(Beyond Pesticides, January 4, 2021) Chronic exposure to pesticides used in conventional forestry operations runoff and harm soft shell clams, according to a recent study published in Science of the Total Environment, entitled “The silence of the clams: Forestry registered pesticides as multiple stressors on soft-shell clams.” Rather than focusing on the impact of a single chemical, researchers analyzed the combined effects of several pesticides. “This is an important data gap to fill as research on these compounds’ toxicity typically focuses on individual compound effects at high concentrations to determine lethality, which while necessary for understanding compound toxicity, can miss sublethal effects that can have long term impacts on these systems,” said lead author Allie Tissot of Portland State University.

The soft shell clam, Mya arenaria, is found to be widespread in coastal areas in both the western and eastern U.S., and is often eaten in stews or chowders. A recent study found a range of chemical contaminants detected in Oregon populations of these species, prompting researchers to further investigate the impact of these exposures. An experiment was set up with tanks to mimic a seabed, and eight different groups of 11 clams were established and treated with various amount of pesticide over the course of 90 days. The pesticides tested included various combinations of atrazine, hexazinone, indaziflam, and bifenthrin. Every ten days, the tanks were dosed, and 30 days the clams were analyzed for their weight and growth.

Every combination of pesticide dosing resulted in higher mortality rates than control tanks where clams were not exposed to any pesticides. “These findings demonstrate that, in addition to accumulating in tissues, compounds in different combinations result in varying effects on nontarget organisms sensitive to these pesticides, even at low concentrations,” the study notes. Many of the nonlethal changes observed indicate a loss of fitness in the environment, such as elongated shells, low tissue weight, and slower rate of clearing algae from their tank with clams exposed to a combination of atrazine and hexazinone.

In addition to pesticides, ocean bivalves are contaminated with a range of human produced hazards, including pharmaceuticals, and the breakdown products of industrial cleaners and detergents. Despite the sensitivity of species that live along shorelines, and humans’ desire to eat many of these animals, environmental laws do little to stop runoff and contamination that ultimately makes it to dinner plates. In fact, pesticides are used to extract the natural wealth of these areas, resulting in contaminated clams people’s plates. In 2018, an association of Washington’s oyster growers proposed to use the hazardous neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid in Willapa Bay to manage shrimp populations that compete with the oysters. The effects of imidacloprid on certain aquatic organisms are wide-ranging and include significant reduction in abundance, significant reduction in survival, reduced feeding, and behavioral changes. Only after widespread public opposition did the state Department of Ecology deny this permit.

Bivalves are sentinel species, and ill effects seen in these animals are likely an indication of broader issues with the health of other benthic and shoreline creatures. Pesticide use in aquatic environments travels up and down the food chain, resulting in trophic cascades that can ultimately affect human health on a broad scale. In addition to measures that directly reduce pesticide use into waterways, regulators should evaluate ecosystem-level effects, and regulators must take steps to look at pesticide use in the context of the full range of other toxic contaminants that could be present in the environment. And if such a task is deemed too complex of an undertaking, the response should utilize precaution, and new hazardous products should not be allowed on the market without complete understanding of how it will interact with the preexisting toxic soup humans have created in far too many bodies of water.

For more information about the dangers pesticides pose to water quality and aquatic wildlife, see Beyond Pesticides Contaminated Waters program page.  

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

Source: Portland State University, Science of the Total Environment

(Beyond Pesticides, January 3, 2022) Environmentalists and public health advocates are calling for an aggressive program of policy change in 2022—change they say is critical to addressing existential crises of public health threats, biodiversity collapse, and severe climate disruption that is not being taken seriously by policy makers. On November 23, 2021, Senator Cory Booker introduced legislation to eliminate many of the current problems with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which regulates the registration and use of pesticides in the U.S. It corrects some of the worst mistakes in registering pesticides and removes some of the worst loopholes in the law. However, in order to prevent future pesticide problems, we need reform that goes deeper.

Urge your Senators to co-sponsor legislation to reform the toxic core of federal pesticide law.

Specifically, the bill, the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act of 2021 (PACTPA), would provide some desperately-needed improvements to FIFRA to better protect people and the environment, including:

• Bans some of the most damaging pesticides scientifically known to cause significant harm to people and the environment:

• • Organophosphate insecticides, which are designed to target the neurological system and have been linked to neurodevelopmental damage in children;

• • Neonicotinoid insecticides, which have contributed to pollinator collapse around the world (the European Union and Canada have significantly restricted or banned their use to protect pollinators and other wildlife) and have recently been shown to cause developmental defects, heart deformations, and muscle tremors in unborn children;

• • Paraquat, which is one of the most acutely toxic herbicides in the world —according to the EPA, just “one sip can kill.” Science has shown that chronic exposure to paraquat increases the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by 200% to 600%. It is already banned in 32 countries, including the European Union.

