(Beyond Pesticides, August 20, 2024) A study published online in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology raises continuing concern about residual exposure to organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and the disruption that they and their metabolites and isomers cause to biological systems. For the most part, OCPs, including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), are no longer used worldwide, but the legacy of their poisoning and contamination persists. A 2022 article in Environmental Science & Technology cites California condors and marine mammals along California’s coast contaminated with several dozen different halogenated organic compounds (hazardous, often-chlorinated chemicals) related to DDT, chlordane, and other now-banned legacy chemicals. Other research finds DDT in deep ocean sediment and biota. And, more research finds multigeneration effects from DDT exposure with grandmothers’ exposure to DDT increasing granddaughters’ breast cancer and cardiometabolic disorder risk. This study may be the first compilation of research regarding the modes of action for distinct types of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs). The findings raise the significant danger of legacy chemicals that persist for generations and call for a precautionary regulatory standard that is focused on preventing harm and advancing alternative nontoxic practices and products. In tracking the ongoing scientific literature on a broad spectrum of adverse effects daily, Beyond Pesticides […]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 12, 2024)  When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an emergency ban of the weed killer Dacthal (DCPA) last week, it said that there are no “practicable mitigation measures” to protect against identified hazards—a clear and honest assessment of the limits of pesticide product label changes and use restrictions. Now, the question is whether the same thinking can be applied across the EPA’s pesticide program, addressing the urgent need to protect biodiversity. In the Dacthal proclamation, EPA said it consulted with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on “alternatives to this pesticide,” and presumably determined that there were “alternative chemicals” that could be used in chemical-intensive agriculture—while not considering “alternatives to chemicals.” This is the framework that is understood to be EPA’s process that keeps pest management on a pesticide treadmill except in extremely rare cases (this being the second in nearly 40 years). It is also the framework that has led to catastrophic events or existential crises on biodiversity collapse, health threats, and the climate emergency. On biodiversity, the mix of diverse and intricate relationships of organisms in nature that are essential to the sustaining of life, EPA’s pesticide program, the Office of Pesticide Programs, has […]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 8, 2024) With the use of its emergency authority—not used in nearly 40 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on August 7 banned a pesticide (the weed killer Dacthal or DCPA—dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate) under the “imminent hazard” clause of the federal pesticide law. At the same time, the agency is exercising its authority to prohibit the continued use of Dacthal’s existing stocks, a provision that EPA rarely uses. 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. The last time EPA issued an emergency action like 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, sprayed over people to defoliate the landscape of Vietnam in the war there—with the most potent form of dioxin, TCDD (2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin). While EPA has been congratulated for using its emergency authority, which it is obviously reluctant to use, and health and environmental activists say could be used broadly, the timeline […]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 5, 2024) As the longstanding problem of involuntary pesticide exposure through chemical drift continues unabated, EPA announced “new, earlier protections” that are being criticized by Beyond Pesticides as inadequate. The organization is calling on the public to let EPA and Congress know that it must comprehensively eliminate nontarget chemical trespass. Beyond Pesticides notes that the recent EPA announcement does not stop the movement of pesticides off the target sites restricted by pesticide product labels and therefore does not protect the public and environment in agricultural, rural, suburban, and urban areas from resulting health and ecological threats. EPA’s July 15, 2024, press release, “EPA Announces New, Earlier Protections for People from Pesticide Spray Drift” states, “The Agency is not making any changes to its chemical-specific methodology outlined in the 2014 document but has decided to extend the chemical-specific spray drift methodology to certain registration actions.” Although EPA should evaluate every pesticide use for its drift potential, extension of an inadequate process does not constitute “protection.” >> Tell EPA and Congress that EPA must protect against all forms of pesticide drift. Pesticide drift—more properly designated “chemical trespass”—is a threat to people living in agricultural, rural, suburban, and urban areas, […]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 2, 2024) In a recent study published in Science, a team from the University of Massachusetts and Yale University provides quantitative insight into the significant effects of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on the nation’s water quality. This research highlights the essential role of ephemeral streams—water sources that flow temporarily after rainfall—in transporting pollutants, including pesticides, sediments, and nutrients from land to larger water bodies.  This comprehensive study underscores the devastating risk to U.S. water quality, stemming from the May 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which dramatically limits the agency’s ability to protect ephemeral streams as well as critical wetland ecosystems under the Clean Water Act (CWA).  