(Beyond Pesticides, March 13, 2025) Study results published in Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology “suggest that combined [pesticide] exposure may further amplify the toxicity and compromise the intestinal barrier.” The researchers studied the toxic effects of the insecticides abamectin and spirodiclofen, as well as the fungicide fluazinam, individually and in combination. In exposing mice and Caco-2 cells to these pesticides, the results show the disruption of intestinal functions and highlight the need to assess potential synergistic effects of pesticide mixtures as a part of the regulatory review process.  Effects on the intestinal barriers of mice represent a threat to “the first line of defense against the external environment,” the researchers say. The intestinal mucosal epithelial structure plays an important role in preventing harmful substances from entering the intestines and causing damage to cells.  [Caco-2 cells represent a human cell line, derived from a colon cancer patient’s tissue, and mimic the small intestine. These cells are vital in research as a model of the intestinal epithelial barrier.]  “Currently, most studies investigating the effects of pesticide residues on the barrier function of Caco-2 cells concentrate on the exposure to a single residue, while the potential toxic effects arising from the concurrent presence of multiple pesticide […]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 11, 2025) A study in Toxics analyzes ipconazole, a triazole fungicide often used as a coating on treated seeds and as a foliar treatment on the leaves of plants. “Triazole pesticides are widely used throughout the world, but their abuse causes toxic effects in non-targeted organisms,” the researchers state. In the current study, unintended reproductive effects are noted in male sheep (ram) and pigs (also known as porcine or swine). This research focuses on the impact of ipconazole exposure on spermatozoa (sperm) in two mammal species and finds spermiotoxicity through significantly reduced sperm viability, as well as alterations in enzyme and gene expression related to fertility.  “To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of the triazole ipconazole on mammalian spermatozoa,” the authors share. This analysis utilizes semen samples from the Reproductive Biotechnology Laboratory of the Major National University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru, the university where six of the nine researchers are Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.   “The sperm were exposed to ipconazole concentrations of 1, 5, 10, 50 and 100 µM, and to a control without ipconazole,” they say. Similar concentrations have been used in previous cytotoxicity studies with ipconazole. […]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 10, 2025) Following International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8, 2025, the poignant findings on women, gender, and hazardous substances in a United Nations report raise critical issues of concern and cause for urgent action to phase out petrochemicals. The Report of the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes, by Marcos Orellana, was delivered to the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in July 2024. Excerpts from the report follow: “Women make up roughly 60 to 70 per cent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries where pesticides and pesticide handling are especially poorly regulated. In Zambia, for example, two thirds of the labour force is engaged in agriculture, and 78 per cent are women farmers and peasants. Women there play a significant role in pesticide application, often without any or adequate personal protective equipment, especially during activities such as weeding, harvesting, and washing pesticide-laden clothes.” “In higher-income countries, women who do agricultural work are often poor and/or migrants; pesticides are one of many dimensions of marginalization and damage to their well-being. The European agriculture sector uses many seasonal and […]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 7, 2025) In honor of International Women’s Day on Saturday, March 8, 2025, Beyond Pesticides sheds light on the disproportionate risks to women from toxic chemicals that are often unaccounted for and even dismissed throughout pesticide regulatory review and the underlying statutes. In a roundup of Daily News coverage in 2024, as well as the most recent scientific studies in 2025, on the scientific links between pesticide exposure and adverse effects in women, this article highlights the growing inequities in pesticide threats to women’s health.  Women farmers and farmworkers are particularly excluded when assessing pesticide risks. As previously reported by Beyond Pesticides, a study published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine finds that pesticide exposure, especially during puberty, can play a role in ovarian cancer development among female farmers. Although there are many studies that evaluate the risk for cancers among farmers, very few scientific articles cover the risk of ovarian cancer from pesticide exposure.  Additionally, this study suggests the role of hormones in ovarian cancer prognosis and development, highlighting an association with endocrine disruption. Endocrine disruption can lead to numerous health problems in multiple organ systems, including hormone-related cancer development (e.g., thyroid, breast, ovarian, prostate, testicular), reproductive […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 27, 2025) In analyzing current scientific literature and data on glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs), a research article in Environmental Sciences Europe finds that glyphosate (GLY) persists in bones before reentering the bloodstream. The mechanisms in which GLY interacts with important cells for development, called hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), and breaks and rearranges DNA offer a possible explanation for the heightened risk of cancer, specifically blood cancers like