• Restores balance to protect ordinary citizens by removing dangerous pesticides from the market by:

• • Creating a petition process to enable individual citizens to petition the EPA to identify dangerous pesticides so that the EPA would no longer be able to indefinitely allow dangerous pesticides to remain on the market;

• • Closing dangerous loopholes that have allowed the EPA to issue emergency exemptions and conditional registrations to use pesticides before they have gone through full health and safety review by the agency;

• • Enabling local communities to enact protective legislation and other policies without being vetoed or preempted by state law;

• • Suspending the use of pesticides deemed unsafe by the E.U. or Canada until they are thoroughly reviewed by the EPA.

• Provides protections for frontline communities that bear the burden of pesticide exposure by:

• • Requiring employers of farmworkers to report all pesticide-caused injuries to the EPA, with strong penalties for failure to report injuries or retaliating against workers;

• • Directing the EPA to review pesticide injury reports and work with the pesticide manufacturers to develop better labeling to prevent future injury;

• • Requiring that all pesticide label instructions be written in Spanish and in any language spoken by more than 500 pesticide applicators.

Despite this impressive list of corrections, PACTPA does not touch the toxic core of FIFRA, which permits the unnecessary dispersal of toxic chemicals in the environment. To eliminate this toxic core, Congress must:

• Prohibit the registration and use of pesticides that do not meet these criteria:
  • Necessary to prevent harm to humans and the environment based on an analysis of all alternatives;
  • Cause no harm to humans and the environment; and
  • Protect against the existential crises of biodiversity collapse, runaway climate change, and chronic and acute health threats.
• Require all supporting data to be submitted and examined by the public before registration (including the elimination of conditional registration).
• Deny and cancel all pesticide registrations not supported by studies demonstrating a lack of endocrine-disrupting effects.
• Deny and cancel registrations of all pesticides posing a threat to life in the soil—and hence threatening the climate.
• Deny and cancel registrations of all pesticides posing a threat to any endangered species.

Urge your Senators to co-sponsor PACTPA and reforms to the toxic core of FIFRA.

Letter to Senators Booker (D-NJ), Gillibrand (D-NY), Sanders (I-VT), Warren (D-MA), and Padilla (D-CA):

Thank you for your sponsorship of the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act of 2021 (PACTPA). PACTPA would provide some desperately-needed improvements to the pesticide law (FIFRA) to better protect people and the environment, including:

* Bans some of the most damaging pesticides scientifically known to cause significant harm to people and the environment:

– Organophosphate insecticides, which are designed to target the neurological system and have been linked to neurodevelopmental damage in children;

– Neonicotinoid insecticides, which have contributed to pollinator collapse around the world (the European Union and Canada have significantly restricted or banned their use to protect pollinators and other wildlife) and have recently been shown to cause developmental defects, heart deformations, and muscle tremors in unborn children;

– Paraquat, which is one of the most acutely toxic herbicides in the world —according to the EPA, just “one sip can kill.” Science has shown that chronic exposure to paraquat increases the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by 200% to 600%. It is already banned in 32 countries, including the European Union.

* Removes dangerous pesticides from the market by:

– Creating a petition process to enable individual citizens to petition the EPA to identify dangerous pesticides so that the EPA would no longer be able to indefinitely allow dangerous pesticides to remain on the market;

– Closing dangerous loopholes that have allowed the EPA to issue emergency exemptions and conditional registrations to use pesticides before they have gone through full health and safety review by the agency;

– Enabling local communities to enact protective legislation and other policies without being vetoed or preempted by state law;

– Suspending the use of pesticides deemed unsafe by the E.U. or Canada until they are thoroughly reviewed by the EPA.

* Provides protections for frontline communities that bear the burden of pesticide exposure by:

– Requiring employers of farmworkers to report all pesticide-caused injuries to the EPA, with strong penalties for failure to report injuries or retaliating against workers;

– Directing the EPA to review pesticide injury reports and work with the pesticide manufacturers to develop better labeling to prevent future injury;

– Requiring that all pesticide label instructions be written in Spanish and in any language spoken by more than 500 pesticide applicators.