As a May 2024 report by Clean Water for All Coalition notes, “The [Sackett] decision has 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.” At a time when an immediate response to the climate crisis and chemical pollution is more urgent than ever, the U.S. Supreme Court’s judicial decisions are seen […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 31, 2024) The latest commentary on “forever chemicals” in Environmental Health Perspectives captures growing concerns for the class of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that are found in pesticide products and cause persistent contamination that threaten human health and the environment. The authors share, “Given that pesticides are some of the most widely distributed pollutants across the world, the legacy impacts of PFAS addition into pesticide products could be widespread and have wide-ranging implications on agriculture and food and water contamination.” Fluorination, which adds fluorine to a compound, is used to modify properties, such as the stability of chemicals. It can also increase residual activity of pesticide ingredients. Fluorinated molecules, including PFAS, are “a serious environmental health concern owing to their highly persistent nature, often potent toxicities, potential to bioaccumulate, and widespread presence in people, animals, and the broader environment,” the authors state. They continue in saying, “The long-term impacts of using mixtures of extremely persistent chemicals on potentially hundreds of millions of acres of US land every year is, to us, a cause for concern.” The commentary, titled “Forever Pesticides: A Growing Source of PFAS Contamination in the Environment,” explores how and to what extent PFAS […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 30, 2024) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on July 15 what it described as a new process for evaluating the risks of spray drift—the migration of pesticides from their target area to off-site zones. According to a statement by EPA Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Assistant Administrator Michal Freedhoff, PhD in an Oregon Public Broadcasting story, the agency took the step so that “people don’t have to wait years for the protections they deserve and need.” However, EPA states, “The Agency is not making any changes to its chemical-specific methodology outlined in [its] 2014 document but has decided to extend the chemical-specific spray drift methodology to certain registration actions.” EPA has said, “Spray drift is governed by a variety of factors which govern how much of the pesticide application deposits on surfaces where contact with residues can eventually lead to indirect exposures (e.g., children playing on lawns that are next to treated fields and where residues have deposited).” The new policy will add spray drift evaluation to occasions when the agency receives an application for a new pesticide and when a registered pesticide is intended for a new use or applied to a new crop. […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 29, 2024) Beyond Pesticides is asking the public to support a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), filed by environmental and farm groups, to require the agency’s pesticide registration program to ban PFAS (so-called “forever chemicals”) as pesticide ingredients and all their uses that result in contamination of pesticide products. The petition, submitted by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) on behalf of 12 other petitioners, asks EPA to: “(1) ban PFAS as pesticide ingredients; (2) adopt a broad definition of PFAS chemicals that reflect the current scientific understanding of the class of chemicals; (3) prohibit the use of PFAS-containing containers for pesticide storage; (4) mandate reporting of PFAS contamination from pesticide registrants; and (5) prevent future contamination by requiring pesticide manufacturers to submit data specific to PFAS before future registrations can be approved.” PFAS—per- and polyfluorinated substances—is a group of nearly 10,000 highly persistent, human-made toxic chemicals. A commentary released last week in Environmental Health Perspectives, Forever Pesticides: A Growing Source of PFAS Contamination in the Environment, “explore[s] different ways that PFAS can be introduced into pesticide products, the extent of PFAS contamination of pesticide products, and the implications this could have for human […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 26, 2024) Beyond Pesticides released the latest issue of Pesticides and You this week, a compendium of scientific research on pesticide threats to human and environmental health. The issue is a breathtaking warning from the science community that environmental, health, and labor laws are not protecting the public. Beyond Pesticides says in its introduction that a shift away from toxic pesticide use is urgently needed. Included in this issue are scientific reviews of research reported by Beyond Pesticides in 2023, providing a critique of the independent peer-reviewed literature with a shocking range of adverse effects, including cancer, neurotoxicity, brain effects, reproductive impacts, diabetes and obesity, chronic kidney and liver disease, Parkinson’s, respiratory illness and asthma, learning and behavioral abnormalities, and more, as well as disproportionate harm to people of color. In addition, the science documents pesticides’ catastrophic harm to the ecosystems that sustain life. In total, these dramatic findings call for an end to the use of toxic pesticides, incompatible with respect for living organisms and, to environmental, health, and labor advocates, unconscionable given the availability of viable, cost-effective organic practices. This issue adds to the body of knowledge from two previous issues of Pesticides and You (Transformative Change: […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 25, 2024) On July 10, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) does not preempt pesticide exposure victims’ state law claims against pesticide manufacturers, based on reporting from The New Lede. This decision builds on years of judicial precedent from the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) that protects