non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), myeloma, and leukemia. “Existing data on GLY/GBH metabolism and genotoxicity provide critical insights into how exposures may be contributing to blood cancers,” according to the study’s author, Charles Benbrook, PhD. Dr. Benbrook continues: “A significant portion of GLY reaching blood moves quickly into bone marrow and then bone, where it can bioaccumulate and persist… Data reviewed herein suggest that a portion of the GLY excreted by most people on a daily basis can be traced to the shedding of calcium-GLY complexes in bone back into the blood supply.” This allows for near-constant contact between glyphosate molecules and hematopoietic stem cells, which are immature cells that can develop into any type of blood cell. Mutations in hematopoietic stem cells can cause blood cancers to emerge. Those at disproportionate risk […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 11, 2025) In a Science of The Total Environment study, scientists test over 100 blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) and great tit (Parus major) birds’ nests for pesticide residues in comparison with the number of dead offspring and unhatched eggs within the nest. Fur-lined nests, from animals treated with ectoparasitic chemicals, expose birds to compounds that can impact reproductive success. The authors found fipronil, a phenyl pyrazole insecticide, in all nests, with the majority also containing the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid and synthetic pyrethroid insecticide permethrin. The data shows higher insecticide levels are linked to increased offspring mortality and threaten biodiversity. This study highlights an important exposure route that is overlooked. “Although not all bird species use fur for nest building, a substantial number do, especially cavity-nesting species,” the researchers share. “Previous research found that 74% of studied woodland bird species in central Europe incorporated fur into their nests.” Many bird species in the U.S. also line their nests with fur, such as black-capped chickadees, tufted titmice, and chipping sparrows. While there is a wide body of science showing reproductive effects from pesticides, the researchers highlight the study’s novel design, saying, “To the best of our knowledge, no previous […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 6, 2025) Months after publishing a June 2024 study regarding concentrations of pesticides discovered in legal (and illegal) cannabis products in California, the Los Angeles Times has released a follow-up exposé highlighting extensive pesticide contamination, including from “hidden” pesticides that regulators have not monitored. The authors conclude that in California’s legal weed market, over half of available smoking products are found to contain hidden chemicals—toxic pesticides present in products but not regulated or monitored by state authorities. Since 2015, Beyond Pesticides has laid out health, safety, and environmental concerns related to the contamination of cannabis by pesticides (and fertilizers) alongside an imperative need to mandate an organic systems approach to cannabis production. Yet ten years later, it appears nationally that California state regulators are alone in moving forward in 2021 with state organic cannabis certification. There are other marketplace-based cannabis certification labels that require comparable organic certification practices (see Beyond Pesticides reporting here and here). For more information, please see past Pesticides and You reporting here and here. The Los Angeles Times analyzed the results from state licensed laboratory testing of more than 370 legal cannabis products, representing 86 brands. In addition to the 66 chemicals required […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 5, 2025) A study in PLOS One finds acute and chronic impacts of nontarget toxicity on the American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus, with neonicotinoid insecticide exposure. In assessing environmentally relevant concentrations of the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid with N. americanus, the researchers note both mortality and behavioral effects that leave the species at high risk of predation. These effects mean the American burying beetle “may be at greater risk to insecticide exposure than previously thought and vulnerable to episodic, low-dose neonicotinoid exposure,” the authors say. This data sheds important light on a species that has been listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as threatened. Burying beetles provide important ecosystem services within the environment such as “burying carrion, increasing available nutrients in soil, and expediting carrion decomposition, while acting as a food source for secondary consumers,” the researchers state. (See more on ecosystem services and beneficial insects here, here, and here.) The N. americanus species are habitat generalists and can be found in grasslands, wet meadows, and forested areas that neighbor agricultural lands and introduce the beetles to pesticide drift and soil residues. While acute and chronic effects vary in duration and severity, pesticide exposure resulting […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 30, 2025) A research article in Biology Letters, published by The Royal Society, finds that the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid disrupts survival and reproductive patterns in Bombus impatiens bumblebees. The study adds to the wide body of science highlighting how exposure to pesticides “can result in immediate mortality or cause long-term detrimental effects on pollinators‘ health, lifespan and reproductive success,” the authors state. The researchers performed two experiments to assess the effects of various concentrations of imidacloprid, one of which focuses on bees during diapause, a period of dormancy. “Wild bees, which provide the majority of pollination services worldwide, undergo an annual life cycle that includes a winter diapause, that can span over 75% of