Despite this impressive list of corrections, PACTPA does not touch the toxic core of FIFRA, which permits the unnecessary dispersal of toxic chemicals in the environment. To eliminate this toxic core, please introduce legislation to:

* Prohibit the registration and use of pesticides that do not meet these criteria:

– Necessary to prevent harm to humans and the environment based on an analysis of all alternatives;

– Cause no harm to humans and the environment; and

– Protect against the existential crises of biodiversity collapse, runaway climate change, and chronic and acute health threats.

* Require all supporting data to be submitted and examined by the public before registration (including the elimination of conditional registration).

* Deny and cancel all pesticide registrations not supported by studies demonstrating a lack of endocrine-disrupting effects.

* Deny and cancel registrations of all pesticides posing a threat to life in the soil—and hence threatening the climate.

* Deny and cancel registrations of all pesticides posing a threat to any endangered species.

We look forward to working with you to advance legislation that is truly protective of health and the environment as fossil fuel-based pesticides and fertilizers are contributing public health threats, biodiversity collapse, and the climate crisis. We do not need toxic pesticides to maintain agricultural productivity or quality of life and look forward to the adoption of legislation that reflects this.

Thank you for your leadership.

Letter to all other Senators:

I am writing to urge you to cosponsor the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act of 2021 (PACTPA). PACTPA would provide some desperately-needed improvements to the pesticide law (FIFRA) to better protect people and the environment, including:

* Bans some of the most damaging pesticides scientifically known to cause significant harm to people and the environment:

– Organophosphate insecticides, which are designed to target the neurological system and have been linked to neurodevelopmental damage in children;

– Neonicotinoid insecticides, which have contributed to pollinator collapse around the world (the European Union and Canada have significantly restricted or banned their use to protect pollinators and other wildlife) and have recently been shown to cause developmental defects, heart deformations, and muscle tremors in unborn children;

– Paraquat, which is one of the most acutely toxic herbicides in the world —according to the EPA, just “one sip can kill.” Science has shown that chronic exposure to paraquat increases the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by 200% to 600%. It is already banned in 32 countries, including the European Union.

* Removes dangerous pesticides from the market by:

– Creating a petition process to enable individual citizens to petition the EPA to identify dangerous pesticides so that the EPA would no longer be able to indefinitely allow dangerous pesticides to remain on the market;

– Closing dangerous loopholes that have allowed the EPA to issue emergency exemptions and conditional registrations to use pesticides before they have gone through full health and safety review by the agency;

– Enabling local communities to enact protective legislation and other policies without being vetoed or preempted by state law;

– Suspending the use of pesticides deemed unsafe by the E.U. or Canada until they are thoroughly reviewed by the EPA.

* Provides protections for frontline communities that bear the burden of pesticide exposure by:

– Requiring employers of farmworkers to report all pesticide-caused injuries to the EPA, with strong penalties for failure to report injuries or retaliating against workers;

– Directing the EPA to review pesticide injury reports and work with the pesticide manufacturers to develop better labeling to prevent future injury;

– Requiring that all pesticide label instructions be written in Spanish and in any language spoken by more than 500 pesticide applicators.

Despite this impressive list of corrections, PACTPA does not touch the toxic core of FIFRA, which permits the unnecessary dispersal of toxic chemicals in the environment. To eliminate this toxic core, please support legislation to:

* Prohibit the registration and use of pesticides that do not meet these criteria:

– Necessary to prevent harm to humans and the environment based on an analysis of all alternatives;

– Cause no harm to humans and the environment; and

– Protect against the existential crises of biodiversity collapse, runaway climate change, and chronic and acute health threats.

* Require all supporting data to be submitted and examined by the public before registration (including the elimination of conditional registration).

* Deny and cancel all pesticide registrations not supported by studies demonstrating a lack of endocrine-disrupting effects.

* Deny and cancel registrations of all pesticides posing a threat to life in the soil—and hence threatening the climate.

* Deny and cancel registrations of all pesticides posing a threat to any endangered species.

We look forward to working with you to advance legislation that is truly protective of health and the environment as fossil fuel-based pesticides and fertilizers are contributing public health threats, biodiversity collapse, and the climate crisis. We do not need toxic pesticides to maintain agricultural productivity or quality of life and look forward to the adoption of legislation that reflects this.

Thank you.

**We’re taking a break for the holidays. Daily News will be back on January 3, 2022**

(Beyond Pesticides, December 23, 2021) We at Beyond Pesticides wish our members, supporters, and collaborators all the best for the holiday season and new year. We look forward to working with you in the new year to meet the serious environmental and public health challenges with truly organic solutions.