individuals’ right to use failure-to-warn claims against producers of toxic pesticides, including Bayer-Monsanto. The importance of judicial review is critical to protecting the public against public health impacts of toxic pesticide use in the context of last month’s SCOTUS decision ending Chevron Doctrine, and with it the end of deferring to federal regulatory agencies on ambiguities in statutory mandates. A growing coalition of environmental and public health advocates, organic farmers, trial attorneys, farmworkers, and physicians are united in pushing back against a concerted effort by industry and its allies to attack victims’ ability to sue under “failure-to-warn” through the Farm Bill, state legislatures, and the proposed federal budget for Fiscal Year 2025. Oregon Court of Appeals In 2022, a local trial court in Oregon ruled in favor of Monsanto on a lawsuit initiated by Jackson County residents Larry and […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 24, 2024) The Center for Food Safety—joined by environmental, farm, and grassroots organizations including Beyond Pesticides—submitted a groundbreaking petition yesterday to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), urging immediate action to address the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in pesticides and pesticide containers. Numerous studies have shown that the broad use of PFAS chemicals, and the resulting environmental contamination, has devastating impacts on public health, wildlife, and pollinators. Despite acknowledging PFAS as an urgent public health and environmental issue, EPA has upheld hundreds of registrations of pesticide ingredients that fall into the PFAS category. Furthermore, EPA has allowed the ongoing use of fluorinated pesticide storage containers, despite the agency itself finding that these containers leach PFAS chemicals into pesticide products.   PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” due to their ability to persist in the environment, are endocrine disruptors, which are linked to developmental issues, cancers, and organ damage. Crops can uptake PFAS from soil, resulting in dietary exposure for both the public and wildlife, while PFAS ingredients in pesticides can also leach into groundwater, contributing to widespread PFAS drinking water contamination. In recent years, EPA has acknowledged this critical issue and committed to addressing PFAS contamination outside […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 18, 2024) A recent study in The Journal of Toxicological Sciences shows that a single dose of the neonicotinoid insecticide clothianidin (CLO) induces behavioral abnormalities, predominantly in female mice, throughout key stages of development. In testing mice at various ages, sex-specific changes were identified that highlight not only varied effects on males and females but also how pesticide exposure at a young age can cause lasting impacts throughout adulthood in mammalian species.  The researchers, at the Laboratory of Animal Reproduction and Development at Tohoku University in Japan, “utilized murine [mouse] models to compare the sex-specific differences in behavioral effects following CLO exposure at different developmental stages. [They] orally administered CLO to male and female mice as a single high-dose solution (80 mg/kg) during the postnatal period (2-week-old), adolescence (6-week-old), or maturity (10-week-old), and subsequently evaluated higher brain function.”   As the authors remark, “Most studies on the neurotoxicity of CLO have targeted only males, with limited insights regarding the neurodevelopmental toxicity in females. There are significant sex differences in brain development due to hormonal, genetic, epigenetic, and other sex-specific factors. Moreover, there are also a number of sex-based differences in the prevalence of developmental disorders, such as […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 9, 2024) Last month, California cannabis regulators recalled a pesticide-tainted vape, one of the contaminated products identified in a Los Angeles Times investigation. The report reveals that the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) has for months been aware of the presence of dangerous chemicals in legal cannabis sold to the public. Conducted by Los Angeles Times and WeedWeek, a cannabis industry newsletter, the investigation has uncovered alarming levels of the insecticide chlorfenapyr in legal cannabis products sold in state dispensaries. According to an article via the National Institutes of Health, “Although [chlorfenapyr] has been identified as a moderately toxic pesticide by the World Health Organization (WHO), the mortality rate of poisoned patients is extremely high. There is no specific antidote for chlorfenapyr poisoning.” The chemical is associated with adverse liver effects and is toxic to bees, birds, and aquatic organisms. Despite claims that the state’s cannabis is safe and regulated, many popular brands of vapes and pre-rolled joints were found to contain dangerous pesticides at levels exceeding state limits and federal standards for tobacco. This investigation comes on the heels of the discovery of large amounts of illegal Chinese pesticides at cannabis grow operations around the state. […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 8, 2024) Please submit comments by Wednesday, July 31, 2024. Acephate, an insecticide and member of the highly toxic organophosphate (OP) family, is so toxic that EPA is proposing to ban all uses except the systemic injection into trees. A comment period is open, and EPA is accepting comments through Wednesday, July 31, after extending the earlier July deadline. With this remaining use, EPA is still not recognizing that systemic neonicotinoid pesticides can cause serious environmental harm to the ecosystem through indiscriminate poisoning of organisms. >> Submit a comment on acephate and tell EPA that no pesticide should be allowed to be used if the crop can be produced organically.  