

As Beyond Pesticides argued in a September action alert, EPA has sufficient evidence meeting the standard it established in banning the herbicide Dacthal (or DCPA–dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate) to ban the highly toxic herbicide paraquat. The new information revealed by Investigate Midwest and The Guardian (linked above) shows that Syngenta has long sought to hide studies showing that paraquat causes Parkinson’s disease in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).   

>> Tell EPA to ban paraquat. Registrants that hide data should not be allowed to register pesticides or maintain their registrations. Tell EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) to investigate whether registrants are reporting adverse effects as required and whether EPA is taking action based on that information.

Section 6(a)(2) of FIFRA states, “If at any time after the registration of a pesticide the registrant has additional factual information regarding unreasonable adverse effects on the environment of the pesticide, the registrant shall submit such information to the Administrator.” As reported by Investigate Midwest: 

[T]housands of pages of records released in litigation and first reported by The Guardian, show the company’s own scientists determined that paraquat had the potential to damage the brain and nervous system as far back as the 1950s.  

Additional documents, also first reported by The Guardian, showed that as evidence of a connection between paraquat exposure and Parkinson’s disease mounted, Syngenta attempted to discredit critical scientists and limit the spread of information that could threaten paraquat sales. 

“Due possibly to good publicity on our part, very few people here believe that paraquat causes any sort of problem in the field and we have the support of the official side,” a toxicologist at Syngenta’s predecessor company wrote to a Chevron toxicologist in 1975, in response to early concerns about paraquat’s long-term health impacts. 

The articles by Investigate Midwest and The Guardian give a detailed history of the discovery of the link between paraquat and Parkinson’s and Syngenta’s coverup.

*Based on the EPA criteria used in the Dacthal decision, the agency should ban paraquat.

Paraquat poses immediate serious harms to people and the environment. Citing serious health issues associated with its use, including Parkinson’s disease, and inaction by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the weed killer paraquat would be banned through legislation introduced in the California Assembly (AB 1963). Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Burbank), in the Assembly’s leadership, chair of the bicameral Environmental Caucus, and a self-described “steadfast advocate for the environment [and] sustainable communities,” introduced the legislation to phase out and ban the use of paraquat across all uses, including agriculture, by the end of 2025. The introduction of this bill follows a long history of scientific documentation of the pesticide’s hazards, fits and starts in the regulatory process, and previous efforts to ban the herbicide through legislative action. In 2018, U.S. Representative Nydia Velasquez (D-NY) introduced legislation (Protect Against Paraquat Act) to ban paraquat. 

The 6th edition of Recognition and Management of Pesticide Poisonings by James R. Roberts, M.D., M.P.H, and J. Routt Reigart, M.D., says, “When a toxic dose is ingested (see below), paraquat has life-threatening effects on the gastrointestinal tract, kidney, liver, heart, and other organs. The LD50 in humans is approximately 3-5 mg/kg, which translates into as little as 10-15 mL of a 20% solution. . . Although pulmonary toxicity occurs later in paraquat poisoning than other manifestations, it is the most severe and, therefore, mentioned first. Pulmonary effects represent the most lethal and least treatable manifestation of toxicity from this agent. The primary mechanism is through the generation of free radicals with oxidative damage to lung tissue. While acute pulmonary edema and early lung damage may occur within a few hours of severe acute exposures, the delayed toxic damage of pulmonary fibrosis, the usual cause of death, most commonly occurs 7-14 days after the ingestion. In those patients who ingest a very large amount of concentrated solution (20%), some have died more rapidly from circulatory failure (within 48 hours) prior to the onset of pulmonary fibrosis.” 

A 2005 study in Toxicological Sciences was able to “reproduce features of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in experimental animals.” And studies continued to replicate findings associating paraquat with Parkinson’s disease, as EPA continued to reject the need for action. Paraquat was banned in the European Union in 2007, following its prohibition years earlier in 13 countries, including Sweden, Denmark, and Austria. 

In the U.S., paraquat is currently a restricted-use pesticide (meaning it can only be applied by certified applicators or those working under their on- or off-site supervision) and banned on golf courses. There is established and mounting evidence of links between minimal exposure and various adverse health impacts for humans and wildlife. This has mobilized advocates within and outside of California for more robust action by the federal government to serve the public interest. 

Beyond Pesticides continues to track the latest scientific literature on adverse health impacts of paraquat. Within all the single-pollutant models employed in a 2022 study published in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers found a linkage between paraquat dichloride and thyroid cancer. A different study published that same year in Independent determined the toxic impacts of paraquat on bird embryos, including the Japanese quail, mallards, bobwhite quail, and ring-necked pheasant. Over 60 countries have already banned the use, production, and sale of paraquat, including China, where the pesticide was first developed. 

>> Tell EPA to ban paraquat. Registrants that hide data should not be allowed to register pesticides or maintain their registrations. Tell EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) to investigate whether registrants are reporting adverse effects as required and whether EPA is taking action based on that information. 

EPA’s ecological risk assessment in support of its ID did not consider risks to endangered/threatened species and potential jeopardy to their continued existence. As stated in the assessment: “Given that the agencies are continuing to develop and work toward implementation of the Interim Approaches to assess the potential risks of pesticides to listed species and their designated critical habitat, this ecological risk assessment for paraquat does not contain a complete ESA analysis that includes effects determinations for specific listed species or designated critical habitat.” Considering that the calculated risk quotients (RQs) exceed established levels of concern (LOCs) for most unlisted species, it can be inferred that listed plant and animal species in areas of paraquat use could indisputably be at risk of jeopardy. 

Paraquat was also not fully assessed for potential endocrine disruption. Both the human health and ecological assessments deferred an assessment and provided canned language that endocrine disrupting potential will be further considered under the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP). However, there is evidence available that paraquat has endocrine-disrupting effects. The use of paraquat is significantly associated with hypothyroidism. Paraquat has been reported to decrease testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, and prolactin in male rats. In the frog Rana esculenta, paraquat was found to inhibit the production of testosterone in the testis and 17-beta-estradiol in the ovary. More importantly, the endocrine disruption activity of paraquat that causes excessive reactive oxygen species production also links paraquat to Parkinson’s Disease. Though somewhat limited, these data do indicate a potential for unreasonable adverse endocrine disruption in humans and wildlife and should be further investigated as mandated in FIFRA and the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA). 

Mitigation measures have not eliminated the harm. In 2018, EPA downplayed the connection between exposure to paraquat and the development of Parkinson’s disease in registration review documents released by the agency. But Assemblymember Friedman, in a press release on the day the California legislation was introduced, said, “We cannot afford to ignore decades of mounting evidence linking paraquat exposure to Parkinson’s disease, non-Hodgkin, and childhood leukemia.” She continued: “In 2021, the latest year for which data are publicly available, just over 430,000 pounds were applied in California, primarily in Kern, Kings, Fresno, Merced, and Tulare counties. The herbicide is extremely toxic to humans, with low doses causing death, and it has been linked to increased risk of Parkinson’s Disease.” 

EPA’s actions, or inaction as some would argue, on recognizing the scientific literature on paraquat exposure and Parkinson’s disease represent a failure of EPA to take a proactive approach in ending the continued exposure and health impacts of the toxic herbicide to chemically sensitive populations. According to the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs’ guidelines on paraquat and diquat, these ammonium herbicides are life-threatening in toxic doses and hold the potential to “impact GI tract, kidney, lungs liver, heart, and other organs.” Specifically regarding paraquat, “pulmonary fibrosis is the usual cause of death in paraquat poisoning.” 

In 2019, EPA released, “Systematic Review of the Literature to Evaluate the Relationship between Paraquat Dichloride Exposure and Parkinson’s Disease.” Following this ruling, EPA was lambasted for its dismissal of the linkage between Paraquat exposure and Parkinson’s Disease, despite a growing body of literature between 2009 and 2019 and, given that “[a]n EPA environmental review conducted as part of the reregistration process found evidence of significant reproductive harm to small mammals, and determined that songbirds may be exposed to levels well beyond lethal concentrations known to cause death. Threats to mammals and songbirds are particularly concerning considering significant declines in these animal groups.” 

In 2019, Beyond Pesticides submitted comments and concluded: “Since the agency risk assessments are intended to support Agency risk management review, risk management recommendations are not provided in its draft risk assessments. The many risk concerns and uncertainties (lack of data) identified in both the human health and ecological risk assessments make it unconscionable to allow continued use of such a dangerous pesticide as paraquat. A restricted use label will do little to allay the ecological risk concerns enumerated or adequately protect persons in the vicinity of treatments or in harvest and post-harvest activities. Taken together with the clear inability of the agency to preclude the potential for Parkinson’s disease, it is recommended that the use of paraquat should be immediately suspended if not outright cancelled as it is in the EU and several other countries.” 

In late January 2024, EPA released a report, “Preliminary Supplemental Consideration of Certain Issues in Support of its Interim Registration Review Decision for Paraquat.” According to the interim report, “The Agency prepared several documents to support its 2021 interim registration review decision for paraquat and attempted ‘to connect the dots’ of the risk-benefit information contained in its support documents in the Paraquat ID.” The results of this interim report, specifically regarding linkage to Parkinson’s Disease and other health risks associated with chronic exposure to paraquat, highlight the flaws in EPA’s approach to risk assessment and opportunities to incorporate additional sources of sound science in the final report in January 2025. For example, “EPA intends to consider [additional studies] as part of the next steps in this process. First, EPA recognizes that the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Earthjustice submitted letters to EPA on August 4, 2023, along with information that they believe is relevant to EPA’s consideration of paraquat’s health risks. This information consisted of approximately 90 submissions including scientific studies, as well as testimony filed in an ongoing state lawsuit concerning paraquat. EPA has included these documents in the docket for paraquat at EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0855-0317 and EPA-HQ-OPP2011-0855-0313. While the Agency has started reviewing that material, it was unable to complete that review prior to the issuance of this document. [As a result, this document does not reflect the Agency’s review of any of those materials.] Second, new information on paraquat vapor pressure was submitted on January 18, 2024, which may impact the Agency’s volatilization analysis. Due to the late submission of that data, EPA has not incorporated that information into this document. Therefore, EPA intends to address that material along with any other significant information it receives during the public comment period and incorporate its consideration of those materials into any final document(s) issued by January 17, 2025.” Advocates found it surprising that the EPA was not able to review studies submitted by the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Earthjustice, even though the agency had more than several months for review. Beyond Pesticides will continue to track updates to this upcoming public comment period to insert new studies and data points for the EPA to include in their final report.   

>> Tell EPA to ban paraquat. Registrants that hide data should not be allowed to register pesticides or maintain their registrations. Tell EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) to investigate whether registrants are reporting adverse effects as required and whether EPA is taking action based on that information.

In April 2024, Beyond Pesticides’ comments on the Paraquat Interim Registration Review stated, “EPA failed to assess a common mechanism of toxicity for PQ [paraquat] and any other substance in its review for the ID [interim decision], erroneously concluding that PQ does not have a common mechanism of toxicity or combined toxic action with other substances that may interact and potentiate its action.” The comments address the mandates under FIFRA and FQPA, stating that the agency failed to meet its mandate to obtain proof that paraquat “unequivocally does not cause or contribute to Parkinson’s Disease” and to assess paraquat endocrinological risk through FQPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, respectively. Additionally, the comments cite EPA’s failure to adequately review and incorporate the breadth of studies pointing to a relationship between Parkinson’s Disease and paraquat exposure; failure within its ecological risk assessment to consider risks to endangered wildlife and subsequent ecosystem balance concerns; and failure in its risk-benefit analysis to fully consider the risks of paraquat exposure.

The public does not benefit from continued registration of paraquat. Although EPA asserts that there are no direct alternatives to paraquat, however, several alternatives, chemical and non-chemical, are widely available. Given the availability of alternative pest management practices that incorporate alternative cultural practices and/or less toxic products, including other registered pesticides, the agency has a statutory duty to revoke all registrations of the paraquat under its unreasonable adverse effects standard in FIFRA. The risks and uncertainties identified by the agency in its assessments and the independent scientific literature are not reasonable in light of the availability of less toxic alternatives and cultural practices. To refute a rebuttable presumption against paraquat registration, the many data gaps listed previously would need to be fulfilled and reveal opposing evidence to the existing adverse effect data. 

EPA has sufficient information to cancel paraquat. EPA has the information above, which is in the open literature and/or provided in regulatory comments by Beyond Pesticides and others. The failed regulation, and subsequent harm, caused by paraquat is but one representation of a failed regulatory system that can and should do more to eliminate the use of toxic petrochemical-based pesticides. The convergence of crosscutting crises of health threats, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency stems from continued reliance on fossil fuels and petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers, which perpetuate the harms of greenhouse gas emissions. These crises are causing ecosystem fragmentation and failure, and public health crises that undermine the nutritional integrity of the food supply and the scientific integrity the public relies on for safety and well-being. After decades of working with farmworkers and farmers who face the brunt of toxic pesticide exposure, Beyond Pesticides echoes the call for advocates across the nation to expand and strengthen organic land management principles to move beyond the existing product substitution framework that leads to the continuous use of toxic pesticides.  

*EPA must not allow companies that hide data to continue to sell pesticides. 

Under FIFRA, EPA relies on data submitted by pesticide manufacturers and registrants. If EPA cannot be sure that it has complete data, then it cannot fulfill its statutory mission to prevent unreasonable adverse effects on humans and the environment.

*EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) should investigate the compliance with FIFRA §6(a)(2). 

The Office of Inspector General is an independent office within EPA whose mission is to: “Conduct independent audits, evaluations and investigations; make evidence-based recommendations to promote economy, efficiency and effectiveness; and prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement and misconduct for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.” Ensuring that EPA has the necessary data to perform its responsibilities is a critical safeguard.

Letter to EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs
I am renewing my request to ban paraquat. Not only does paraquat meet EPA’s criteria as stated in its decision to ban Dacthal, but new information has shown that the registrant, Syngenta, has withheld information concerning paraquat’s adverse effects. Since under FIFRA EPA depends on data supplied by the registrant in determining unreasonable adverse effects, Syngenta’s duplicity should disqualify it from being allowed to register any pesticide products.  I am pleased to see EPA’s action to ban Dacthal and prohibit the use of existing stocks. However, paraquat has not been held to the same standard.

In deciding to ban Dacthal, EPA says it considered the seriousness, immediacy, and likelihood of the threatened harm; benefits to the public of continued use; and nature and extent of the information before EPA.

*Paraquat poses immediate serious harms to people and the environment.

The 6th edition of Recognition and Management of Pesticide Poisonings by James R. Roberts, M.D., M.P.H, and J. Routt Reigart, M.D., says, “[P]araquat has life-threatening effects on the gastrointestinal tract, kidney, liver, heart and other organs. The LD50 in humans is approximately 3-5 mg/kg, which translates into as little as 10-15 mL of a 20% solution. . . Although pulmonary toxicity occurs later in paraquat poisoning than other manifestations, it is the most severe and, . . .[p]ulmonary effects represent the most lethal and least treatable manifestation of toxicity from this agent. The primary mechanism is through the generation of free radicals with oxidative damage to lung tissue. While acute pulmonary edema and early lung damage may occur within a few hours of severe acute exposures, the delayed toxic damage of pulmonary fibrosis, the usual cause of death, most commonly occurs 7-14 days after the ingestion. In those patients who ingest a very large amount of concentrated solution (20%), some have died more rapidly from circulatory failure (within 48 hours) prior to the onset of pulmonary fibrosis.”