Our accomplishments are your victories. We are seeing the outcomes in communities across the country—the adoption of organic land management policies and practices that eliminate toxic pesticides, protect children, pets, and families, and protect the local ecology.

With your support of Beyond Pesticides, we strive to reverse the destructive environmental and public health path that we’re on and advance the adoption of organic practices and policies that respect life.

To view our accomplishments, see Beyond Pesticides’ 2021 Year in Review. Beyond Pesticides’ program supports a clear message: End toxic pesticide use and embrace organic practices and policies that respect the power of nature to heal— in the face of devastating and destructive toxic chemical-dependency. This past year has again elevated important public discourse on the threats that pesticides pose to health and the environment.

Table of Contents: 

• Celebrating 40 Years (Vision; Awards)
• Campaigns and Fundraisers 
• Elevated Risks (Disproportionate; Biodiversity)
• Solutions (Organic; Community: Action of the Week)
• Transformative Framework (Chemical Ban; Pesticides and You Journal; Pesticide Forum) 
• Science & Advocacy (New Webpages; Regulatory Action/Policies; Website Database and Resources)
• Lawsuits & Settlements
• The Future
• Thank YOU! Give TODAY.

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS

For over four decades, Beyond Pesticides has worked with tens of thousands of people in the United States and globally to fight for healthy air, water, land, and food. We forge ties with nonprofit and volunteer organizations, local governments, and forward-thinking corporations. We work with people who understand the importance of vibrant ecosystems on which all life depends. Our collaborators bridge all affected communities—from urban to rural, parents and youth to medical practitioners, scientists to policymakers, farmworkers to farmers, and gardeners to landscapers.

Our Vision. Beyond Pesticides shares the vision of people and communities in seeking to ensure a future that protects health and sustains life. We are facing existential crises—the climate crisis, biodiversity collapse, and severe public health threats—from cancer to neurological, reproductive, and endocrine system effects, including brain and behavioral impacts. To reverse these threats, we advance model organic solutions that eliminate billions of pounds of fossil-fuel-based pesticides and synthetic fertilizers and nurture biological systems that take dangerous pollutants out of our environment.

Awards: Organic Pioneers Award ceremony, Rodale Institute. This year, our founder and executive director, Jay Feldman, was awarded the Rodale Institute’s Organic Pioneer Award, an honor that is shared by a long line of farmers, scientists, and activists. With a 40-year history of working with communities nationwide to educate on toxic hazards and organic solutions (policies and practices), addressing agricultural, lawn and landscape management practices that maintain ecological balance, enhance biodiversity and eliminate toxic chemical use, Jay has successfully fought to remove from the market hazardous pesticides and helped draft pivotal local, state and federal organic law. In 2010, he was appointed to the National Organic Standards Board where he served as chair of the Crops Committee. Jay is a past chair and board member of Earth Share, and currently serves on the standards board of the Real Organic Project and the executive committee of the National Organic Coalition. Prior to his founding Beyond Pesticides in 1981, he served as the Health Programs Director of Rural America, an advocacy group for rural areas and small towns. (See a summary of his remarks below.) Please watch this 3½ minute video reflection from Jay Feldman: 40 Years Beyond Pesticides.)

CAMPAIGNS AND FUNDRAISERS

Beyond Pesticides thanks all of our donors and supporters for their contributions over the year. Without your help, our mission would not be possible. 

Members and Donors. It’s a fact. Your support makes our work possible. We provide up-to-the-minute information about the health and environmental hazards of pesticides, pesticide regulation and policy, pesticide alternatives, and cutting-edge science—free of charge to the public. We can’t do it without the generosity of people like you. Your donation helps us have the resources we need to continue our important work to protect people and the planet. Please donate a gift today!

Natural Grocers Campaign. We are moving forward with a collaboration with Natural Grocers, which operates in 161 stores in 20 western, southwestern, and Midwest states. For the second year, Natural Grocers is helping to underwrite this work with fundraising campaigns in the stores. This collaboration offers Beyond Pesticides an expanded opportunity to not only raise the resources for our cornerstone work to advance a transition to organic land management nationwide but to leverage the reach of a local retail market as a point of education and outreach.

After years of keeping the training program close to our vest, our partnership with Natural Grocers, and our work with Stonyfield Organic, and our desire to highlight and grow the training program led to the launching of a new webpage–Parks for a Sustainable Future–providing an overview of our training program and an opportunity for advocates to engage. The webpage includes the ‘nuts and bolts’ process we follow to implement the project, financial arrangements, and background on the organic approach. These resources will be plowed back into our community work to grow the transition to organic land management!  