their life cycle and during which their metabolism, growth and development are halted,” the authors note. They continue: “The time spent in diapause can have lasting effects on pollinator fitness and their ability to establish nests or colonies in the following spring. This period is especially critical for social bee colonies, which are founded by a single queen after diapause and play a vital role in large-scale pollination.” Exposure to pesticides during diapause can occur while bee species overwinter in contaminated soils. In […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 24, 2025) Based on data collected from government sources and independent monitoring, a multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Connecticut finds that 46% of Connecticut waterway samples are contaminated with levels of the neonicotinoid insecticide, imidacloprid—one of the most widely used insecticides in the United States on lawn and golf courses. The authors relied on federal data from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), state-level data from Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT-DEEP), and a small-scale data collection study by the Clean Rivers Project funded by the nonprofit Pollinator Pathway, Inc. In their report, Neonicotinoids in Connecticut Waters: Surface Water, Groundwater, and Threats to Aquatic Ecosystems, the researchers provide the most comprehensive view to date of neonicotinoid levels in Connecticut and offer critical recommendations for future testing within the state and nationally, given glaring data gaps. It is important to note that the authors acknowledged early in the report the “abandonment” of Integrated Pest Management in “the use of neonicotinoids has coincided with and been implicated in the decline of many non-target species of insects, in particular pollinators such as bees () and monarch butterflies.” They point out that […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 13, 2025) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is officially taking comments on whether to issue new restrictions on the herbicide atrazine’s use. Beyond Pesticides is telling the agency that it is time to recognize the biodiversity destruction that atrazine is causing and the viability of alternative organic management practices. The group has released an action and is asking the public to join this campaign to ban atrazine. As a yardstick for what is possible under existing federal pesticide law (the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act), EPA on August 7, 2024 announced that it was taking emergency action to ban the weed killer Dacthal (or DCPA–dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate), leaving many people asking, “Why Dacthal and not other very hazardous pesticides?” The weed killer atrazine (in the triazine chemical family) poses similar elevated hazards to people and the environment, has proven to be impossible to contain, and has viable alternatives. Therefore, we need to challenge EPA to apply the same standard that removed Dacthal from the market to the long list of pesticides that are contributing to a health crisis, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency.  In its current proposal, EPA is choosing to downplay atrazine’s risk to ecosystems, allow more contamination with […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 8, 2025) On the brink of the second Trump administration, a legal victory just last month overturned a rule issued under the first Trump administration to “practically eliminate oversight of novel GE technology and instead let industry self-regulate,” as characterized by the Center for Food Safety (CFS). CFS served as counsel in the case for the plaintiffs, led by the National Family Farm Coalition. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California decision, responding to the lawsuit filed in 2021 on behalf of farm and environmental groups, remanded the case back to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with instructions to follow. “This is a critical victory on behalf of farmers, the planet, and scientific integrity,” says George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety, also a plaintiff in the case. Mr. Kimbrell continued, “USDA tried to hand over its job to Monsanto and the pesticide industry and the Court held that capitulation contrary to both law and science.” It remains to be seen whether the incoming Trump administration will appeal this court decision. Unpacking The Center for Food Safety Litigation This legal battle began in 2004 with the Animal and Plant Health […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 3, 2025) Pesticides that are sprayed and become airborne significantly disrupt ecological balances and affect nontarget species that are crucial for maintaining biodiversity, according to an article in Environmental Pollution. In this review of studies throughout countries in North and South America, Europe, and Asia, among others, researchers from Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Poland reinforce the science about pesticides’ direct effect on species and the cascading effects of pesticide drift through various trophic levels within food webs that lead to overall devasting population effects. This study “addresses the interconnectedness of these impacts and illustrates the complex threats that pesticide drift poses to biodiversity across multiple ecosystems,” the researchers state. They continue: “Impacts include reduced reproductive rates, changes in growth, development, and/or behavior, modification of diversity or community organization, disruption of food webs, and declines of important species. Pesticides disrupt the delicate balance between species that define a functioning ecosystem. Impacts can be local, transnational, or even continental.” Pesticide drift threatens beneficial species and subsequently the entire agricultural system. The process of pesticide drift, “in which up to 25% of applied pesticides are carried by air currents, can transport chemicals over hundreds or even thousands of […]