*Paraquat poses risks to endangered/threatened species and potential jeopardy to their continued existence.

It is an endocrine disruptor. Use of paraquat is significantly associated with hypothyroidism. It has been reported to decrease testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone and prolactin in male rats. In the frog Rana esculenta, paraquat was found to inhibit the production of testosterone in the testis and 17-beta-estradiol in the ovary. Moreover, the endocrine disruption activity of paraquat that causes excessive reactive oxygen species production also links it to Parkinson’s Disease.

*Mitigation measures have not eliminated harm.

EPA has downplayed the connection between exposure to paraquat and the development of Parkinson’s disease in registration review documents released by the agency, leading California Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Burbank), chair of the bicameral Environmental Caucus, to introduce legislation to phase out and ban the use of paraquat across all uses, including agriculture, by the end of 2025.

*The public does not benefit from continued use of paraquat.

Alternative pest management practices that incorporate cultural practices and/or less toxic products are available. Significantly, EPA routinely refuses to recognize the success of organic farming, which does not depend on synthetic pesticides, in calculating “benefits.” 

*EPA has sufficient information to ban paraquat.

EPA has the information above, which is in the open literature and/or provided in regulatory comments, demonstrating that the agency has a statutory duty to revoke all registrations of the paraquat under its unreasonable adverse effects standard in FIFRA. 

Please apply the criteria EPA used in the Dacthal decision to paraquat. Issue an emergency suspension and prohibit use of existing stocks. Suspend and cancel registrations of all Syngenta products.

Thank you.

Letter to EPA’s Office of Inspector General
I am writing to request that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigate the Office of Pesticide Program’s (OPP) compliance with §6(a)(2) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Section 6(a)(2) of FIFRA states, “If at any time after the registration of a pesticide the registrant has additional factual information regarding unreasonable adverse effects on the environment of the pesticide, the registrant shall submit such information to the Administrator.”

Under FIFRA, EPA relies on data submitted by pesticide manufacturers and registrants. If EPA cannot be sure that it has complete data, then it cannot fulfill its statutory mission to prevent unreasonable adverse effects on humans and the environment.

The Office of Inspector General is an independent office within EPA whose mission is to: “Conduct independent audits, evaluations and investigations; make evidence-based recommendations to promote economy, efficiency and effectiveness; and prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement and misconduct for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.” Ensuring that EPA has the necessary data to perform its responsibilities is a critical safeguard.

New information revealed by Investigate Midwest shows that Syngenta, the manufacturer and registrant of paraquat, has long sought to hide studies showing that paraquat causes Parkinson’s disease in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). As reported by Investigate Midwest:

[T]housands of pages of records released in litigation and first reported by The Guardian, show the company’s own scientists determined that paraquat had the potential to damage the brain and nervous system as far back as the 1950s. 

Additional documents, also first reported by The Guardian, showed that as evidence of a connection between paraquat exposure and Parkinson’s disease mounted, Syngenta attempted to discredit critical scientists and limit the spread of information that could threaten paraquat sales.

“Due possibly to good publicity on our part, very few people here believe that paraquat causes any sort of problem in the field and we have the support of the official side,” a toxicologist at Syngenta’s predecessor company wrote to a Chevron toxicologist in 1975, in response to early concerns about paraquat’s long-term health impacts.

The articles by Investigate Midwest and The Guardian give a detailed history of the discovery of the link between paraquat and Parkinson’s and Syngenta’s coverup. See https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/10/23/herbicide-paraquat-sygenta-legal-troubles-parkinsons-disease-health-claims-lawsuits/; https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/20/syngenta-weedkiller-pesticide-parkinsons-disease-paraquat-documents; https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/02/paraquat-parkinsons-disease-research-syngenta-weedkiller.

I urge OIG to investigate whether registrants are reporting adverse health effects data and whether OPP is using the data in evaluating pesticide registrations.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 8-11, 2024) On Veterans Day 2024 we honor those who have served the country and allies. In the 117^th (2021-2022) U.S. Congress, legislators enacted The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 (PACT Act). Since the law passed just over two years ago, there has been just under 1.3 million total approved claims marking a roughly 75% approval rate for PACT Act related claims, according to Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) accounting of progress between August 10, 2022, and October 12, 2024 through its dedicated bimonthly VA PACT Act Performance Dashboard.

The legacy of toxic burn pits (open air areas where the military has burned toxic waste) and other avenues for toxic exposure in military bases oversees, as well as within the United States in Hawai’i (See coverage on asbestos exposure continuously impacting veterans, as reported on by Honolulu Civil Beat) and Puerto Rico (See peer-reviewed literature review here on toxic heavy metals in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health), among other areas, comes at a time when the country assesses the ongoing impacts of a history that has been characterized by critics as colonial or imperialist.

Environmental and public health advocates are galvanized by the successful rollout of the PACT Act and view it as a successful model that embodies the precautionary principle, given the “presumptive conditions” that immediately make applicants eligible based on their military service. Advocates have called upon Congress, White House, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to apply the criteria it set through “The Dacthal Standard” (See Daily News here) to suspend the registration of toxic pesticides, including atrazine and paraquat, and apply the standard of “presumptive conditions” to expanded funding and support for National Organic Program.

PACT Act Analysis

Environmental, public health, and veterans advocates welcome the impact of PACT Act funds for a systemically neglected subpopulation—veterans.

There are nearly 4.1 million current enrollees in PACT Act Planning Population (a metric used to “identify….the impact of the PACT Act on enrollment in VA health care”), underscoring the popularity of the program. Approximately $6.83 billion in PACT Act benefits have been paid to enrolled veterans between August 10, 2022 and August 6, 2024. VA has engaged in over 5.6 million toxic exposure screenings in that same period, with about one in ten toxic exposure screenings (525,914 screenings) where a veteran identified exposure to more than one toxic substance.

Since the law was enacted, there have been approximately 259,941 “New Enrollees in the PACT ACT Planning Population” (“measur[ing] the number of new enrollees in VA health care that fall within the PACT Act Planning Population to understand the impact of the PACT Act on enrollment.”) See VA Pact Act Anniversary Performance Dashboard here for further information on statistics, metrics, and definitions. Given that 13% of the adult homeless population are veterans according to National Coalition for Homeless Veterans analysis of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates for 2023 calendar year, advocates welcome the increase in enrolled veterans in their care programs as result of the PACT Act.

The law recognizes the toxic exposure from smoke and fumes generated from open burn pits. In Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas of the Southwest Asia theater of military operations, open-air combustion of chemicals, tires, plastics, medical equipment, and human waste in burn pits was a common practice, according to VA. The Department of Defense says it has now closed most burn pits and is planning to close the remainder. President Biden has attributed his son’s death from brain cancer in 2015 to his exposure to burn pits in Iraq.

PACT Act has a long list of presumptive conditions for compensation and additional services for exposure to burn pits, as well as contaminated water, Agent Orange, and additional exposure-related presumptive conditions (see Military.com for expansive list here), including but not limited to:

• Cancers of the brain, head, neck, and nervous system
• Brain and nervous system disorders (i.e., Parkinson’s Disease)
• Sarcomas
• Spinal cord cancers
• Gastrointestinal cancers
• Kidney cancers
• Lymphomas
• Melanomas
• Pancreatic cancers
• Reproductive cancers
• Respiratory cancers
• Various non-cancer conditions (High blood pressure/hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary fibrosis, among others.)

Connection to The Dacthal Standard

Advocates believe that PACT Act’s success lends itself to the design of the legislation in establishing presumptive conditions for eligibility. EPA made history earlier this summer when they made the decision to ban the herbicide Dacthal or DCPA (dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate) using the “imminent hazard” clause in Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). What was already a nearly unprecedented move was the simultaneous accompanying decision to prohibit the continued use of existing stocks of the weed killer Dacthal, a provision that EPA also rarely uses. (See previous Daily News coverage on existing stocks orders for dicamba and chlorpyrifos.) In making its decision, EPA stated that the agency considered:

1. The seriousness of the threatened harm;
2. The immediacy of the threatened harm;
3. The probability that the threatened harm will occur;
4. The benefits to the public of the continued use of the pesticide; and
5. The nature and extent of the information before the Agency at the time it makes a decision.

Advocates acknowledge criteria set in “The Dacthal Standard,” as determined by EPA actions this year, demonstrate the agency’s potential to establish presumptive conditions for preventing further exposure to toxic pesticides to vulnerable subpopulations in the U.S. For example, EPA identified serious concerns about fetal hormone disruption and resulting “low birth weight and irreversible and life-long impacts to children [impaired brain development, decreased IQ, and impaired motor skills] exposed in-utero” and finds that there are no “practicable mitigation measures” to protect against these hazards. (See EPA Federal Register notice here.)

EPA has issued this emergency action just once before in its history. This was in 1979 when the agency acknowledged miscarriages associated with the forestry use of the herbicide 2,4,5-T—one-half of the chemical weed killer Agent Orange, which is one of the toxic substances covered under PACT Act for Vietnam War veterans.

Call to Action

THIS WEEK – Talk with Beyond Pesticides about creating a livable future: Attend Beyond Pesticides’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency. The Forum launched on October 30 at 2-4pm (EDT) and will continue on November 14 at 1pm (EST). Tracey Woodruff, PhD, will be discussing the impact of petrochemical pesticides, fertilizers, and plastic linked to severe health consequences, including endocrine disruption. (See Daily News here.) 

The conversation will continue after Dr. Woodruff’s talk with a roundtable of remarkable people with a wealth of experience and insights into both the regulation of hazardous materials (including endocrine-disrupting chemicals) and strategies for connecting science (and the power of those adversely affected) to decisions that eliminate hazards—recognizing disproportionate risk to people of color. Tapping the experiences of the panelists, this discussion brings together strategic thinking that supports efforts by individuals and organizations to transition away from petrochemicals from a range of perspectives and a broadening of coalition efforts. 

The Forum provides an opportunity to discuss with world-renowned scientists, from Germany and the U.S., both (i) the hazards that define the urgency of threats associated with petrochemical toxicants, with a focus on chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system (including pesticides) and lead to life-threatening diseases, and (ii) the strategy for adopting a path forward that tackles the problem holistically, rather than one chemical at a time.  

Registration is complimentary, with contributions appreciated, and valid for all sessions of the Forum!   

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Department of Veterans Affairs

(Beyond Pesticides, November 7, 2024) Organic banana production is significantly more conducive to microbial decomposition than its chemical-intensive counterparts in the Caribbean nation of Martinique, according to a recent study published in Applied Soil Ecology. “Macrofaunal decomposition was increased more (55%) than microbial decomposition (20%), indicating that organic farming removes a constraint of conventional farming especially affecting macrofauna.” Biological activity in the soil is foundational to organic land management and critical to the cycling of nutrients that feed plant life while contributing to resiliency and soil water retention.

Bananas are one of the most highly consumed fresh fruits in the U.S. marketplace. A consumer survey conducted by the International Fresh Produce Association in 2023 identified 84% of households purchasing bananas that year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service identifies bananas as the third most consumed fruit product in the United States, with the average person eating 13.2 pounds that year.

Since bananas require specific bioclimatic conditions for commercial production that meets ongoing consumer demand, the proliferation of industrial-scale monoculture banana plantations in various Central and South American countries and territories has and continues to devastate local and Indigenous communities for generations. Environmental justice and public health advocates are invested in pushing for organic agricultural production to move beyond extractive systems that leverage toxic pesticide products at the expense of public health, biodiversity, and community well-being.

Study Analysis

Background and Goals

“Our study aims at improving knowledge on how organic farming affects litter decomposition in a tropical agroecosystem focusing on banana cropping systems in Martinique (Lesser Antilles),” says the study authors.

The authors hope to address an apparent gap in research surrounding the potential impact of organic farming on litter decomposition. In tropical areas with ideal bioclimatic conditions for banana production such as Martinique, “biological activity is supposed to be the driving force of decomposition process.” Therefore, the researchers focus on the impact of organic farming on microbial decomposers (i.e. fungi and bacteria) as well as macrofaunal decomposers (i.e. earthworms, isopods, gastropods, and diplopods).

As an extension of the main goal, researchers proposed two guiding questions to direct this study:

1. Does organic farming enhance litter decomposition in the banana cropping systems of Martinique?
2. Does glyphosate contamination of banana litter affect its decomposition in situ (in the original place)?

The study authors are researchers at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, or Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD), a self-described “French agricultural research and cooperation organization working for the sustainable development of tropical and Mediterranean regions.” The authors received joint funding from the European Regional Development Fund and the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique for this study.

Methodology

The researchers gathered leaf litter samples from banana fields in two distinct bioclimatic zones in Martinique, “the South of Martinique” (South zone) and “central Martinique” (Central zone).

The South zone is known for a relatively dryer climate, Vertisol soil type, and lower mean average annual rainfall; the Central zone, meanwhile, is relatively more humid, Nitisol soil type, and higher average annual rainfall. To ensure uniformity in the data analysis and avoid confounding factors such as soil type in the South zone, the authors “restricted [the] study area to a plain sector with the same soil type, where we interviewed different farmers about their crop management, where [the researchers] interviewed different farmers about their crop management, [the researchers] selected three organic banana fields and three conventional banana fields having the same planting date, similar slope, soil tillage and field area (1.5 hectares/3.7 acres on average).”

Meanwhile, in the Central zone, “three organic banana fields and three conventional banana fields were selected on an experimental station managed like a farm within the BANABIO project [another CIRAD research initiative].” The fields in the Central zone were smaller than those in the South zone, with a mean area of 500 square meters per field. The authors note that “all fields were banana monocultures” of the Cavendish subgroup of the AAA banana cultivator group (Musa acuminata), the most commonly produced species available to consumers in the global marketplace.

To address the first research question, researchers considered various variables, including field shading by banana canopy, weed soil cover, plant species richness, and macrofaunal decomposer abundance and richness. Five sampling units were established for the South and three for the Central fields due to discrepancies in field size between the two zones. Earthworms (the indicator for macrofaunal decomposition) were hand-sorted and placed in three sampling units on each field. To address the second research question, the authors collected two batches of banana leaf litter samples from randomly selected plants in each field. The first batch was collected from plants injected with glyphosate, and the second batch was destroyed without the use of the pesticide. The leaves were dried outdoors for a week before falling to the ground and transported to the laboratory to quantify glyphosate and one of its degradation products, as well as carbon, nitrogen, and other mineral concentrations.