ELEVATING SCIENCE THAT CALLS FOR URGENT NEED TO ACT

From a public health and environmental protection perspective, these are challenging times. Amid the attack on institutions and laws established to protect children, families, and the environment under the previous federal administration, with many actions and positions still to be reversed, there is an incredibly positive groundswell of activity seeking to achieve these protections in communities across the U.S. We are inspired by the level of effective advocacy and changes in practices that are moving forward nationwide.

Disproportionate Risks

Beyond Pesticides continued to work closely with The Black Institute, as we successfully pushed forward with a New York City ordinance to ban toxic pesticides on the city’s parks and playgrounds. The legislation to allow only pest management materials permitted in organic land management under federal law was passed on Earth Day 2021. Before passage that day, we held a press conference with the sponsor of the bill on Earth Day in a park in front of a public housing project. This collaboration highlights the importance of calling out environmental racism and the disproportionate impact that pesticide use has on people of color communities. In addition, the vast majority of city workers handling and applying pesticides are people of color, resulting in higher exposure patterns and risk of illness. We published a piece, “Stopping Systemic Environmental Racism in New York City Parks,” which is a review of The Black Institute’s report, Poison Parks.

Biodiversity Risks

Why We Give Focus to Biodiversity. A vast amount of research demonstrates the importance of protecting complex biological communities. The interrelationship and interdependency of organisms are critical to ecological balance and human survival. With broad-spectrum pesticide use and indiscriminate poisoning with systemic pesticides, an ecological imbalance is created, sacrificing the benefits of nature and escalating pest problems.

Our work highlights organic farming/ gardening and soil as inextricably linked. As discussed in a workshop at our National Forum by author and research scientist at the School of Integrative Biology at the University of Illinois, James Nardi, PhD, the macro- and microorganisms in healthy soils interact in a symbiotic manner with plant roots, strengthening plants, enabling them to resist diseases, and facilitating water and mineral uptake. In alignment with Dr. Nardi’s work, we see the “wisdom of the weeds”—what we can learn from them, and their contributions, including preventing erosion; conserving nutrients; building soil structure, organic matter, and mineral content; supporting soil biology; sequestering carbon; and encouraging biodiversity.

PUTTING IN PLACE EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS

Outdated chemical-intensive practices are tied to the belief that parks, playing fields, home lawns, and agriculture require toxic chemicals and synthetic fertilizers to meet expectations. So, an approach that recognizes the importance of soil biology in cycling nutrients naturally to feed plants is often new to many land managers who have not evaluated and nurtured the web of microorganisms living in the soil. This attention to the soil systems has been foundational to the success of organic agriculture worldwide. Those critics, who often have a vested economic interest or history in pesticide use and proclaim that organic does not work, are, in effect, challenging the underlying principles of soil management that have enabled the exponential growth of the organic agricultural sector— now a $60 billion industry and the fastest-growing part of the agricultural economy.

Keeping Organic Strong

Organic consumers and farmers have invested in the notion that we care not only about land stewardship and what we feed our children and families, but stopping farmworker exposure to hazardous materials and ending the hazards to the fenceline communities where the toxic chemicals used in conventional agriculture are produced. The organic law, of course, requires the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to consider the cradle-to-grave effects of materials when protecting against adverse effects. We comment on all the issues before the NOSB, which affect the integrity of organic standards and the USDA organic label.

National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). The 15-member board, consisting of four farmers, three environmentalists, three consumers, two food processors, and one retailer, scientist, and certifying agent, votes to allow or prohibit substances and practices in certified organic food and farming. The NOSB acts as a sounding board within the federal government for the organic community, as it considers input from you, the public—the concerned citizens and consumers upon whom organic integrity depends. Our Keeping Organic Strong webpage provides the public with Beyond Pesticides’ comments on the issues before the board and instructs people on how to make their voices heard as the NOSB deliberates. 

Stonyfield PlayFree and Organic Transition Program. As a result of a large influx of new training sites from the Stonyfield PlayFree and Organic Community Land Management Program, staff have expanded the reach of its community-based work throughout the country. We evaluate management practices and soil biology and then develop a plan for organic practices and compatible products. The program offers training of city and private landscapers and provides ongoing consultative services to ensure successful implementation of the plan. We partner with community organizations to form a collaborative effort to keep the program on track to protect public health and the local ecology.