Image: Art Page submission from Carol Moyer, “Monarch Butterfly Sideways with Closed Wings.“ (Beyond Pesticides, December 20, 2024) On December 12, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) opened a public comment period on its proposal to list the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) as a threatened species and to designate critical habitats for the species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Under the proposal, the designated habitats would span approximately 4,395 acres throughout overwintering sites in coastal California. The public comment period will be open until March 12, 2025. These suggested protections call attention to the role of chemical-intensive agriculture in affecting populations of pollinators and other beneficial organisms. George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety, shares in a press release that the “monarch listing decision is a landmark victory 10 years in the making. It is also a damning precedent, revealing the driving role of pesticides and industrial agriculture in the ongoing extinction crisis… But the job isn’t done: Monarchs still face an onslaught of pesticides. The Service must do what science and the law require and promptly finalize protection for monarchs.” In the docket, FWS states, “Under the Act, a species warrants listing if […]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 13, 2024) In October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the registration applications of BASF Corporation and Mitsui Chemicals Crop & Life Solutions, Inc. for the use of different formulations of the L-isomer of glufosinate (also known as “L-glufosinate” and “glufosinate-P”) as new active herbicidal ingredients. This decision marks one of the first times that EPA has employed its new Herbicide  Strategy Framework to determine the level of mitigation necessary to protect listed species and critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Glufosinate is an organophosphate, with known neurotoxic, reproductive/developmental effects, toxic to aquatic life, and mobile in soils (see Beyond Pesticides Gateway). Scientists have found that formulated glufosinate is generally more toxic to aquatic and terrestrial animals than the technical grade active ingredient. Manufacturers are introducing newer glufosinate products as alternatives for glyphosate-based herbicides, like Bayer/Monsanto’s ‘Roundup’ and dicamba. The Center for Biological Diversity notes in comments submitted to EPA on this decision, “L-glufosinate has the potential to be used on tens of millions acres of land every year given the crops EPA has proposed to register it on. The scale of potential use is far above most new active ingredients.” This first significant application […]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 3, 2024) In an article in Science, Sabrina Rondeau, PhD reviews her research from 2022-2024 showcasing species of ground-nesting bees, often found in crop fields, that are highly vulnerable to soil pesticide residues and subsequently suffer population declines. Dr. Rondeau, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa, points to regulatory deficiencies, specifically in environmental risk assessments (ERAs), and the detrimental effects of pesticides on pollinators that threaten food security and biodiversity. “Modern intensive agriculture faces a critical paradox: The very pesticides designed to protect our crops endanger essential pollinators that sustain their productivity,” Dr. Rondeau says in the article. Her research (see here, here, here, here, here, and here) identifies important gaps overlooked in current assessments and regulations for bee species, including the common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) and the hoary squash bee (Xenoglossa pruinosa). Bumble bee queens in temperate climates hibernate for 6-9 months in the soil, while the hoary squash bee is a solitary ground-nesting species. Reference additional Daily News coverage on ground-nesting bees here and here. “‘Our findings show that over 70% of wild bee species, which are crucial for pollinating our food crops, face significant risks […]

(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 […]

(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 […]

(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 […]

(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 41st 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 […]

(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 […]

(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 […]

(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 […]