To test for leaf decomposition and compare rates between organic and conventional fields (as well as glyphosate and glyphosate-free leaf litter), the litter was gathered from randomly selected plants and placed into 264 litter bags on the soil surface of the 12 selected field sites. Seven control bags were placed in a banana field near the laboratory to best monitor the decomposition rates across both the Central and South zones. The bags had large and small mesh sizes to test the microbial versus macrofaunal contributions to decomposition. The “ash-free decomposition rate” was calculated for each bag to “correct this final dry mass for potential soil contamination in the litter.”

For further details, see the “Materials and Methods” section.

Main Conclusions

The authors arrived at the conclusion that there were notable differences in biological activity and soil health in organic versus non-organic fields. “Mean plant species richness was 55% significantly higher in organic fields and soil weed cover was 79% significantly higher in organic fields than in conventional fields,” says the researchers. The presence of earthworms, macrofauna, and other decomposers was far higher in organic fields. The nitrogen, calcium, and magnesium concentrations “were significantly higher” in glyphosate-free samples.

The type of farming practices and decomposition rate had a significant influence. “Overall litter mass loss was 24% significantly higher in organic compared to conventional fields,” says the researchers. Microbial decomposition was 20% higher in organic fields, with macrofaunal contribution 55% higher in organic fields relative to conventionally grown banana fields. This top-level finding is in alignment with other comparative analyses of decomposition rates of organic and conventional fields in the Netherlands and Ghana.

The researchers hypothesize the three main mechanisms contributing to greater litter decomposition in organic fields:

1. “[T]he toxicity of herbicides (especially glyphosate) on macrofauna decomposers in conventional fields.”
2. “[T]he stimulated microbial and macrofaunal activity due to organic fertilization in organic fields ().”
3. “[T]he beneficial effect of vegetation providing more microhabitats and favourable microclimate for both microorganisms and macrofauna, ().”

Toxic Legacy of Monoculture Banana Plantations

Human rights and environmental advocates consider the continuation of monoculture banana farms a matter of environmental injustice and racism that will also cause lasting public health and biodiversity damage.

In 2019, Central American agricultural workers exposed to the toxic pesticide Nemagon brought back lawsuits in French courts after previously failed attempts back in the 1980s. (See Daily News here). Those lawsuits were prevented from moving forward again in 2022 after the lawyer representing the affected workers shared that the courts “denied our claim because the judges had no jurisdiction over the [pesticide] companies.” This decision follows a precedent in which multinational companies do not face legal consequences for their actions due to arguments of jurisdiction. In 2009, U.S. District Judge Paul Huck said a multimillion-dollar judgment against U.S. food giant Dole and the Dow Chemical Company cannot be enforced because, “[T]he judgment was rendered under a system which does not provide impartial tribunal or procedures compatible with the requirements of due process of law, and the rendering court did not have jurisdiction over Defendants.” (See Daily News here.) Meanwhile, biodiversity and human health are impacted by chemical-intensive banana production as documented by previous Daily News here and here.

Call to Action

Demand for organic bananas is increasing significantly. According to data gathered by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), bananas, soybeans, and sugar are the topmost imported organic products in the United States. “With more than 1.2 million metric tons and almost 44 percent of the Latin American and Caribbean organic exports, bananas are the most important product group,” says the report (See here.)

Session 1 of Beyond Pesticides’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency, from October 30, can be viewed here. Session 2 of the Forum continues on November 14 at 1pm (EST). The Forum provides an opportunity to discuss with world-renowned scientists, from Germany and the United States, both (i) the hazards that define the urgency of threats associated with petrochemical toxicants, with a focus on chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system (including pesticides) and lead to life-threatening diseases, and (ii) the strategy for adopting a path forward that tackles the problem holistically, rather than one chemical at a time.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Applied Soil Ecology

(Beyond Pesticides, November 6, 2024) An analysis in the International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews emphasizes the role of biodiversity in agriculture, adding to a wide body of science on its importance. The authors, from Western Illinois University in the United States and Rome Business School in Italy, find that biodiversity supports critical ecosystems and organisms needed for sustainable food production. Through literature reviews and case studies, the interconnectedness of agriculture with plant and animal diversity, beneficial insects, soil health, and climate change is highlighted, as well as the need to manage land organically to support biodiversity.

Plant and Animal Diversity

As the researchers note, “A diverse agricultural system can better absorb shocks and maintain productivity, ensuring food security in the face of uncertainty.” A wide range of species present within ecosystems protects from changing environmental conditions and improves resilience. When farmers use monocultures for their crops, this leads to reduced ecosystem services from beneficial insects and increased vulnerability to pests and diseases. “By contrast, diverse cropping systems can enhance resilience, providing a buffer against environmental changes and fostering sustainable food production,” the authors say.

Research shows that higher plant diversity disrupts pest life cycles and promotes beneficial insects, which prevents farmers from relying on chemical inputs. Crop diversity also improves soil health. By having healthy soils, this “reduce[s] the need for chemical inputs while also providing habitats for beneficial organisms that help control pests and diseases.” Having a diverse range of crops, such as with polycultures and crop rotation, improves yield stability and creates a system with natural defenses against pests. This biodiversity also contributes to ecosystem services, such as pollination, nutrient cycling, and soil fertility, that are essential for agriculture.

The authors note that, “[I]n countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, smallholder farmers have integrated legumes and cover crops into their rotations. This not only enhances soil fertility through nitrogen fixation but also contributes to improved food security by providing multiple harvests throughout the year.” This promotes soil health while also supporting farmers and consumers.

A genetically varied population, for both crops and livestock, is “less susceptible to epidemics and can better withstand environmental stresses, such as extreme temperatures or feed shortages,” the researchers report. They continue, “Studies have shown that mixed-species cropping systems often yield higher overall productivity compared to monocultures, as different species can utilize resources (such as light, water, and nutrients) more efficiently. Additionally, diverse plantings can provide habitats for beneficial organisms, fostering a balanced ecosystem.”

Having plant diversity within a landscape also provides root mass and structure in the soil, which allows for greater water absorption and retention that helps both during periods of drought and in mitigating flooding during heavy rainfall. The authors share additional benefits in saying, “Diverse plant communities act as natural filters, capturing pollutants and nutrients before they can reach water bodies. For instance, buffer strips and cover crops can absorb excess nitrogen and phosphorus, thereby reducing nutrient runoff into rivers and lakes, which helps to prevent eutrophication.”

The researchers also find that the practice of integrating trees and shrubs into agricultural landscapes, known as agroforestry, enhances biodiversity, protects water resources, and improves soil structure. “In Brazil, agroforestry practices such as the integration of native trees with crops and livestock have been instrumental in restoring degraded lands and improving ecosystem health. For example, the ‘Sistema Agroflorestal’ (SAF) involves planting diverse species of trees alongside cash crops, which not only diversifies income sources but also enhances soil fertility and resilience against climate extremes,” the authors share.

Another case study in Costa Rica, which practices agroforestry through its Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) program, “incentivizes farmers to maintain and enhance biodiversity on their lands. This program encourages practices that incorporate native tree species into agricultural landscapes, promoting habitat for wildlife and increasing carbon sequestration,” the researchers state.

Integrating several types of livestock can additionally improve land use. By having cattle, sheep, and poultry, nutrient management increases, and the various livestock, can graze and forage on the land, which supports carbon sequestration. “A diverse array of species within agroecosystems, from crops and livestock to soil organisms and pollinators, contributes to the stability, productivity, and adaptability of farming systems,” the authors say. By creating diverse populations on their land, farmers can increase the resilience and productivity of their farms.

Predatory Insects Crucial for Ecological Balance

An increase in natural predators, such as ladybugs, is seen in diverse ecosystems, which help control pest populations. These insects are better able to adapt to changing conditions and bring many benefits to landscapes. “For instance, ladybugs can consume thousands of aphids in their lifetime, providing significant pest control without the harmful side effects associated with chemical treatments,” the researchers note.

Pollinators are necessary for the reproduction of many crops and are drawn to landscapes with a variety of plants. The use of pesticides, such as neonicotinoids, endangers these critical species. (See Daily News here, here, and here.) As the authors share, “The loss of pollinators not only affects crop yields but also threatens the reproduction of many wild plant species, further exacerbating biodiversity loss.”

Populations of pollinators and other beneficial insects are facing what is known as the “insect apocalypse” as they are threatened with habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change, and diseases. This has led to a “decline in biodiversity, particularly in agricultural landscapes, [that] can exacerbate these threats by reducing the availability of food and nesting sites for pollinators. Restoring habitats and implementing practices that promote biodiversity, such as planting cover crops and creating wildflower strips, can enhance pollinator populations and, consequently, crop yields,” the researchers state. See more coverage on insect biodiversity here and here.

Soil Health

The foundation of sustainable agriculture begins with healthy soil. The soil microbes, including bacteria and fungi, underfoot provide essential functions in nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, and disease suppression, among others. Diversity in soil microorganisms helps maintain soil structure and fertility, which promotes healthy and resilient crops.

“Different microbial species have specialized roles in breaking down organic matter and transforming nutrients into plant available forms. For instance, nitrogen-fixing bacteria can convert atmospheric nitrogen into forms usable by plants, thereby reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers,” the authors write. “Feed the Soil, Not the Plant” is the mantra of organic land management. By focusing on soil health, other issues, such as pests and climate change, are also mitigated.

Climate Change

One of the major crises species are facing today is climate change. There is a vicious cycle of anthropogenic activities that exacerbate climate change, creating conditions that can further these activities even more. With climate change comes severe weather, such as droughts, floods, and heatwaves, that puts stress on food production. In these unfavorable conditions, a shift toward monocultures, as well as increased usage of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, can occur as farmers struggle to maintain productivity, thus creating a treadmill effect.

Farmers with diverse ecosystems, however, “can buffer the impacts of climate change by providing microclimates that protect crops from extreme weather events,” the researchers share. “Resilient agricultural systems are characterized by diversity, adaptability, and efficient resource use, allowing them to maintain productivity and ecosystem services even under adverse conditions.”

Mitigation of climate change occurs through “enhancing soil health, conserving water, and fostering biodiversity, which collectively contributes to improved productivity and sustainability. Furthermore, resilient agriculture promotes economic stability for farmers and communities. By diversifying crops and employing sustainable practices, farmers can reduce their dependence on external inputs and navigate market fluctuations more effectively,” the authors state. See more on climate change here and here.

Farmers and Food Security

Farmers and farmworkers, who are pivotal in food production, also play a crucial role in biodiversity. Through the way they manage their land, farmers directly impact the health and resilience of ecosystems and act as stewards of biodiversity. Through their daily practices, farmers can either enhance or hinder the sustainability and resilience of agricultural landscapes. Agriculture has the ability to contribute to global food security in a changing climate in a positive way by integrating ecological principles into farming practices or creating a failing food system and barren environment.

Fostering biodiversity both above and below ground is vital for the longevity and health of both farming systems and the environment. The researchers postulate, “As agriculture faces increasing pressures from climate change and environmental degradation, prioritizing the conservation of biodiversity will be essential for securing the future of food systems worldwide.”

Organic Solution

Supporting biodiversity and mitigating climate change can be accomplished through organic land management. As part of a case study, the authors find that countries including Sweden, Germany, and France have already implemented extensive organic farming initiatives with success. As a result, these farms have improved soil health, increased species diversity, and greater ecosystem stability that supports food production.

The researchers say, “[B]iodiversity-driven resilience is essential for mitigating the impacts of climate change, pests, diseases, and resource scarcity, which pose significant threats to global food security. Agricultural systems rich in biodiversity benefit from improved soil fertility, enhanced pollination, natural pest control, and water regulation, all of which reduce dependence on external inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides.”

Research also “indicates that organic farms typically support higher levels of biodiversity compared to conventional farms, with greater abundance and variety of species, particularly in wild plants and insects.” In another case study, organic vineyards in France show more resilience to drought conditions due to better water retention and improved soil health. See more on higher production in organic systems here.

“In summary, the path toward sustainable food production hinges on recognizing the vital role of biodiversity in agriculture. By adopting holistic and integrated approaches that prioritize biodiversity, we can build resilient agricultural systems capable of meeting the challenges posed by a changing world,” the authors conclude. “The future of food security, environmental health, and sustainable agriculture is intertwined with our commitment to preserving and enhancing biodiversity in all its forms. It is imperative that we act now to protect these vital resources for generations to come.”

Take action to ensure that organic programs, and their funding, do not lapse this fall and sign up to receive Beyond Pesticides’ Action of the Week and Weekly News Updates delivered right to your inbox. Encourage your community to transition to organic land management by becoming a Parks Advocate through the Parks for a Sustainable Future program and stay apprised of the latest pesticide science and policy through the Daily News Blog.

Plan to attend Beyond Pesticides’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future! Thank you to all who attended our launch on October 30—the recording is LIVE on our website as of November 5, 2024! The second session will continue on Thursday, November 14, 2024, at 1 PM (EST) with Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, the director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (UCSF). Dr. Woodruff’s work focuses on uncovering and addressing environmental determinants of disease and health inequities and has written groundbreaking material on endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Registration is complimentary, with contributions appreciated, and is valid for all sessions of the 2024 National Forum! 

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source:

Christianah, D. and Folarin, I. (2024) The Role of Biodiversity in Agricultural Resilience: Protecting Ecosystem Services for Sustainable Food Production, International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/384848907_The_Role_of_Biodiversity_in_Agricultural_Resilience_Protecting_Ecosystem_Services_for_Sustainable_Food_Production.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 5, 2024) Published in the journal Frontiers in Toxicology, a recent study uncovers serious flaws in the pesticide registration process at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with an in-depth evaluation of the agency’s failure to protect the public from the harmful effects of five neonicotinoid (neonic) insecticides—as mandated by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and amendments, including Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996. This coincides with EPA’s ongoing review to renew their approval for the next 15 years (set to be announced in 2025). The report is based on the first comprehensive assessment of unpublished rodent-based Developmental Neurotoxicity (DNT) studies, conducted between 2000-2003 and submitted by pesticide manufacturers as part of the registration process.

All five neonicotinoids evaluated—acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam—are associated with significant shrinkage of brain tissue at the highest dosage, according to EPA data reports (see acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam). However, with little or no data regarding the chemicals’ impacts at low and mid-level dosages, EPA has either failed to find a “No Observed Adverse Effect Level” (NOAEL) or, seemingly at random, set the NOAEL at the mid-level dosage. The evaluation suggests that perinatal exposure to neonicotinoids and their metabolites results in nicotine-like neurotoxic effects in rodent studies, concluding that, “… the exposure limits set by EPA for human exposure are either not protective or not supported by available neurotoxicity data.” The study also finds that the agency ignored significant adverse effects, allowed DNT studies that did not conform with scientific protocols, and permitted “neonicotinoid registrants to unduly influence agency decision-making.” 

[The research was conducted by Jennifer Sass, PhD, senior scientist at Natural Resources Defense Council; Nathan Donley, PhD, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity; and, Bill Freese, science director at the Center for Food Safety. A press release on the evaluations notes, “Our study contributes to the growing body of evidence suggesting that neonicotinoids are hazardous to the developing human nervous system and should be avoided just as mothers abstain from smoking during pregnancy. EPA must act to reduce the use of and human exposure to these toxic insecticides.”]