EPA proposes to cancel all uses of acephate other than tree injection to eliminate all risks of concern it has identified that exceed its level of concern for dietary/drinking water risk, residential and occupational risks, and risks to non-target organisms. As Beyond Pesticides points out, although the tree injection method does not pose excessive dietary or aggregate health risk and does not pose any untoward occupational or post-application human health risks of concern, there are significant ecological risks posed that the agency has neglected. Rather than assessing the ecological risks of tree […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 4, 2024) In reflecting on recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that reduce federal government powers to restrict hazardous chemicals, including pesticides (see Clean Water Act decision and federal restrictions of toxic hazards under the reversal of Chevron decision), two remaining authorities in state and local governments and in the courts have become the next battleground to protect health and the environment. What is at stake are two major backstops to weak federal controls and chemical company disregard for safety: the critical importance of state and local governments’ exercise of authority to restrict toxic chemicals, and the ability of people to sue corporations for their failure to warn about their products’ hazards.  The attack on state and local authority in the Farm Bill The Farm Bill in the U.S. House of Representatives: Prohibits the rights of states and local governments to restrict pesticides and protect public health and the environment. The language says the Farm Bill will “prohibit any State, instrumentality or political subdivision thereof… from directly or indirectly imposing or continuing in effect any requirements for, or penalize or hold liable any entity for failing to comply with requirements with respect to, labeling or packaging that is in […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 1, 2024) Comments on proposed new dicamba uses are due Friday, July 5 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting public comments until July 5 on whether it should allow the expanded use of the weed killer dicamba, which has been associated with adverse impacts related to its propensity to drift off of the target application site. The comment period addresses a BASF chemical company proposal for additional food use of a dicamba product on dicamba-tolerant cotton and dicamba-tolerant soybeans. (See Beyond Pesticides’ comments.) This application is similar to Bayer CropScience’s application for XtendiMax®, for which Beyond Pesticides submitted comments in June. The proposed label for BASF’s Engenia® allows for application preplant, at-planting, preemergence, and postemergence (in-crop) for broadleaf weeds. >> Tell EPA to ban use of dicamba and other drift-prone pesticides. The U.S. Supreme Court Reversal This proposal is under consideration on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision on June 28 that reverses a 40-year old decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which created a deference to federal agencies in the rulemaking process. In the dissent to this 6-3 decision of the court, the dissenters focus on the role of executive […]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 28, 2024) Most people don’t like bugs, but the fact is that insects form the foundation of human flourishing, both for their ecosystems services, like pollination of food crops, and for their aesthetic joys. But insect populations globally are declining two to four percent a year, with total losses over 20 years of 30-50 percent, according to a new study of the interacting effects of pesticides, climate, and land use changes on insects’ status in the Midwest. Teasing out the relative influence of these stressors has been a major obstacle in determining the causes of the declines and ways to mitigate them. The icon of insect beauty in the U.S. is the monarch butterfly, whose vibrant coloring, elegant form, and spectacular migrations inspire everyone. Beyond Pesticides has covered the distressing decline of these creatures, most recently in the June 24 Daily News. Monarchs prefer milkweed plants, but also visit many other flowers. Milkweed often grows along the margins of fields, so monarchs are widely exposed to pesticides and habitat disturbances associated with agriculture. The new study was published in PLoS One by a team of scientists from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Michigan State University, […]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 27, 2024) Earlier this month, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on behalf of a group of ranchers and farmers in Texas harmed by biosolids contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The plaintiffs charge that their health and livelihoods were severely damaged due to contaminated biosolids leaching from neighboring properties onto their land. Despite EPA’s responsibility under the Clean Water Act (Section 405(d) and 40 CFR Part 503) to identify toxic pollutants in biosolids and regulate them to protect human health and the environment, the agency has not effectively addressed the dangers posed by PFAS in biosolid fertilizers. EPA’s failure has dramatic impacts on farmers as well as the public, who are eating or drinking PFAS-contaminated crops, dairy milk, beef, or other meat products. The shortcomings of federal regulations underscore the urgent need for a shift in how federal and state agencies approach these issues, prioritizing precaution to prevent future harm. The persistence of these legacy or “forever” chemicals in the environment illustrates the severe consequences of a historically lax regulatory framework in the U.S.  