Creating model communities

We are well-positioned to effect changes in communities that serve as a model for other communities. We continue to develop the informational tools that support change agents, whether they are advocates or elected officials. We are also able to provide the technical skills to land managers, which ensure effective implementation of policies and plans for sustainable and organic land management.

The Maui Food Hub

The Maui (food) Hub started as a partnership between Beyond Pesticides, Common Ground Collective and the Haleakala Chapter of the Hawai’i Farmers Union.  It was put together quickly as a response to the challenges facing local farmers due to the COVI-19 crisis, but continues to expand to support the long-term success of our local organic farmers and the gross increase in the amount of organic agriculture on Maui. The Maui Hub recently became an independent 501(c)3 organization, and our Hawaii director of organic land management is the Vice-President of the Board of Directors. As the Maui Hub grows, Beyond Pesticides is committed to ensuring it stays true to its mission to support small organic farmers expand production, and compete against corporate chemical intensive agricultural interests in our local market.

ACTION OF THE WEEK

The Action of the Week (AOTW) provides our network with one concrete action that can be taken each week to have our collective voice heard to stop governmental actions that adversely affect public, worker, and environmental health, increase overall pesticide use or undermine the advancement of organic, sustainable, and regenerative practices and policies. With almost 18,000 subscribers, the actions generate between 2,000 and 4,000+ participants weekly.

The top five AOTWs with the most contributions include:

1. Tell EPA Not to Allow Unnecessary Pesticide Risks (7/22/2021)
2. Tell USDA to Ensure that Organic Farming Protects Ecosystems (8/02/2021)
3. Biden EPA Must Hold Pesticide Manufacturers Accountable for Poisoning (8/09/2021)
4. Tell EPA to Finish the Job in Banning Chlorpyrifos (8/29/2021)
5. Tell EPA That the Failed Pesticide Program Needs a New Start (11/06/2021)

Providing a Framework for Advancing Transformative Change

Beyond Pesticides issues unique reports to support local activism to move changes in practices and policies that eliminate pesticide use. With this information and the model policy that we have created, local people nationwide have successfully moved change.

Beyond Pesticides is about building a groundswell of action that drives the necessary changes—changes that take place in people’s homes and gardens, in their purchasing decisions, in their local communities, park districts, school districts, and in management decisions throughout the community. The models we establish in partnership with local communities can be replicated in communities across the country. And since we will not achieve a sustainable, socially just society and world by simply banning or restricting one chemical after the other, we are advancing systemic changes that start at the community level, but intersect with state, national, and international policy and corporate accountability.

Local Chemical Bans. Campaigns to ban specific chemicals are still popular at the local and in some cases the state level. While it is an entry point for bringing public attention to the pesticide problem, it can, if not carefully orchestrated, leave the public impression that the pesticide problem is fixed, while we strategize to change underlying practices, not substitute other toxic chemicals. In this context, we have assisted dozens of communities across the country interested in restricting the hazardous herbicide glyphosate (Roundup), and neonicotinoid insecticides tied to pollinator decline. For example, New York State specifically banned glyphosate in state parks last year, effective December 31, 2021, with no apparent change in practices, which is why we advocate for a holistic approach.

Pesticides and You. We published The Corona Virus Chronicles, a 72-page issue of Pesticides and You that conveys issues that have emerged during the pandemic. These issues are directly relevant to our mission and the transition as a society away from toxic chemical dependency. The breadth and depth of the issues span specific hazardous materials (such as those in disinfectants, despite the availability of alternatives), new food systems that support local and organic farmers (food hubs), the importance of sound science to decision-making, and addressing disproportionate risk to people of color communities (essential workers, farmworkers, and landscapers). Additionally, with the new administration, we put together strategies and issues of importance for federal agencies. Whether addressing agriculture or the management of parks, playing fields, rights-of-way, and residential areas, policies that allow continued reliance on synthetic toxic pesticide promote ecological imbalances that are at the heart of the escalating deterioration of ecosystems and life that depends on them. The policies and practices that we have advanced address this. In addition, to this end and because the interrelationship and interdependency of organisms is critical to ecological balance and human survival, we continued our series on tracking biodiversity.