While the authors conclude that EPA regulatory changes are needed to better protect public health from developmental neurotoxic neonicotinoids, many public health and environmental advocates interpret the results as a signal—a need for a major shift that questions the registration of harmful pesticides, which can be replaced by organic management practices and organic-compatible production inputs. These advocates point to the study’s findings as identifying a fundamentally broken regulatory system in the face of the existential health, biodiversity, and climate crises stemming from petrochemical pesticide use, including highly toxic neonicotinoid insecticides. [Additionally, read more about recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions impacting environmental regulatory authority here: Daily News on Chevron decision, Daily News on Sackett decision, and the Clean Water Act here].

Background

Neonics are among the most widely used insecticides in the world, with the most common form of application as a treatment of seeds before dispersal. According to the report, at least 150 million acres were planted with neonic-treated seeds in 2012, which is six times the amount of land treated with the top ten insecticides combined in 2001. Outside of agricultural applications, neonics are commonly applied to parks and gardens, to pets as a flea treatment, and to control bed bug infestations. The result of such widespread use has led to rampant contamination in the food supply, human breast milk, and amniotic and cerebrospinal fluids. (See here, here, and here). Neonicotinoids have been linked to breast cancer by stimulating excess estrogen production, known to occur during the development of progressive hormone-dependent breast cancer. Due to their widespread use, neonicotinoids commonly contaminate water sources, including rivers and groundwater. This cumulative presence suggests, according to the authors, that children may be exposed at multiple developmental stages, including prenatally, through breastfeeding or formula mixed with contaminated tap water, and during childhood through food and water consumption. Given the likelihood of exposure, the authors argue that it is essential to sustain and enhance monitoring programs that identify pesticide residues in food, water, and biological samples. Furthermore, to address regular exposure to neonicotinoids, especially during critical early life stages, the study results suggest that risk assessments and regulatory decisions must adhere to (and ideally surpass) the safety standards established by current federal pesticide regulations.

EPA employs DNT studies with rodents under established guidelines (see here and here) to evaluate the risks that pesticides may pose during the early development of the brain and nervous system, determine dose-response relationships, and set regulatory exposure limits. The agency then, based on the data provided, sets acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) exposure limits by identifying a No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL). A 100-fold uncertainty factor is then applied to the NOAEL to account for differences between animals and humans and the uncertainty associated with individual variability in humans. However, this approach does not fully consider the increased vulnerability of the developing brain when exposure occurs during fetal growth or infancy. These stages are critical periods when the brain’s structure is being formed via cell growth, differentiation, axon and synapse development, and cell migration. This damage is often irreversible due to the limited capacity for repair during these complex and fragile developmental processes.

FQPA mandates that EPA consider the increased susceptibility of infants and children, including differences in neurological development and potential in-utero exposure to pesticides, to ensure “reasonable certainty of no harm” from all forms of pesticide exposure, including dietary and other known sources. A protective, although arbitrary, measure of FQPA is the 10X-fold child safety factor, which aims to reduce permissible exposure levels to account for children’s vulnerability to developmental toxins. Additionally, FQPA requires cumulative risk assessments for pesticides with shared mechanisms of toxicity. By law, EPA can reduce or eliminate this safety factor only if reliable data demonstrate that doing so would not compromise the safety of infants and children. Despite this mandate, EPA has often reduced or removed the child safety factor in its pesticide evaluations, including for neonicotinoids. (See here, here, and see Daily News for one recent example of EPA failure to apply children’s safety factor here, specific to acephate).

Study Methodology

The report evaluates EPA’s Data Evaluation Records, in which data for five unpublished DNT studies with highly defined protocols were previously analyzed by EPA staff. (After feeding female rats different doses of pesticides during pregnancy and lactation, labs contracted by pesticide manufacturers administer a variety of morphological, neurological, and behavioral tests from birth to 60 days old).

Among the many irregularities that the report identifies:

• Contrary to DNT guidelines, the agency received no or partial data related to mid- and low-dosage groups. Despite the lack of evidence, EPA concluded that the five neonics only offered negative effects at the high-dose level.
• When presented with highly variable data from Nippon Soda in 2003 regarding impacts from acetamiprid, EPA at first rejected the application. However, after a secondary appeal by the manufacturer, the agency overruled its own conclusions. In 2008 and again in 2017, EPA raised the NOAEL, eventually reaching 40 times the level proposed by the European Food Safety Authority.
• In a 2000 DNT by Takeda Chemical Industries for clothianidin, EPA found the application to be missing data for low- and mid-dose tests. Even though the data was never submitted, and the study remains classified as “deficient,” EPA set the NOAEL at the mid-dose level.
• Similarly in 2001, Bayer conducted a DNT for imidacloprid where no information was provided for the mid- and low-dose categories. Nevertheless, EPA set the NOAEL at the mid-dose level.
• In 2001, Bayer’s DNT study of thiacloprid identified a reduction in brain weight significantly at the high- and mid-doses, while the age of male sexual maturation was delayed at all dose levels. However, EPA determined that only the high-dose effects were related to pesticide exposure and set the NOAEL at the mid-dose level.

Together, the report highlights a pattern of poor scientific practices and unjustified conclusions, with EPA making determinations contrary to the recommendations of the agency’s own scientists. For four of the five studies included in this analysis, appropriate data was either not received or not fully evaluated by EPA. EPA also identified study deficiencies including inadequate testing and reporting but failed to require any follow-up studies or data.

Meanwhile, pesticide registrants (manufacturers) face no consequences for failing to supply missing or inadequate data. “These are extremely disturbing findings that expose an agency strong-armed by pesticide makers into ignoring glaring problems with critical safety assessments,” notes Dr. Donley in a press release. “When the agency charged with protecting us all from harmful poisons doesn’t even require the necessary data to determine significant health risks, its pesticide approvals simply can’t be trusted as scientifically valid.”

Developmental Neurotoxicity Studies: Future Approaches

While DNT studies allow for evaluating potential risks to brain development, the studies require proper design and oversight, as well as improvements to enhance their sensitivity, particularly in cognitive function assessments. The authors’ review of positive control studies (tests using chemicals known to affect neurological development) found significant deficiencies. For example, in four of the five DNT studies reviewed (excluding clothianidin), positive control data was missing or not fully evaluated by EPA. For thiacloprid, EPA noted that no study adequately demonstrated the lab’s capability to detect key neurotoxic effects.

Rather than updating rodent DNT methods to enhance their rigor and sensitivity, EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs is moving toward using New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), like in vitro assays and in silico models. This approach uses a lack of bioactivity in NAMs as proof of safety, leading to less protective risk assessments for some pesticides. These methods are favored for their cost-effectiveness, faster results, and reduced animal use; however, in vivo DNT studies currently have no equivalent substitutes. Critics, including health experts and regulatory scientists, argue that this new methodology undermines public health. (See here and here).

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently reviewed in vitro DNT tests (using NAMs) and highlighted significant gaps in assessing neurodevelopmental processes, such as neuroectoderm formation, peripheral nervous system processes, and astrocyte maturation, among others. Similarly, the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) concludes that existing NAMs do not adequately assess cognitive and neurobehavioral outcomes or learning and memory.

Recommendations for Regulatory Improvement

The study recommends that to enhance the quality of rodent DNT and other toxicology studies, EPA should reject severely flawed studies, enforce data submissions, and suspend or deny approvals of pesticides when data is insufficient or unreliable.

• Require DNT Studies: EPA should mandate DNT studies for pesticide registrations, as recommended in 1999, reversing the trend of granting study waivers.
• Lower Exposure Limits for Neonicotinoids: Given their established neurotoxicity, neonicotinoids’ exposure limits should be reduced tenfold to protect developing nervous systems, per FQPA.
• Conduct Cumulative Risk Assessments: Since neonicotinoids share toxic mechanisms with nicotine, EPA should assess cumulative risks and assign relative potency factors for each compound.
• Retain the FQPA 10X Child Safety Factor: EPA should only reduce this safety factor when supported by reliable data, especially given NAMs’ limitations and existing uncertainties.

Unpublished, manufacturer-submitted rodent-based studies show, via the report, that neonics can disrupt mammalian brain development, like nicotine. Early exposure reduced brain region sizes, implying neuronal cell loss and diminished neurogenesis. Affected regions like the corpus callosum and caudate putamen may also be linked to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The analysis also shows impaired auditory startle responses and possible effects on learning and memory. The authors conclude that further research is needed on neonics and their nicotine-like metabolites, given their widespread use and potential for lasting harm. While NAMs offer insights into cellular mechanisms, they cannot currently replace the value of well-designed in vivo studies for understanding complex neurodevelopmental impacts.

As a principle, Beyond Pesticides urges a systemic move toward the adoption of proven organic systems that do not use neonicotinoids and other toxic synthetic pesticides. Organic practices and products also address current existential crises, including microbial support for ecosystem health, and biodiversity. To stay informed on upcoming pesticide regulatory decisions and take action, click here to sign up for updates from Beyond Pesticides via our listserv.

***
Plan to attend Beyond Pesticides’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future! Thank you to all who attended our launch on October 30—the recording is LIVE on our website as of November 5, 2024! The second session will continue on Thursday, November 14, 2024, at 1 PM (EST) with Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, the director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (UCSF). Dr. Woodruff’s work focuses on uncovering and addressing environmental determinants of disease and health inequities and has written groundbreaking material on endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Registration is complimentary, with contributions appreciated, and is valid for all sessions of the 2024 National Forum! 

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources:

Neonicotinoid pesticides: evidence of developmental neurotoxicity from regulatory rodent studies, Frontiers in Toxicology, October 1, 2024

EPA Set to Greenlight Widely Used Neonicotinoid Pesticides, Overlooking Evidence of Harms to Brain, Nervous System, Press release, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, October 22, 2024

Poisoned Waterways: The Same Pesticide that Is Killing Bees Is Destroying Life in the Nation’s Streams, Rivers, and Lakes, Beyond Pesticides, Pesticides and You, Spring 2017

Sowing Uncertainty: What We Do and Don’t Know about the Planting of Pesticide-Treated Seed, BioScience, March 18, 2020

Schedule for Review of Neonicotinoid Pesticides, EPA website

Initial Recommendations on Evaluation of Data from the Developmental Neurotoxicity (DNT) In-Vitro Testing Battery, OECD Environment, Health and Safety Publications Series on Testing & Assessment No. 377, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, November 3, 2023

New Approach Methodologies (NAMs): Scientific Challenges and Potential Solutions, presentation by Dr. Raashmi Joklekar, UCSF, and Dr, Jennifer Sass, NRDC, EPA documents, February 14, 2024

(Beyond Pesticides, November 4, 2024) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week opened a public comment period on the regulation of endocrine-disrupting pesticides, a proposal that lays out a drawn-out 10-year process that is narrow in evaluating the underlying mechanism that causes endocrine disruption. The proposal, published in the Federal Register as a partial settlement agreement and consent decree, responds to a lawsuit filed by farmworker and health groups challenging the agency’s failure to test and regulate endocrine-disrupting pesticides. Earlier in the year, after over 25 years of delay following the 1996 Congressional mandate to determine whether pesticides disrupt the endocrine system of humans and other organisms, EPA issued a proposal for modifying its approach to the implementation of the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP). 

The National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences explains endocrine disruptors this way: “Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are natural or human-made chemicals that may mimic, block, or interfere with the body’s hormones, which are part of the endocrine system. These chemicals are associated with a wide array of health issues. . . Endocrine glands, distributed throughout the body, produce the hormones that act as signaling molecules after release into the circulatory system. The human body is dependent on hormones for a healthy endocrine system, which controls many biological processes like normal growth, fertility, and reproduction. Hormones act in extremely small amounts, and minor disruptions in those levels may cause significant developmental and biological effects.” The Endocrine Society has written, “Many pesticides are designed to be toxic to pests’ nervous or reproductive systems and may act by disrupting endocrine systems. Such chemicals are also EDCs because of the similarities between insect and animal endocrine systems.” The data is available to regulators, who have allowed endocrine-disrupting pesticide exposure for decades to people and families whose lives have been upended and often destroyed by deadly diseases that are preventable and chemicals that can be replaced by alternative practices and products, according to health and environmental advocates. A 2011 article, Effect of Endocrine Disruptor Pesticides: A Review (2011), found: “Many chemicals that have been identified as endocrine disruptors are pesticides. About 105 substances can be listed, and most of them are shown in Table 1. Of these, 46% are insecticides, 21% herbicides, and 31% fungicides; some of them were withdrawn from general use many years ago but are still found in the environment (ex. DDT and atrazine in several countries).” Meanwhile, it is estimated that 90% of breast cancer, the most common form of cancer for women worldwide, is due to nongenetic factors including endocrine-disrupting pesticides. (See Daily News.) 

EPA’s February 2024 proposal, according to Beyond Pesticides, is an abrogation of the agency’s responsibilities under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act/Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FQPA/FFDCA) as well as the underlying statute, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Limiting the scope of the EDSP to humans, certain pesticide active ingredients only, and limiting the types of data to assess endocrine disruption (ED) effects runs counter to the Congressional intent and requirements in these statutes. It is also a reversal of the Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee’s (EDSTAC) advice and the agency’s original EDSP implementation policy and science decisions.

EPA’s October proposal sets deadlines by which EPA will implement EDSP requirements and assess some of the endocrine-disrupting effects of pesticides. CFS, which serves as counsel for the plaintiffs, including Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Pesticide Action Network North America, Rural Coalition, Center for Environmental Health, and Organización en California de Líderes Campesinas, says, “Under the terms of the proposed agreement, over the next five years, EPA will collect data on and assess the effects of endocrine-disrupting pesticides, either as part of the agency’s registration review of registered pesticides or as a part of new pesticide approvals. To maximize protection of farmworker and public health, the proposed agreement provides opportunities for farmworker input on prioritizing certain pesticides and requires EPA to provide regular public updates on the status of their ongoing assessment. Per the agreement, EPA will complete endocrine-disrupting assessment for 86 pesticides over the next 10 years.”

While it can be argued that this is the best that can be done under existing federal law, the settlement represents another generation of exposure to endocrine disruptors in air, water, landscapes, and food—chemicals that cause breast cancer, neurological, immunological and reproductive effects, developmental effects, learning disabilities, and a range of effects (many multigenerational) that adversely affect most organ systems. The agreement affirms that the public is not protected and should urgently shift away from a reliance on synthetic pesticides in food production, gardening, and landscape management. For more background, see here, here, here, and here. Also, see the Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database (PIDD) section on endocrine disruptors.

While the consent decree does commit EPA to test for estrogenic effects in conventional pesticide active ingredients, it falls far short of addressing the full range of endocrine disrupting effects of all pesticide ingredients, as is required to protect human health and the environment. The February 2024 comments of Beyond Pesticides detail these requirements. In addition, the only recourse it gives the plaintiffs is to resume the litigation if EPA fails to deliver on its agreement.