The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) has identified […]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 25, 2024) It has been a couple of weeks since U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR), ranking GOP member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, released the Republican framework vision without statutory language for a Senate Farm Bill that would renew the law’s commitment to chemical-intensive agriculture and undermines efforts to curtail pesticide use and hold chemical company polluters accountable. In his press statement, Sen. Boozman issues an approach that largely mirrors the House-side text, passed by the House Agriculture Committee earlier this month in a 33-21 vote. On the same day that Sen. Boozman announced the framework, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee approved the federal food and agriculture budget for Fiscal Year 2025 with a $355 million cut from last year’s budget, affecting specific programs that support pollinator health, ecosystem health, and public health related to pesticide use and organic agriculture. The full House Appropriations Committee will vote on this budget on July 10 before moving to the House floor. Advocates are adamant in their resolve to demand more – not less – support from Congress to address the climate emergency, insect apocalypse, and public health implications borne from reliance on toxic petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers. The Senate […]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 24, 2024) National Pollinator Week ended last week, but the crisis associated with pollinator decline and biodiversity collapse continues. If there were not enough data to prove that regulators are woefully behind the curve in protecting pollinators, yet another study was published during Pollinator Week that reminded regulators, elected officials, farmers, gardeners, all eaters, and lovers of nature that federal, state, and local environmental laws in place have been an abject and unconscionable failure in protecting the biodiversity that supports all life. The study, “Insecticides, more than herbicides, land use, and climate, are associated with declines in butterfly species richness and abundance in the American Midwest,” published in PLOS ONE, cries out as a further warning that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “mitigation measures,” which tinker with limited pesticide restrictions, represent a catastrophic disregard for the scientifically documented facts, according to environmental advocates. Daily News will cover this study in more detail in a later piece, however, the abstract of the journal piece is worth reprinting here in reflecting on Pollinator Week: “Mounting evidence shows overall insect abundances are in decline globally. Habitat loss, climate change, and pesticides have all been implicated, but their relative effects […]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 21, 2024) A recent review of the scientific literature, published in Science of The Total Environment, analyzes multiple species of bees on a molecular level to better understand the poisoning mechanisms that could, as the authors see it, inform chemical risk assessments with more precision. The mechanisms “implicated in the tolerance of bees to specific pesticides, and thus as determinants of insecticide sensitivity, … include metabolic detoxification, insecticide target proteins, the insect cuticle and bee gut microbiota,” the authors write. This review references more than 90 studies performed over the last 30+ years, with most being published in the last 5-10 years, as the understanding and importance of molecular determinants of bee sensitivity has emerged. Pollinators, such as bees, provide crucial ecosystem services by pollinating both wild plants and essential crops. The exposure these insects are subjected to threatens their existence, which occurs through pesticide contamination that can lead to impacts on growth and development or even colony collapse.    “While bees have only been exposed to human-made pesticides over the recent past (last 80 years) they have co-evolved with plants and fungi which produce a range of xenobiotics, including plant allelochemicals and mycotoxins,” the authors state. […]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 18, 2024) As part of its update to the proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Endangered Species Act (ESA) Workplan, the agency held a public webinar on June 18, 2024, which provided an overview of the agency’s “Mitigation Menu Website” for “reducing pesticide exposure to nontarget species from agricultural crop uses.” [Check back to see webinar when posted by EPA.] After court decisions forced EPA to develop a strategy to meet its statutory responsibility to protect endangered species from pesticide use, the agency recognized that it is, in its own words, “unable to keep pace” with its legal obligations. Despite this acknowledgement, the agency said it would “provide flexibility to growers to choose mitigations that work best for their situation.” In this spirit, a range of people, including grower groups, gathered earlier in the year for a series of workshops in the Pacific Northwest to discuss possible mitigation measures. According to a report written by commercial beekeeper Steve Ellis (more background), concrete decisions were not reached at the workshops as participants recognized the complexities in crafting pesticide product label restrictions to protect endangered species. Mr. Ellis concluded: “If it’s so complex that it’s impossible, then no one […]

Calls for Holistic Environmental Justice and a Shift Away from Societal Dependence on Petrochemical Pesticides and Fertilizers (Beyond Pesticides, June 18-19, 2024) Juneteenth (June 19) commemorates the date in 1865 when the enslavement of Black Americans ended in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, over two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and the defeat of the Confederacy on April 9, 1865. On June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger brought federal troops to Galveston, Texas and finally, and belatedly, implemented the Emancipation Proclamation, which proclaimed on January 1, 1863 freedom from slavery across the nation. Carl Mack, PhD, a historian and former President of the Seattle-King County NAACP, reminds us that there were still 225,000 enslaved Black Americans in Kentucky and Delaware after June 19, 1865 and the end of the Civil War until December 6, 1865 when Georgia became the 27th state to ratify the 13th amendment. “That is the day in which Georgia ratified the 13th amendment,” Dr. Mack goes on to discuss the remaining three former border states on their progress in adopting the 13th amendment. “As it applies to Delaware and Kentucky, Delaware did not ratify the 13th amendment until […]