Under FIFRA, a pesticide is presumed to pose an unreasonable risk until reliable data demonstrate otherwise. If the agency lacks the data and/or resources to fully evaluate endocrine risks to human health and wildlife, then the agency is obliged to suspend or deny any pesticide registration until the agency has sufficient data to demonstrate no unreasonable adverse endocrine risk.

OPPORTUNITY FOR TWO ACTIONS
1. Tell EPA that it must consider complete all data concerning endocrine disruption and must not register pesticides without sufficient data to demonstrate no unreasonable adverse endocrine risk.
AND
2. Tell Congress to ensure that EPA follows through! EPA must not register pesticides without sufficient data demonstrating no endocrine disruption.

EPA cannot develop a strategy for evaluating pesticides without understanding the history and status of endocrine disruption research, which are summarized in Beyond Pesticides’ comments and the October 29, 2024 Daily News. Evidence that synthetic chemicals can mimic or otherwise interfere with natural hormones has existed for over half a century. Although early attention was given to estrogen mimics, it soon became apparent that the homeostatic function of the endocrine system—which regulates and balances physiological functions—can be disrupted at many sites and hormone systems.

Endocrine disruption as a phenomenon affecting humans and other species has been critically reviewed by several authors. A common thread weaving across these reviews is the understanding that chemicals that may disrupt the endocrine systems of humans and wildlife may be pervasive in contaminating their habitats. A pandemic of endocrine-related disorders from attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, diabetes, obesity, childhood and breast cancers, testicular cancer in young men, infertility, male dysgenesis syndrome, hypospadias, low sperm count, loss of semen volume and sperm quality, and increased risk of testicular and prostate cancer can be connected with endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). All these disorders have been increasing in incidence and can be traced back to prenatal exposure to EDCs.

Endocrine pathways are largely conserved across species and, thus, are not species- or taxa- specific. It is well known that thyroid endocrinology in particular is well conserved across vertebrate taxa. This includes aspects of thyroid hormone synthesis, metabolism, and mechanisms of action. Thyroid hormones are derived from the thyroid gland through regulation of the HPT axis, which is controlled through a complex mechanism of positive and negative feedback regulation. Multiple pathways contribute to the synthesis of thyroid-releasing hormone, including thyroid hormone signaling through feedback mechanisms; leptin and melanocortin signaling; body temperature regulation; and cardiovascular physiology. Each pathway directly targets thyroid-releasing hormone neurons. Based on the conservation of endocrine pathways, it is well understood that the ecological assays (the frog assay in particular) are often more sensitive and equally relevant to mammalian assays in informing risk assessors of whether a chemical can perturb and cause adverse endocrine outcomes in the human population and vice versa.

FQPA essentially amends FIFRA and FFDCA to ensure potential endocrine-disrupting effects are considered in EPA risk assessments to fulfill the FIFRA mandate that a pesticide registration will not cause unreasonable adverse effects. This applies to humans, wildlife, and all pesticide chemicals as defined in FIFRA, including “all active and pesticide inert ingredients of such pesticide” (21 U.S.C. 231(q)(1)). SDWA adds drinking water contaminants as well.

In summary, the agency cannot limit EDSP to only humans and conventional pesticide active ingredients without violating the statutory requirements enumerated in FIFRA, FQPA, and SDWA. EPA should make use of all available scientifically relevant endocrine disruption research findings and also be wary of deviating from established international efforts for screening/testing endocrine disruptors that incorporate human and wildlife-relevant studies. Recognizing that mammalian data inform potential endocrine disruption in other vertebrate taxa (avian, amphibian, fish) and vice versa, the agency should not decouple the mammalian from other vertebrate assays in EDSP screening. There are more than 50 different ecological and mammalian assays included in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Conceptual Framework for screening/testing endocrine disrupting effects, and there are additional assays being developed for consideration as well. So, the agency should not limit the range or types of data to be used, but as FQPA prescribes use “appropriate validated test systems and other scientifically relevant information.”

Even if currently required data—including the limited data required under this proposed partial settlement—meet the needs of human risk assessment, they are inadequate to evaluate endocrine effects on wildlife species. It should also be understood that under FIFRA, a pesticide is presumed to pose an unreasonable risk until reliable data demonstrate otherwise. If the agency lacks the data and/or resources to fully evaluate endocrine risks to human health and wildlife, then the agency is obliged to suspend or deny any pesticide registration until the agency has sufficient data to demonstrate no unreasonable adverse endocrine risk per the mandate in FIFRA. Further, it is not the agency but pesticide registrants that have the burden to demonstrate with adequate data that their products will not pose unreasonable adverse effects, including the inherently presumed endocrine-disrupting effects.

***
With a focus on endocrine disruption, plan now to attend Beyond Pesticides’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future! Thank you to all who attended our launch on October 30—stay tuned for a recording! The second session will continue on Thursday, November 14, 2024, at 1 PM (EST) with Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, the director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, University of California, San Franisco (UCSF). Dr. Woodruff’s work focuses on uncovering and addressing environmental determinants of disease and health inequities and has written groundbreaking material on endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Registration is complimentary, with contributions appreciated, and is valid for all sessions of the 2024 National Forum!

>> Tell EPA that it must consider complete all data concerning endocrine disruption and must not register pesticides without sufficient data to demonstrate no unreasonable adverse endocrine risk.

Letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The endocrine disruptor strategy (EDSP) proposed under the consent decree abrogates EPA’s responsibilities under the Food Quality Protection Act/Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FQPA/FFDCA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). While the proposed consent decree commits EPA to test for estrogenic effects in conventional pesticide active ingredients, it falls far short of addressing the full range of endocrine-disrupting effects of all pesticide ingredients, as is required by FIFRA to protect human health and the environment. Limiting the scope of the EDSP to humans, certain pesticide active ingredients only, and limiting the types of data to assess endocrine disruption (ED) effects is contrary to the Congressional intent and requirements in these statutes and reverses Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee advice and EPA’s original EDSP implementation policy and science decisions.

Evidence that synthetic chemicals can interfere with natural hormones has existed for over half a century. Although early attention was given to estrogen mimics, it was soon apparent that the homeostatic function of the endocrine system can be disrupted at many sites and hormone systems.

Many authors have documented the pervasiveness of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the ecosphere. A pandemic of endocrine-related disorders—ADHD, autism, diabetes, obesity, childhood and breast cancers, testicular cancer in young men, infertility, male dysgenesis syndrome, hypospadias, low sperm count, loss of semen volume and sperm quality, and increased risk of testicular and prostate cancer—may be related to EDCs.

Endocrine pathways are largely conserved across species and thus are not species- or taxa-specific. It is well understood that the ecological assays (e.g., the frog assay) are often more sensitive and equally relevant to mammalian assays in determining whether a chemical can perturb and cause adverse endocrine outcomes in the human population and vice versa.

Thus, EPA cannot limit EDSP to only humans and conventional pesticide active ingredients without violating the statutory requirements of FIFRA, FQPA, and SDWA. EPA must use all available scientifically relevant endocrine disruption research findings and avoid deviating from established international efforts that incorporate human and wildlife studies. Recognizing that mammalian data inform potential endocrine disruption in other vertebrates (avian, amphibian, fish) and vice versa, the agency must not decouple the mammalian from other vertebrate assays in EDSP screening. With more than 50 different ecological and mammalian assays included in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development Conceptual Framework for screening/testing endocrine disrupting effects and additional assays in development, EPA must not limit the range or types of data to be used, but as FQPA prescribes, use “appropriate validated test systems and other scientifically relevant information.” Even if currently required data—including the limited data required under this proposed partial settlement—meet the needs of human risk assessment, they are inadequate to evaluate endocrine effects on wildlife species.

FQPA amends FIFRA to ensure potential endocrine-disrupting effects are considered in risk assessments to fulfill the FIFRA mandate that pesticide use will not cause unreasonable adverse effects. This applies to humans and wildlife and to all pesticide chemicals as defined in FIFRA including all active and inert ingredients. Under FIFRA, a pesticide is presumed to pose an unreasonable risk until reliable data demonstrate otherwise. If EPA is unable to fully evaluate endocrine risks to human health and wildlife, then the agency must suspend or deny any pesticide registration until the agency has sufficient data to demonstrate no unreasonable adverse endocrine risk.

Thank you.

>> Tell Congress to ensure that EPA follows through! EPA must not register pesticides without sufficient data demonstrating no endocrine disruption.

Letter to Congress
Plaintiffs and the Environmental Protection Agency have tentatively agreed on a consent decree describing an endocrine disruptor strategy (EDSP) to meet EPA’s responsibilities under the Food Quality Protection Act/Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FQPA/FFDCA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). While the proposed consent decree commits EPA to testing for estrogenic effects in conventional pesticide active ingredients, it falls far short of addressing the full range of endocrine disrupting effects of all pesticide ingredients, as is required by FIFRA to protect human health and the environment. Limiting the scope of the EDSP to humans, certain pesticide active ingredients only, and limiting the types of data to assess endocrine disruption (ED) effects is contrary to the Congressional intent and requirements in these statutes and reverses Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee advice and EPA’s original EDSP implementation policy and science decisions.

Evidence that synthetic chemicals can interfere with natural hormones has existed for over half a century. Although early attention was given to estrogen mimics, it was soon apparent that the homeostatic function of the endocrine system can be disrupted at many sites and hormone systems.

Many authors have documented the pervasiveness of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the ecosphere. A pandemic of endocrine-related disorders—attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, diabetes, obesity, childhood and breast cancers, testicular cancer in young men, infertility, male dysgenesis syndrome, hypospadias, low sperm count, loss of semen volume and sperm quality, and increased risk of testicular and prostate cancer—may be related to EDCs.

Endocrine pathways are largely conserved across species and thus are not species- or taxa- specific. It is well understood that the ecological assays (e.g., the frog assay) are often more sensitive and equally relevant to mammalian assays in determining whether a chemical can perturb and cause adverse endocrine outcomes in the human population and vice versa.

Thus, EPA cannot limit EDSP to only humans and conventional pesticide active ingredients without violating the statutory requirements of FIFRA, FQPA, and SDWA. EPA must use all available scientifically relevant endocrine disruption research findings and avoid deviating from established international efforts that incorporate human and wildlife studies. More than 50 different ecological and mammalian assays are included in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development Conceptual Framework for screening/testing endocrine disrupting effects and additional assays in development, so EPA must not limit the range or types of data to be used, but as FQPA prescribes, use “appropriate validated test systems and other scientifically relevant information.” They must be adequate to evaluate endocrine effects on wildlife species as well as humans.

FQPA amends FIFRA to ensure potential endocrine-disrupting effects are considered in risk assessments to fulfill the FIFRA mandate that pesticide use will not cause unreasonable adverse effects. This applies to humans and wildlife and to all pesticide chemicals as defined in FIFRA including all active and inert ingredients. Under FIFRA, a pesticide is presumed to pose an unreasonable risk until reliable data demonstrate otherwise. If EPA is unable to fully evaluate endocrine risks to human health and wildlife, then the agency must suspend or deny any pesticide registration until the agency has sufficient data to demonstrate no unreasonable adverse endocrine risk.

Please ensure that EPA carries out its statutory responsibilities.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 1, 2024) In a study published earlier this year in Soil Science Society of America Journal, researchers at Kansas State University document direct evidence that organic amendments (e.g., manure and compost) in a no-till agricultural system “facilitat[e] microbial diversity” that cycles plant-available nutrients.

The study was published just as farmers are looking for less expensive practices that support the economic vitality of their farms amid surging prices for petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers and as agricultural support programs are threatened by unresolved issues in Farm Bill talks on Capitol Hill. [See the recent Action of the Week calling on Congress to take action.] Simultaneously, awareness is growing among environmental and public health advocates about the importance of soil health to ecosystem stability in combatting climate change-induced natural disasters and stopping plummeting biodiversity. Demands for new systems rooted in organic principles and land management practices continue to become more widely recognized by farmers, environmentalists, and the broad public. The study adds to earlier findings and contributes to the body of scientific literature on soil health and its importance to ecosystem and human health.

Methodology and Results

The study was led by researchers at Kansas State University specializing in agronomy and chemistry. “The primary aim of this study was to determine soil carbon stabilization mechanisms (in situ) in free soil microaggregates (), collected from a differently managed temperate agroecosystem (no till with N [nitrogen] treatments: manure/compost, urea, and zero fertilizer) by gathering direct evidence using STXM-NEXAFS [near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectrometry], while incurring minimal disturbance to the original aggregate microstructure,” say the researchers.

Researchers used STXM-NEXAFS and chemical analysis to aggregate a holistic view of soil health based on soil biology and chemistry. The soil samples were collected in February 2012 from a corn farm established in 1990. [To preserve microbial life in soil samples, researchers confirmed the samples were refrigerated as soon as they were brought in for eventual testing at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, as consistent with other soil health studies led by Professor Ganga M. Hettiarachchi, Ph.D, Professor of Soil and Environmental chemistry at Kansas State University. See here and here.]

Before this, the site was cultivated for grain production (e.g., wheat, oats) for over sixty years. Each sample was gathered at a depth of 0-5 centimeters in 15-20 locations across each plot. “This experiment was established as a split-plot randomized complete block design with four blocks. Main plots represented tillage (conventional till [] and no-till [NT]), and sub plots () were control (no external input), organic amendments/fertilizer (manure/compost), and inorganic fertilizers (urea),” the researchers go on to describe the parameters of the experiment. “In this study, we focused on no-till control, no-till organic amendments/fertilizer, and no-till inorganic fertilizer treatment combinations.”  

The researchers analyzed the carbon, calcium, iron, aluminum, and silicon clusters in the soil samples at a microscopic level. They arrived at the following four main conclusions after analyzing the three soil microaggregates:

1. Direct evidence provided the positive impact of organic amendments on carbon stabilization in free soil microaggregates;
2. Microbial-derived carbon was found in microaggregates from manure-/compost-added soils;
3. Continuous addition of organic amendments enhances organic carbon (OC) stabilization in soil microaggregates; and
4. Integrated approach of STXM-NEXAFS, C-NMR [Carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance], and wet chemistry improved our mechanistic understanding.

The investigation of chemical, biological, and environmental impacts of organic amendments, such as manure and compost, resonates with organic advocates who are dedicated to moving beyond synthetic fertilizer products as an immediate fix to mineral deficiencies on their farmland. Carbon stabilization is only sustainable in a healthy soil system. Therefore, the presence of microbial life is an indication that the necessary checks and balances are in place to draw down atmospheric carbon further into the soil ecosystem, rather than leaching into the atmosphere. Organic matter, including compost and manure, is a powerful carbon stabilizer that provides a binding material for other necessary minerals to remain in the soil for crop and plant intake. 

Soil Health Benefits of Organic Agriculture

Organic advocates acknowledge the surge in academic, popular, and farmer interest in organic land management practices and principles as an important expansion to existing research identifying the soil health impacts of agrochemical products.

For example, peer-reviewed scientific research going back to 2004 establishes a direct relationship between deleterious glyphosate-based herbicides and soil health conditions. A 2022 paper published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution asserts the widespread environmental contamination with these herbicide compounds is influencing soil, plant, and animal microbiomes in ways that are not only not well understood, but also can have significant impacts on the functioning of organisms and their ecosystems—with evolutionary implications. Impacts of herbicides on soil microbiota include disruption to nutrient cycling, as well as altered organism and plant performance, which can affect pollination and animal consumption of plants. This builds on a 2021 study published in Frontiers in Environmental Science by a team of international researchers on the destructive impact of glyphosate on microbial communities, particularly against beneficial microorganisms. Glyphosate acts on the shikimate pathway, present in plants, fungi, bacteria, archaea, and protozoa. Thus, many taxonomic groups of microorganisms are sensitive to glyphosate.

Glyphosate is just one example of an array of pesticide products and agricultural practices that undermine soil microbial activity, which many scientists, farmers, and the pesticide industry itself, acknowledge as a fundamental building block of long-term food system stability. A study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution found various fungicides harm the soil and jeopardize crop yields by reducing the prevalence of beneficial fungi, specifically arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Monoculture agriculture is a form of industrial agriculture that inevitably leads to poor soil health relative to diverse farming systems, based on a 2021 study published in Agrosystems, Geosciences and Environment. Researchers note that the U.S. Corn Belt, which is defined by monoculture farming of genetically engineered corn, has lost 35% of its topsoil. The impact of toxic pesticides on beneficial organisms and nontarget species has contributed to the dramatic loss in insect populations (up to one-quarter of the global population) since 1990, based on a 2024 study published in Environments. A 2020 study published In Communications Biology by scientists at the University of Bern, Switzerland found that beneficial black garden ants (Lasius niger) are adversely impacted by neonicotinoid insecticides.

On this year’s International Microorganism Day, a Daily News reviewed the continuous impact of pesticide residues (glyphosate, paraquat, endosulfan, and diazinon) on the microbial health of farming systems in Nigeria and what it represents for pesticide-dependent farming systems globally.

Meanwhile, various studies identify the significance of organic farming systems in advancing soil health in comparison to chemical-intensive agriculture. In 2022, the Rodale Institute released the findings of its forty-year-long comparative analysis of organic and conventional grain production, finding that:

1. Organic systems achieve 3-6 times the profit of conventional farms.
2. Yields for the organic approach are competitive with those of conventional systems after a five-year transition period.
3. Organic yields during stressful drought periods are 40% higher than conventional fields.
4. Organic systems leach no toxic compounds into nearby waterways.
5. Organic systems use 45% less energy than conventional farming systems.
6. Organic systems emit 40% less carbon into the atmosphere.

A 2024 study published in Biology and Fertility of Soils confirms the soil health benefits of organic agriculture in its ability to improve ecological functions damaged by chemical-intensive farming practices. There are various agroecological practices that demonstrate the growing obsolescence of toxic pesticide products. For example, a 2023 study published in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment identifies black soldier fly exoskeletons as a potentially effective organic fertilizer in terms of positive impacts on plant size, flower count, seed production, and pollinator appeal, among other factors, as a soil supplement. Additionally, a 2024 study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences demonstrates that biofungicides act as a “sustainable and economically viable alternative” to synthetic fungicides. As chemical-intensive practices impair certain production sectors such as citrus orchards in Florida, scientists are moving forward to establish agroecological, organic-aligned practices through a “push-pull” pest management system. (See Daily News here.)

Call to Action

The proliferation of research and scalable solutions in organic farming is viewed by farmers, retailers, policy advocates, and community leaders as a transformational solution.

Talk with Beyond Pesticides about creating a livable future: Attend Beyond Pesticides’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency. The Forum launched on October 30 at 2-4pm (EDT) and will continue on November 14 at 1pm (EST). The Forum provides an opportunity to discuss with world-renowned scientists, from Germany and the United States, both (i) the hazards that define the urgency of threats associated with petrochemical toxicants, with a focus on chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system (including pesticides) and lead to life-threatening diseases, and (ii) the strategy for adopting a path forward that tackles the problem holistically, rather than one chemical at a time. Registration is complimentary, with contributions appreciated, and valid for all sessions of the Forum! 

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides. 

Source: Soil Science Society of America Journal  

(Beyond Pesticides, October 31, 2024) Approximately four in ten private wells in the state of Wisconsin contain toxic pesticides and pesticide metabolites, according to findings released earlier this year from a 2023 survey, entitled Wisconsin Agricultural Chemicals in Wisconsin Groundwater, conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) in partnership with U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). An analysis of the survey findings from Wisconsin Public Radio determined that “more than half of 29 pesticide compounds detected are unregulated in groundwater.” Pesticides detected in this study include toxic herbicides atrazine, dacthal, metolachlor, and alachlor, commonly used by chemical-intensive corn and soybean growers throughout the United States, but they are particularly concentrated for use in Corn Belt states such as Wisconsin. Various neonicotinoid insecticides were also detected. Pesticide leaching into both surface water and groundwater continues to impose adverse health and environmental impacts on communities across the nation, leading to advocates pushing for organic land management principles and practices to avoid the continuous use of toxic pesticides.

Methods and Findings

“Of the 29 compounds detected, [Carla] Romano [groundwater specialist at DATCP] said 13 have established groundwater standards,” based on an interview conducted by Wisconsin Public Radio. “Nine pesticide compounds lacked any groundwater limits or health advisory levels. Seven only have health advisory levels.” A primary obstacle to establishing standards that state officials pinpoint is an insufficient amount of peer-reviewed research on the health and ecological impacts of various specific pesticides.

This survey is conducted on a five-year rotation basis, beginning in 1996, and has resulted in surveys in 1996, 2001, 2007, 2016, and 2023 to “assess the presence of agrichemicals in Wisconsin’s groundwater.” In each survey following the initial study, 50% of wells surveyed were already tested in the previous cycle with the other 50% newly selected, with state and national officials reporting that “[t]his rotation strategy enabled the identification of new areas with agricultural chemical presence within the state and allowed for tracking changes in pesticide concentrations over time.” The researchers used “a stratified random sampling” including NASS Land Use Strata for previously untested wells, providing data on the intensity of agricultural production on targeted land areas. Researchers describe the benefits of this research strategy as twofold:

1. “First, samples were allocated proportional to agricultural intensity throughout the state.
2. “Second, the current method allows for comparisons of water quality to agricultural intensity in addition to location within the state.”

The topline statistic worrying public health and environmental advocates, as well as regenerative organic and organic farmers and landowners in the state, is that the “percentage of wells that contained a detectable concentration of a pesticide or pesticide metabolite was 43.1%, up from 41.7% of 2016 and 33.5% in 2007.” When comparing pesticide levels in waterways across different assessment years, DATCP arrives at some of the following additional conclusions:

• “Alachlor ESA [ethane sulfonic acid], a metabolite of alachlor — an active ingredient historically employed in herbicides targeting grass and broadleaf control — was identified in 97 samples from the same survey, despite the absence of currently registered alachlor products in Wisconsin.”
• “The increase in the estimated detection rates for metolachlor ESA and atrazine TCR since 2007 may be partially attributed to the reduction of laboratory reporting limits, initiated in 2016, for a range of tested compounds, including metolachlor ESA, atrazine, and atrazine metabolites.”
• “Between 2016 and 2023, the statewide detection rate for neonicotinoids increased by approximately 5%.”

Regarding the detectability of pesticides and pesticide metabolites, a concentration is considered detected if it is reported as greater than the “respective reporting limit,” which is set by Wisconsin regulators. More than half of the detected pesticides do not have groundwater or health advisory levels, which demonstrates the pervasiveness of pesticide use and the lack of data tracking to assess short- and long-term health impacts.

The framing of these surveys regarding the statistical insignificance of changes in pesticide levels found in private waterways is viewed by advocates as an implicit acceptance by state and federal government officials of contamination and a failure to address the problem at its source: the continuous registration and use of toxic pesticides that ultimately breakdown in, and spread widely throughout waterways.

Pesticides, Waterways, and SCOTUS

Wisconsinites, as well as researchers, farmers, and advocates across the country, have spoken out against state inaction on pesticide contamination in groundwater.

In 2016, a Wisconsin family spoke out against groundwater contamination after their son was diagnosed with juvenile dermatomyositis, a rare inflammatory skin disease with unknown causes. Test results from the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene showed that their well-contained atrazine levels at twice the state and federal drinking water health standards; follow-up testing by DATCP found it was closer to triple the state health standard. While there are no conclusive studies linking pesticide exposure to this rare disease, atrazine exposure has been linked to serious respiratory and skin diseases. (See here for Daily News.)

During the Trump Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waived its requirement for Syngenta to monitor Midwest waterways for atrazine presence, alarming public health and environmental advocates across the region. This weakening of policies was consistent with the establishment of Navigable Waters Protection Rule in the Trump Administration, a precursor to the eventual SCOTUS decision in Sackett v. EPA (2023) in which Clean Water Act protections are only applied to contiguous “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS), excluding groundwater, ephemeral streams, and critical wetland ecosystems that do not connect directly to waterbodies that are not clearly defined under the WOTUS definition.

Recent research conducted by Yale University and the University of Massachusetts determined that the Sackett decision “endangered the drinking water sources of at least 117 million Americans by stripping protections from over half of the nation’s wetlands, as well as up to nearly 5 million miles of rain-dependent and seasonal streams that feed into rivers, lakes, and estuaries.”

Further analysis of allowable groundwater levels for herbicides in Wisconsin specifically can be found in this Daily News here.

Pesticide Contamination, Biodiversity, and Public Health

Pesticide movement into waterways is a national and international reality for which there has been testing and numerous research efforts.

In 2021, a study published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) determined that millions of people are drinking from groundwater reserves riddled with pesticide and pesticide metabolites or breakdown chemicals. More specifically, USGS researchers found that 41% of public drinking water supply wells are contaminated with pesticides. USGS, in a 2023 study published in Environment International, found that nearly half (45%) of U.S. tap water is contaminated with PFAS chemicals. Researchers note that USGS can only detect 32 of the more than 12,000 different types of PFAS and PFAS breakdown chemicals, thus indicating the number is most likely higher.

According to a Portland State University study in 2021, pesticide contamination is a threat to biodiversity considering the continuous use of pesticides in forest management practices on public lands threatens marine organisms along the West Coast of the United States, including indicator species such as clams, mussels, and bivalves (oysters). A 2024 study published in Aquatic Toxicology reviewed over 150 peer-reviewed studies that found pesticide contamination (including glyphosate, atrazine, bifenthrin, and imidacloprid) in algae populations disrupts the aquatic food web. In a study published in Science of the Total Environment, chemicals of concern, including pesticides, were identified as leaching into groundwater reserves in the Grombalia shallow aquifer feeding into the Wadi El Bay watershed in northeast Tunisia. The researchers determine their findings to be relevant for watershed management beyond this specific regional context, including relevance in areas with “high population density [with] intensive agricultural activity.”

What are states doing to respond to pesticide movement and subsequent contamination? In Arizona, the state’s Auditor General reported the systemic failure of Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to monitor groundwater reserves and soil for pesticides and other environmental contaminants in a 2021 investigation. Between 2013 and 2021, ADEQ failed to monitor groundwater and soil for agricultural pesticide contamination. Furthermore, the agency did not implement key groundwater monitoring processes over four years, despite law requirements. There have been some instances of government leadership, including in 2018 when the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation denied a permit to apply toxic pesticides (Fluridone) to Lake Iroquois, a 237-acre spring-fed body of water used for public recreation.

This problem of pesticide contamination and government inaction is not limited to the state level but is a broader national regulatory system issue. On the topic of EPA regulation of PFAS, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a lawsuit against EPA in June 2024 on behalf of Texas farmers impacted by PFAS-contaminated biosolid fertilizers, alleging EPA’s failure to live up to its statutory obligation under Clean Water Act Section 405(d) and 40 CFR Part 504 to identify and regulate toxic pollutants. (See Daily News here.) Beyond Pesticides joined a petition submitted by the Center for Food Safety and numerous other environmental, farmer, and grassroots organizations to hold EPA accountable in updating their regulatory approach to PFAS contamination. (See Daily News here.) On October 9, EPA issued the fifth Test Order pursuant to the Toxic Substances Control Act requiring Innovative Chemical Technologies, The Chemours Company, Daikin America, Inc., Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, and E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company to conduct testing on certain PFAS chemicals in their products as a part of the National PFAS Testing Strategy.

Considering recent major settlements—including a $1.185 billion dollar settlement in 2023 from pesticide manufacturers DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva to major cities across the U.S. for PFAS remediation and monitoring in public drinking water systems—advocates continue to mount public pressure for the federal government to take action.

Call to Action

Public health and environmental advocates see the persistent infiltration of toxic pesticides into common areas, including public drinking wells and waterways, as a failure of local, state, and national governments to adequately address the ongoing biodiversity and health crises compounded by the climate crisis. The National Organic Program prevents the use of toxic pesticides on certified land; however, advocates, farmworkers, and farmers acknowledge that the movement of pesticides off their target site poses an existential threat to safeguarding agroecological food systems.

See Actions of the Week for opportunities to pressure EPA to suspend the registration of atrazine and paraquat using the criteria established under The Dacthal Standard. See Beyond Pesticides’ ongoing campaign, Keeping Organic Strong, to ensure the integrity of organic standards and enforcement.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources: Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection

(Beyond Pesticides, October 30, 2024) STARTS TODAY at 2 PM EDT—NATIONAL FORUM: IMPERATIVES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE. Beyond Pesticides has filed suit against The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company and GreenTechnologies, LLC for allegedly misleading consumers on the hazardous nature of their fertilizer products, which contain sewage sludge (often referred to as biosolids) contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The group filed two cases, Beyond Pesticides v. Miracle-Gro Co. and Beyond Pesticides v. GreenTechnologies, LLC, in D.C. Superior Court on October 25, 2024. The complaint alleges that, as part of their marketing, these companies tell consumers that their fertilizers are “eco-friendly” and “sustainable,” when, in fact, the products contain hazardous substances. The complaint cites test results showing PFAS residues in the companies’ fertilizers and numerous scientific studies on the adverse effects of PFAS to public health, wildlife, and pollinators.  

PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” due to their ability to persist in the environment, are endocrine disruptors linked to developmental issues, cancers, metabolic, cardiovascular and reproductive harm, damage to the liver, kidneys, and the respiratory system, as well increased chances of disease infection and severity. The chemicals’ immunotoxic effects threaten human health. 

Beyond Pesticides alleges that consumers are, thus, misled by advertising in which Scotts Miracle-Gro describes its product ingredients as “organic matter and recycled nutrients,” despite the presence of PFAS. Similarly, Beyond Pesticides alleges that consumers are misled by GreenTechnologies’ representations that its product is “a sustainable fertilizer that enhances environmental quality.” 

“Companies that market hazardous substances while claiming environmental and health benefits are misleading consumers who seek out products to protect themselves, their families, and the ecosystems in which they live,” said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides. “Our litigation seeks to put a stop to this deceptive practice in the marketplace, where there are products and practices that are truly healthful and protective of nature,” Mr. Feldman continued. 

Please see Beyond Pesticides’ Daily News and Action archive.

Beyond Pesticides is seeking injunctive relief under the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act, D.C. Code §§ 28-3901-13. Beyond Pesticides is represented by Richman Law & Policy. 

***

Don’t miss it! Beyond Pesticides’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency, starts TODAY, October 30 at 2-4pm (EDT) and then continues on November 14 at 1pm (EST). The Forum provides an opportunity to discuss with world-renowned scientists, from Germany and the United States, both (i) the hazards that define the urgency of threats associated petrochemical toxicants, with a focus on chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system (including pesticides) and lead to life-threatening diseases, and (ii) the strategy for adopting a path forward that tackles the problem holistically, rather than one chemical at a time. It is not too late to register—Click here!

(Beyond Pesticides, October 29, 2024) STARTS TOMORROW—NATIONAL FORUM: IMPERATIVES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE. A legal victory in federal court is the latest in a series of attempts to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to fulfill the mandate given to it by Congress in 1996 to test all pesticides for their endocrine disrupting effects and regulate them accordingly. The case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California was brought by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and a collection of agricultural workers’ organizations, farmers’ groups, and pesticide activists.

Beyond Pesticides wrote in 2019, EPA’s “Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) began, then virtually stopped, its review and regulation of endocrine disrupting pesticides, despite [its 1996 Congressional mandate] to develop a screening program within two years and then begin regulating.” (See timeline, Figure 2, p11.) After the release of a  a damning 2021 Office of Inspector General (OIG) report (see Beyond Pesticides’ reporting) on the agency’s lack of progress in protecting the population from potentially damaging endocrine disruption impacts of exposures to synthetic chemical pesticides (and other chemicals of concern), CFS wrote: “The 2021 [OIG] report included the shocking revelation that some EPA staff were instructed to function as if the screening program had been eliminated from EPA’s budget, despite a $7.5 million allocation that same year — raising the prospect of EPA’s intentional violation of its statutory duty.”

CFS’ most recent litigation closed with a tentative legal settlement, rather than a judge’s ruling, as did a similar 1999 Natural Resources Defense Council suit. According to the CFS press release, the agreement includes “deadlines by which EPA will implement the EDSP and assess pesticides’ endocrine-disrupting effects. Under the terms of the proposed agreement, over the next five years, EPA will collect data on and assess the effects of endocrine-disrupting pesticides, either as part of the agency’s registration review of registered pesticides or as a part of new pesticide approvals.” EPA also promises to listen to farmworkers’ input on specific pesticides, and to complete assessment of 86 pesticides by 2034.

The case details EPA’s behavior for more than 25 years: a combination of stubborn inaction and a succession of failed promises to do better. In the words of Maricel Maffini, PhD and Laura  Vandenberg, PhD, in Failure to Launch: the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2022), “[N]ot a single pesticide chemical has been determined to be an endocrine disruptor, and no regulatory actions have been taken.”

The reasoning for EPA’s inaction has been murky and illogical. It has spent most of that time stalled, under chemical industry pressure, on the appropriate testing methods for determining whether a pesticide is an endocrine disruptor (ED), even though there are mountains of academic research demonstrating exactly that for numerous pesticides still in heavy use in the U.S. Currently the agency uses a two-tier system in which, if a chemical meets certain initial criteria in test tube assays, rats, amphibians and fish, it will then be bumped up to a second, more rigorous set of in vivo experiments using a few more species tested over two generations. Other proposed testing protocols have remained under discussion, but not put into practice.

The original legislation mandating establishment of EPA’s Endocrine Disruption Screening Program (EDSP) took effect in 1998 as part of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, itself an amendment of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The legislation instructed EPA to implement the EDSP no later than August 1999 and test all registered pesticides. According to the CFS complaint, to date, EPA has begun testing only four percent of those pesticides. Of those, only half are finished and even that remnant requires more testing. EPA published one list of 52 candidate chemicals and a second list of 109 candidates, acknowledging that at least some of them were likely to disrupt hormones. It got through Tier 1 testing for the first 52 chemicals and then stopped. It has completed no testing for the second list. Yet during this same period EPA registered 425 new pesticides without considering their potential endocrine effects. EPA has also acknowledged that more than 87,000 chemicals—not just pesticides—are eligible for EDSP evaluation. There is no way that EPA can ever fulfill the requirements of the enabling legislation with this kind of desultory inaction.

One egregious example is atrazine, which EPA put through Tier 1 tests and found both male and female hormone effects, yet declined to move it up to Tier 2. In its 2015 EDSP Weight of Evidence Conclusions for atrazine, EPA stated, “EDSP Tier 2 testing with mammals, fish, amphibians or birds is not recommended for atrazine at this time because it is not expected to impact current EPA-established regulatory endpoints for human health or ecological risk assessment.” Atrazine, an unambiguous endocrine disrupter, remains on the market in the U.S.

Beyond Pesticides submitted a detailed comment to EPA regarding the agency’s latest proposal to modify its implementation of the EDSP, which would narrow the scope to humans, limit testing to some active ingredients, and limit the data types considered. A Daily News of February 5 details the proposal’s weaknesses. Beyond Pesticides points out that EPA’s mandate is to protect both the environment and humans, and that the elucidation of endocrine disruption came about through observation of chemicals’ effects on animals as much as humans. The thinning of eagles’ eggshells from DDT exposure is an iconic example, which the public became aware of in Rachel Carson’s foundational book, Silent Spring, in 1962—six decades ago. The term “endocrine disruption” emerged from work by the late Theo Colborn, PhD and her 1996 book Our Stolen Future. (See Dr. Colborn’s talk to Beyond Pesticides’ 29^th National Pesticide Forum (2011) It soon became apparent that entire ecosystems are affected by chemicals that alter hormonal balances in mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, insects, and even plants. There is no divorcing humans from the rest of the biosphere. It is Beyond Pesticides’ position that “mammalian data inform potential endocrine disruption in other vertebrate taxa (avian, amphibian, fish) and vice versa” and therefore EDSP testing should not “decouple” data on mammals from other vertebrates.

[For a riveting talk by Tyrone Hayes, PhD, professor of Integrative Biology at University of California Berkeley and ground-breaking researcher on endocrine disruptors, see Protecting Life, From Frogs to the Human Family—delivered at Beyond Pesticides’ 36th National Pesticides (2018).]

Beyond Pesticides has further noted that under FIFRA, “[T]here is an inherent presumption of risk, a pesticide is presumed to pose an unreasonable risk until reliable data demonstrate otherwise. If the agency lacks the data and/or resources to fully evaluate endocrine risks to human health and wildlife, then the agency is obliged to suspend or deny any pesticide registration until the agency has sufficient data to demonstrate no unreasonable adverse endocrine risk per the mandate in FIFRA.” This means EPA must assume pesticides are EDs and the companies selling them must prove otherwise to be registered.

EPA has taken the opposite approach all along. It has done very little to protect the public, farmworkers, and wildlife from endocrine-disrupting chemicals despite three lawsuits, at least two sharp admonitions from Congress, and three scathing inspector general reports. The CFS complaint cites the 2021 OIG report, which included interviews with EPA employees from the EDSP who were “ready to go…but EPA lacked the institutional will to follow through with issuing test orders.” In a 2011 report, the Inspector General (IG) attributed EPA’s lack of progress to “lack of management.” And the 2021 IG document reported that EPA instructed some staff to act as if the EDSP did not appear in the agency budget “even though we were fully funded by Congress,” according to one employee.

EPA’s behavior is largely inexplicable to the uninitiated, but it is shaped by the shadowy influence of the pesticide industry, which is like an invisible planet whose existence must be deduced by the behavior of visible objects. In the CFS litigation, CropLife International intervened as a defendant. This gave it status as a party to the litigation, including the right to appeal. CropLife’s filings served to distract the process from the main issue, which was the utter failure of the EDSP. CropLife’s documents contained such ludicrous statements as:

• “[E]ach of CropLife’s members’ registered pesticide products has been found by EPA, after a rigorous evaluation process, to perform its intended function without “unreasonable risk to man or the environment” or “human dietary risk.”
• “CropLife has maintained that EPA must take the time to develop validated methods for conducting testing….Rushing through the processes without properly validated methods and protocols risks creating public misperceptions about the chemicals undergoing testing and could result in needless fear and distrust of pesticides.”

But overall, CropLife’s argument starkly pitted property and economic rights against the continued viability of human life and the environment without which life cannot exist. The judge accepted CropLife’s assertion that its interests should be given considerable weight in the process.

It is always worth pushing back on egregious environmental failures and it is encouraging to see the CFS settlement set out very worthy goals in writing. But EPA’s history does not bode well for real change. That will likely require agency restructuring and stronger pressure from Congress. You can help bring this about by voting in the most consequential election of our lifetimes and by telling your elected representatives to support effective reform, realistic funding, and EPA’s forward momentum toward fulfilling its statutory mandates.

Don’t Miss This!: Hear from world renowned researcher on endocrine disruptors and their connection to petrochemical pesticide exposure, Tracey Woodruff, PhD (Director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, and Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco) at Beyond Pesticides’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency. The Forum begins on October 30 at 2-4pm (EDT) and then continues on November 14 at 1pm (EST). The Forum provides an opportunity to discuss with scientists from Germany and the United States, both (i) the hazards that define the urgency of threats associated petrochemical toxicants, with a focus on chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system (including pesticides) and lead to life-threatening diseases, and (ii) the strategy for adopting a path forward that tackles the problem holistically, rather than one chemical at a time.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources:

Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Pesticide Action Network North America, Rural Coalition, Center for Environmental Health, Organición en California de Líderes Campesinas, and Center for Food Safety v. USEPA
United States District Court for the Northern District of California
December 20, 2022
Case No. 22-cv-9030, Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/2022-12-20-doc-01–pltf-complaint_89752.pdf

Victory! EPA Ends Decades of Inaction on Assessing Endocrine-Disrupting Harms of Pesticides Pursuant to Legal Settlement with Farmworker and Environmental Health Groups
Center for Food Safety
October 15, 2024
https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/andrew-kimbrell/2440/andrew-kimbrell/press-releases/6963/victory-epa-ends-decades-of-inaction-on-assessing-endocrine-disrupting-harms-of-pesticides-pursuant-to-legal-settlement-with-farmworker-and-environmental-health-groups

Failure to Launch: The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Maricel V. Maffini and Laura N. Vandenberg
Front. Toxicol., 29 May 2022
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/toxicology/articles/10.3389/ftox.2022.908439/full

EPA Proposal for Endocrine Disruption Testing of Pesticides Is Too Narrow in Scope
https://www.beyondpesticides.org/action-of-the-week/epa-proposal-for-endocrine-disruption-testing-of-pesticides-is-too-narrow-in-scope

While France Bans a Common Endocrine Disrupting Pesticide, EPA Goes Silent: U.S. ignores statutory mandate to review pesticides that cause deadly illnesses at minute doses, defying classical toxicology
Pesticides and You, Summer 2019
https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/Feature%20–%20Endocrine%20disruptor%20review%2039.2.pdf

Inspector General Rips EPA for Failure to Test Pesticides for Endocrine Disruption
Beyond Pesticides, August 20, 2021
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2021/08/inspector-general-rips-epa-for-failure-to-test-pesticides-for-endocrine-disruption/

EPA’s Failure to Regulate Endocrine-Disrupting Pesticides before a Federal Court. . . Again
Beyond Pesticides, January 6, 2023
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2023/01/epas-failure-to-regulate-endocrine-disrupting-pesticides-before-a-federal-court-again/

Take Action: Male Fertility Harmed by Pesticides and EPA Dysfunction
Beyond Pesticides, July 18, 2022

Take Action: Male Fertility Harmed by Pesticides and EPA Dysfunction

(Beyond Pesticides, October 28, 2024) STARTS WEDNESDAY—NATIONAL FORUM: IMPERATIVES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE. As scientific articles and regulatory reviews by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) focus on individual pesticides or families of pesticides and specific health outcomes associated with exposure, legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), S. 5084, Safe School Meals Act (SSMA), proposes a holistic response to the protection of children by banning pesticides in school lunches. While focused on the elimination of certain individual pesticides and other chemicals of known concern, the bill unilaterally allows children to be served food from certified organic farms.

The overwhelmingly large body of scientific findings on the adverse effects of pesticides in the food that children eat in schools and generally. For example, last week Beyond Pesticides commented on EPA’s Draft Human Health and/or Ecological Risk Assessments for Several Pesticides, citing scientific findings that, “Neonicotinoids . . .have been found to affect mammalian nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) [which] are of critical importance to human brain function, especially during development and for memory, cognition, and behavior.” (See more here.) This month, Jennifer Sass, PhD, et al., in Frontiers in Toxicology, published a review of  unpublished rodent developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) studies on five neonicotinoid insecticides—submitted to EPA by their manufacturers to support the chemicals’ registration—that exhibit evidence of developmental neurotoxicity. The authors report that in reviewing this data, “EPA dismissed statistically significant adverse effects, accepted substandard DNT studies despite lack of valid positive control data, and allowed neonicotinoid registrants to unduly influence agency decision-making.” The range of adverse health outcomes associated with pesticide exposure extends well beyond neurotoxic effects to cancer, immune system and respiratory effects, diabetes, endocrine disrupting effects that affect organ function, and more. For a catalog of the range of adverse effects, see Pesticide-Induced Disease Database.

S. 5084, Safe School Meals Act (SSMA) identifies four objectives:

• Directing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to set safe limits for heavy metals in school meals. The limits will be based on a threshold of reasonable certainty of no harm to school-age children from aggregate exposure. If the agencies fail to set these limits within two years, the limits will automatically be set to non-detectable until the agencies can determine a safe level of exposure.
• Banning glyphosate, paraquat, and organophosphate pesticide residues in school meals. Certified organic farms would automatically meet this requirement.
• Banning PFAS, phthalates, lead, and bisphenols in food packaging in school meals.
• Directing FDA to reevaluate food additives with known carcinogenic, reproductive, or developmental health harms, such as artificial food dyes, and ban their use in school meals prior to the completion of FDA’s analysis.

According to Senator Booker, “School meals should be a child’s safest source of nourishment, not another source of toxic exposure.” Although S. 5084 does not require organic school meals, the only way for a school to meet these objectives without bearing a large expense for testing is to buy organic food. Unfortunately, as pointed out by Kate Mendenhall, executive director of the Organic Farmers Association, “Most organic and small farms have not traditionally had access to school food purchasing programs.” S. 5084 will provide a strong incentive for schools to buy organic food for school lunches and thus, according to Mendenhall, will “open new markets for organic foods and help make organic certification affordable for small farmers.”

>> Tell your U.S. Representative and Senators to cosponsor S. 5084, which increases the funding available for schools to purchase safe school meals and expands funding for the Organic Certification Cost-Share Program to compensate organic farmers.

The Food Quality Protection Act, passed in 1996 as an amendment to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) requires regulation of endocrine-disrupting impacts of pesticides. Almost two decades later, EPA has failed to regulate endocrine-disrupting pesticides.

The review process in S. 5084 mandates that at least every five years the Commissioner of Food and Drugs must “determine potential adjustments to the maximum permissible levels of heavy metals and toxic metalloids.” Similar provisions exist for other toxic materials that this legislation is intended to regulate. Permissible levels of toxic substances—including PFAS, heavy metals, industrial chemicals, and pesticides—are now calculated without consideration given to the cumulative impacts (or toxic burden) across all exposures. In 2020, FDA acknowledged that half of food samples tested by the agency have toxic pesticide residues and one in ten samples have levels that violate legal limits established by EPA, according to the Pesticide Residue Monitoring Report. Consumer Reports recently updated its analysis of pesticide residues in various common grocery store products, finding that 20% of the foods tested pose a “high risk” to the public and 12 specific commodities are so dangerous that children or pregnant people should not eat more than one serving per day.

There are serious long-term health implications for children and youth exposed to the toxic soup of pesticide and chemical residues found in conventionally grown food. Research published in Environmental Pollution in 2022 identified children with higher levels of certain pesticide metabolites are more likely to go through early puberty. The American Academy of Pediatrics identified in a study published this year the proliferation of anti-microbial resistant infections resulting from overreliance on antibiotics in animal agriculture and resulting in potentially severe health risks for infants and children. Additionally, a 2024 study published in Environment International finds 60 biomarkers of pollutants and pesticides in hair analyses of children throughout France, which highlights the global crisis resulting from inadequate regulation of toxic chemicals. Despite the known health impacts of pesticide exposure, Congress may end up removing two-hundred-foot pesticide spray “buffer zones” around 4,028 U.S. elementary schools contiguous to crop fields depending on how Farm Bill negotiations move forward, according to an analysis by Environmental Working Group.

There are additional associated benefits for children who consume organic food. Sticking to an organic diet has reduced toxic pesticide residues in the bodies of U.S. children and adults, based on several studies published in 2019 in Environmental Health, and in two 2015 studies published in Environmental Health Perspectives and by the Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health. A particularly noteworthy study published in 2014 in Environmental Research found that organophosphate pesticide metabolites in the urine of adults were reduced after just a week-long organic diet. A 2019 study published in Environmental Health, led by Barcelona Institute for Global Health, found that organic food consumption among children is directly associated with higher test scores, after measuring for fluid intelligence and working memory. Conversely, lower scores on fluid intelligence tests were associated with, among other factors, children’s fast-food intake.

The transition to organic food in school cafeterias is not a new policy concern. In a 2004 article published in Pesticides and You, School Lunches Go Organic: Science supports growing movement, numerous examples across the nation demonstrate a pathway forward for broader adoption of organic mandates. “Stonyfield Farm has sponsored organic programs at schools in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and Connecticut,” according to the article. Additionally, the authors wrote, “An organic salad bar started at Lincoln Elementary School in Olympia, Washington has proven so popular and economically feasible, all grade schools in Olympia now have one. California school districts in Berkeley, Santa Monica, and Palo Alto also have organic food programs. In 2004, the Seattle school district adopted H61.01, Breakfast and Lunch Program Procedure, a policy banning junk food and encouraging organic food in school cafeterias.” More recently, Beyond Pesticides called for requiring organic school lunches in order to eliminate obesogenic pesticide residues.

S. 5084 also establishes a pathway forward for acknowledging organic food production as a public good and service by expanding funding for the Organic Certification Cost-Share Program to fully compensate farmers for certification costs, a long-term policy goal for organic advocates nationwide. It increases the funding available for schools to purchase safe school meals. Supporters of the bill include a broad spectrum of educational, health, environmental, and organic advocates, who welcome the continued leadership of Senator Booker in pushing forward legislation that eliminates a number of toxic residues from the National School Lunch Program and the elevation of organic food production on the national stage.

>> Tell your U.S. Representative and Senators to cosponsor S. 5084, which increases the funding available for schools to purchase safe school meals and expands funding for the Organic Certification Cost-Share Program to compensate organic farmers.

Letter to U.S. Representative and Senators:

I am writing to ask you to cosponsor S. 5084, Safe School Meals Act, introduced by Senator Cory Booker in September, which has four objectives:

*Directing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to set safe limits for heavy metals in school meals, based on a threshold of reasonable certainty of no harm to school-age children from aggregate exposure. If the agencies fail to set these limits within two years, the limits will automatically be set to non-detectable until the agencies can determine a safe level of exposure.

*Banning glyphosate, paraquat, and organophosphate pesticide residues in school meals. Certified organic farms would automatically meet this requirement.

*Banning PFAS, phthalates, lead, and bisphenols in food packaging in school meals.

*Directing FDA to reevaluate food additives with known carcinogenic, reproductive, or developmental health harms, such as artificial food dyes, and ban their use in school meals prior to the completion of FDA’s analysis.

School meals should be a child’s safest source of nourishment, not another source of toxic exposure. Although S. 5084 does not require organic school meals, buying organic food is a cost-effective way for schools to meet the bill’s requirements. EPA has still failed to advance the protections for children mandated by the Food Quality Protection Act, passed in 1996. In 2020, FDA acknowledged that half of food samples tested by the agency have toxic pesticide residues and one in ten samples have levels that violate legal limits established by EPA. Consumer Reports recently updated its analysis of pesticide residues in various common grocery store products, finding that 20% of the foods tested pose a “high risk” to the public and 12 specific commodities are so dangerous that children or pregnant people should not eat more than one serving per day.

There are serious long-term health implications for children and youth exposed to pesticide and chemical residues found in food grown in chemical-intensive agriculture. Research published in Environmental Pollution in 2022 identified children with higher levels of certain pesticide metabolites are more likely to go through early puberty. The American Academy of Pediatrics identified the proliferation of anti-microbial resistant infections resulting from overreliance on antibiotics in animal agriculture and resulting in potentially severe health risks for infants and children. A 2024 study published in Environment International finds 60 biomarkers of pollutants and pesticides in hair analyses of children throughout France.

Children benefit from organic food. An organic diet reduces toxic pesticide residues in the bodies of U.S. children and adults, based on several studies published in 2019 in Environmental Health, and in two 2015 studies published in Environmental Health Perspectives, and by Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health. A study published in 2014 in Environmental Research found that organophosphate pesticide metabolites in the urine of adults declined after just a week-long organic diet. A 2019 study published in Environmental Health, led by Barcelona Institute for Global Health, found that organic food consumption among children is directly associated with higher test scores. Conversely, lower scores on fluid intelligence tests were associated with, among other factors, children’s fast-food intake.

S. 5084 also expands funding for the Organic Certification Cost-Share Program to fully compensate farmers for certification costs, a long-term policy goal for organic advocates across the nation, and increases the funding available for schools to purchase safe school meals. Supporters of the bill include a broad spectrum of educational, health, environmental, and organic advocates.

Please cosponsor S. 5084.

Thank you.

***
Don’t miss it! Beyond Pesticides’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency, begins on October 30 at 2-4pm (EDT) and then continues on November 14 at 1pm (EST). The Forum provides an opportunity to discuss with world-renowned scientists, from Germany and the United States, both (i) the hazards that define the urgency of threats associated petrochemical toxicants, with a focus on chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system (including pesticides) and lead to life-threatening diseases, and (ii) the strategy for adopting a path forward that tackles the problem holistically, rather than one chemical at a time.

(Beyond Pesticides, October 25, 2024) To better understand synergistic interactions between multiple stressors, researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany, analyze exposure to the pyrethroid insecticide esfenvalerate with two nonchemical environmental factors: elevated temperature and food limitation. In their recent publication in Environmental Pollution, the authors find the greatest synergistic effects when Daphnia magna (D. magna) are subjected to esfenvalerate under conditions experienced with climate change including lower food availability and increased temperature.

D. magna, also known as daphnids or water fleas, are small planktonic crustaceans that represent an essential part of the food web in lakes and ponds. Impacts on populations of daphnids can lead to effects throughout multiple trophic levels that impact overall biodiversity. As the researchers state, “Global biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate in response to multiple environmental stressors… A key challenge is understanding synergistic interactions between multiple stressors and predicting their combined effects.”

To study this, a Stress Addition Model (SAM), which predicts the cumulative effects of interacting stressors, was utilized and compared to laboratory data using 24-hour-old neonates of D. magna. The organisms were subjected to various conditions, singularly and in combination, including increased temperature, lower quantities of food, and different concentrations of esfenvalerate. The study encompasses “eight esfenvalerate concentrations (0, 0.001, 0.01, 0.0316, 0.1, 0.316, 1.0 and 3.16 μg/L) × two temperature levels (20 and 25 °C) × two food conditions (high and low food), resulting in 32 treatments. In each treatment, we used 15 replicates, and the experiment was repeated 3 times,” the authors note.   

The low food treatments received 100 times less food, and the increase to 25 °C was chosen as it represents the upper threshold of D. magna’s thermal tolerance. Both of these conditions represent a stress that the researchers hypothesized would exacerbate the effects of pesticide exposure. “We selected esfenvalerate because it has frequently been detected in agricultural streams and is allowed for agricultural practices in the EU [European Union] until May 2026,” the researchers share. The varying concentrations reflect those commonly found in the field and represent real-life exposure levels for aquatic organisms.

Esfenvalerate is a suspected endocrine disruptor and has documented effects of neurotoxicity, irritation, and kidney/liver damage, as well as reported toxicity to fish/aquatic organisms and bees. See more on the health effects of esfenvalerate and pyrethroids here and here.

The test groups in this study are used to predict “the combined effects of (i) elevated temperature and food limitation, (ii) elevated temperature and esfenvalerate, (iii) esfenvalerate and food limitation, and (iv) all stressors together.” In assessing the nonchemical environmental stressors, the authors find, “[E]levated temperature alone caused 12% mortality, while starvation alone caused 20% mortality. However, when both stressors were combined, the mortality rate increased to approximately 29%, indicating the additive effects of both stressors.”

When factoring in exposure to esfenvalerate under each of these conditions individually, stronger interactions are observed with food stress. The results demonstrate that limitation of food decreases the tolerance of D. magna to esfenvalerate and causes synergism. When analyzing all three stressors together, the interactions between esfenvalerate and food limitation show even stronger effects at elevated temperatures. The researchers report, “[T]he synergistic interaction between food limitation and esfenvalerate at elevated temperature (25 °C) was 3.6-fold stronger as compared to synergism at reference temperature (20 °C).”

The increased effects of pesticide exposure under food limitation “can be attributed to metabolic depression resulting in limited energy budget for physiological defences against stress,” the authors say. When organisms experience starvation, their metabolic activity is lowered as a strategy to survive until food is available. Additional studies reveal that food limitation increases the toxicity of pesticides in invertebrates. (See here and here.)

When temperatures are elevated, it increases metabolic rates within organisms that creates greater energy demands, and compromises the organism’s ability to detoxify chemicals. With the depletion of energy that comes with limited food availability, this leaves the organisms particularly vulnerable. “Additionally, temperature stress might weaken the immune system, making daphnids more vulnerable to toxicant exposure. Thus, cumulative effects likely disrupt homeostasis, leading to synergistic rather than additive response… Each stressor diminished the general stress capacity of individuals, thereby increasing synergism with increasing total general stress,” the researchers state.

To summarize the study data, the authors say, “Our results indicate that, compared to high food and reference temperature, the combination of food limitation and elevated temperature substantially increased the sensitivity of D. magna to esfenvalerate.” With the current crises of climate change and biodiversity, food scarcity and warming are already individually impacting organisms. In finding that these stressors have a greater cumulative impact, without even factoring in chemical exposure, places a huge threat over the stability of aquatic and terrestrial food webs. Adding in the harmful effects of pesticides, which are further exacerbated under these environmental conditions, puts the entire ecosystem at risk.

Synergistic effects of pesticides have been well documented by Beyond Pesticides (see here, here, and here) and highlight the heightened risks of chemicals with additional stressors. The interaction of multiple stressors and pesticides is overlooked in ecological risk assessments. When pesticides are reviewed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine if they create unreasonable adverse effects on human health and the environment, the toxicity of the individual compounds is assessed without factoring in the real-life scenarios of pesticide mixtures and environmental stressors that create synergy.

Current regulatory review protocols do not adequately capture the complex interactions that occur in nature with pesticide exposure, which threatens the health of all organisms and the environment. As the researchers note, “[T]he combined impacts of climate change, chemical pollution, and other physical stressors are reshaping ecosystems by altering the composition of natural communities and affecting ecosystem services.”

As Beyond Pesticides previously reported on biodiversity, the mix of diverse and intricate relationships of organisms in nature are essential for sustaining life. Pesticide use is a major cause of declining biodiversity, which is manifested in extinctions, endangered species, and species vulnerable to environmental disturbances—including climate change, habitat fragmentation, and toxic chemicals. Biodiversity is critical for many goods and services essential to life on earth, supports human and societal needs, influences human health and well-being, and protects against exposure to zoonotic diseases. Biodiversity loss harms our health and threatens the ecological cycles that support life.

The entire food web, including both aquatic and terrestrial organisms, relies on balance. When stressors, such as climate change and pollution, threaten that balance, all organisms including humans are at risk. D. magna represents an important foundation in the aquatic ecosystem, and its effects on these organisms highlight the wider threat to all wildlife. “Maintaining biodiversity of surface water ecosystems is paramount for providing essential ecosystem services,” the authors conclude. “However, these ecosystems are increasingly subjected to multiple anthropogenic stressors that compromise their ecological status.”

Protecting biodiversity through the elimination of harmful chemicals is the path forward. By adopting organic land management practices, the effects on human health and the environment, as well as climate change, can be mitigated. Organic agriculture focuses on soil health, which leads to improved health of all organisms and the environment.

A study in the Journal of Environmental Science and Public Health, as previously reported by Beyond Pesticides, shares that, “The three most important environmental problems affecting the globe now are pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss.” Based on the science, petrochemical pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers, central to conventional chemical-intensive systems, are contributors to these problems. There is an abundance of scientific, peer-reviewed evidence that shows these chemicals disrupt ecosystems that support and sustain life in addition to negatively influencing human health both directly and indirectly as well as acutely and chronically.

To solve the existential crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and human disease, it is critical that we transition away from this reliance on chemicals and adopt organic agriculture as a standard. Take action to tell Congress to ensure that organic programs, and their funding, do not lapse this fall and encourage your community to transition to organic with the Parks for a Sustainable Future program. Add your voice to the urgent movement to help Beyond Pesticides accomplish the mission of eliminating fossil fuel-based pesticide use by 2032 by joining as a member today.

On the necessity, viability, productivity, and profitability of organic land management, attend the 41st National Forum: Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source:

Shahid, N., Siddique, A. and Liess, M. (2024) Synergistic interaction between a toxicant and food stress is further exacerbated by temperature, Environmental Pollution. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749124018268.