38^th Natural Pesticide Forum. Cultivating Healthy Communities: Confronting health threats, climate disasters, and biodiversity collapse with a toxic-free future, was co-convened by Beyond Pesticides and the Institute for Exposomic Research, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai. The affiliation with a medical institution that understands and teaches the relationship between toxic chemical exposure, environmental hazards, and public health is critical to solving the existential threats associated with toxic pesticide use. The medical institution’s involvement with the conference is not only important in bringing medical practitioners and scientists to the discussion, but it serves as a model for other medical institutions to engage with the issues. Over four weeks in May-June 2021, this Forum brought together over 600 people and organizations from 15 countries and is now being offered for free on the conference platform through our website. Look forward to our 2022 conference.

Check out the 2021 Forum session and listen to the amazing speakers.

SCIENCE & ADVOCACY RESOURCES

Beyond Pesticides’ website serves as a hub for a range of regulatory and policy advocacy, information services to people nationwide and around the globe, networking through coalition work and the convening of our National Forum, and on-site training on organic land management in communities that are collaborating with Beyond Pesticides on demonstration parks and playing fields.

New and Updated Webpages

The information we provide performs the unique function of providing hands-on information and strategy. We are working daily with grassroots people, volunteer and nonprofit organizations, and those in policy, decision-making, and land and facilities management positions to address issues on the hazards of pesticide use, safe and organic alternative strategies that eliminate toxic pesticides, and local and state policies that embrace the adoption of ecological approaches to land and building management.

Some of our most recently added or updated (*) webpages include: 

• Commercial Herbicide Analysis
• 40 Common Chemicals Used on Lawns and Landscapes
• Gateway on Pesticide Hazards and Safe Pest Management*
• Parks for a Sustainable Future
• Safer Disinfectants and Sanitizers*

Regulatory Action and Comments

We create a public record on scientific decisions that are being undermined by poor public policy that allows hazardous pesticide use, despite the availability of alternatives. We commented on key issues on paraquat and Parkinson’s disease, the environmental impact of herbicide use in Lake Tahoe and broader implications for aquatic weed management, neonicotinoid insecticide effects to pollinators and ecosystems, EPA interim decisions and mitigation proposals on widely used synthetic pyrethroid insecticides, among others. While we submitted comments on regulatory issues related to highly toxic pesticides such as glyphosate/Roundup, paraquat, atrazine, pentachlorophenol and antibiotics, we use the opportunity to highlight the deficiency of regulating one chemical at a time. We continue our lawsuits against companies that engage in fraudulent labeling that misleads consumers on safety and environmental protection, suing Sargento food company for their misleading labeling of no antibiotic use. This is a transformative moment when we are working to shift society, starting with our communities and local decision-makers and individuals, to eliminate toxic fossil-fuel-based pesticides and fertilizers.

Information Resources 

Resources Page. The resources page is a user-friendly information tool, displaying easy-to-read boxes highlighting the featured resources under our “Resources” tab, with descriptions. This page allows users to navigate through the plethora of information on our website as the box description can direct users to the resources they are looking for. The descriptions are especially helpful as users will now spend less time searching through our website to find the location of specific information. In addition, the resources page may also encourage users to explore the site further, sparking curiosity in the information we offer. New resources include easy access to the pesticide-free policies/communities across the U.S., as well as a link to the 40 most used lawn chemicals webpage.

Daily News Blog. These information-rich articles are posted every business day on the Beyond Pesticides website. Between regular readers and traffic driven by google news results and social media, the blog has tremendous reach. In fact, thanks to YOU, the total number of reads this year surpassed 355,000, with an average of over 2,500 readers per blog post.

Top 5 Daily News of 2021

1. Danone (Horizon Organic) Threatens the Backbone of Organic Dairy—Family Farms and Their Consumer Supporters (16,455)
2. Proposed Bayer/Monsanto Settlement for Roundup Victims Offers Payments and Challenges(12,003)
3. Roundup Shown to Kill Bees—But Not How You Might Expect(10,740)
4. Kids Who Eat Organic Food Score Higher on Cognitive Tests, Study Finds. (8,841)
5. Glyphosate-Based Herbicides and Sustainable Agriculture Do Not Mix!(8,416)

ManageSafe Database. Our hands-on information through ManageSafe, our database of practical solutions to pest issues, is a central clearinghouse of information on eliminating hazardous pesticides in land and building management. Our neighbor-to-neighbor program distributed 400 Pesticide-Free Zone signs (ladybug, bee, and organic landscape) and in 33 states, the District of Columbia, and four Canadian provinces, 1,500 doorknob hangers on safe lawns and mosquito management in 19 states, and the District of Columbia.

Map of U.S. Pesticide Reform Policies. Beyond Pesticides’ map of U.S. Pesticide Reform Policies now includes 18 pesticide-free park policies, 47 with restrictions that protect pollinators, 103 that apply to public spaces, and 27 that extend restrictions to private land, and has been viewed 74,100 times.

Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database (PIDD). Beyond Pesticides updated the website to incorporate more recent scientific studies to the Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database (PIDD). Many of the studies available in PIDD challenge the effectiveness of risk‐assessment‐based regulation which is intended to manage adverse disease outcomes. We developed a relational search engine to enable a search for multiple diseases, some of which can be co-occurring. This search engine is helpful to medical professionals, academic scholars, lawncare/landscape workers, and laypeople alike, as its ease of use allows users to find over 1,174 studies related to pesticide exposure and over 75+ diseases. Additionally, the “and”/“or” function of the search engine allows users to find articles related to pesticide exposure and multiple diseases at once.

Pesticide Gateway. The Gateway is an expanding database of over 300 pesticides containing information about specific pesticide environmental and health effects, regulatory action, and uses. Recent additions to the Gateway include a section on how to find the active ingredients on the label. We occasionally receive information requests regarding specific pesticide products. However, with over 20,000 registered pesticides, it’s nearly impossible to include all products. Thus, the section encourages users to identify the active ingredient in pesticide products. The Gateway provides valuable information about pesticides that anyone can access. 

Safer Disinfectants and Sanitizers. With the increase in the use of sanitizers and disinfectants during Covid-19, we continued to build out our Covid-19 Pandemic webpages, including up-to-date information on safe hand sanitizers and disinfectants, and a Q&A style factsheet on Answering Questions about Toxic Sanitizers and Disinfectants. We produced a factsheet, on the hazards of quaternary ammonium compounds, also known as “quats” or “QACs,” which are in many cleansers and increase the risk of asthma and adverse reproductive effects.

Access the information on disinfectants and sanitizers: Disinfectants and Sanitizers to Protect Against COVID-19.

40 Common Chemicals Used on Lawns and Landscapes. Beyond Pesticides recently launched the 40 Common Lawn Pesticides factsheets for both the health and environmental effect of the most common pesticides used on lawns and landscape, with an accompanying webpage. (This updates our popular 30 Common Lawn Pesticides factsheet.) The factsheets include information from the updated pesticide data usage for EPA (2020), as well as other agencies, institution, or organizational research. An infographic pamphlet was also made to give a brief overview of the findings, including the top 10 most concerning chemicals for ecological and human health. The charts show, based on government sources, that the majority of pesticides in wide use can cause cancer, neurological and respiratory effects, reproductive harm and bird defects, and are toxic to waterways, wildlife, bees and pollinators, and birds and fish.

Access the Full Factsheets and Infographic: 40 Common Lawn and Landscape Chemicals.

Consumer Herbicide Analysis. Beyond Pesticides and Friends of the Earth (FOE) collaborated to provide an easy-to-read spreadsheet detailing health hazards associated with weed killers commonly found at the most popular home and garden retailers, Home Depot and Lowe’s. This analysis highlights the adverse health and environmental effects of widely available toxic pesticides, while encouraging retailers to expand on—and consumers to use—safer, least/nontoxic pesticide products. We analyzed chemical components in over 91 different herbicides. Out of the 91 products, only 28 are classifiable as least toxic/organic. 

Access the full analysis: Herbicide Analysis.

Many Shades of Green Podcast. The environmentally conscious podcast “The Many Shades of Green” interviewed Beyond Pesticides’ Science and Regulatory Manager on the health and environmental impacts of pesticides that the general population may not be aware of. 

Access the full podcast interview: Beyond Pesticides with Guest Akayla Bracey – The Many Shades of Green.

Happy Sprout article: “The pesticides market is now worth $11 billion; that’s a huge problem.” Provided wide ranging interview with Happy Sprout website about the growth of the pesticide industry, focused on what Beyond Pesticide does, pollinator protection, biodiversity and food security, climate change, public health, safer alternatives to toxic pesticides,  what folks can do.

Access the full article: Toxic Pesticide Use Harms Public Health and the Environment | HappySprout.

Lawsuits & Settlements 

Beyond Pesticides sues companies—with legal assistance from Richman Law and Policy—that mislead the public through their labeling and advertising. We have successfully sued, for example, TruGreen and General Mills, for including false statements about safety or production practices. This year Beyond Pesticides sued Sargento for falsely claiming that no antibiotics are used in the production of their cheese products. A settlement resulted in Sargento changing its labeling claim. Beyond Pesticides joined with a coalition of public interest groups to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its approval of the medically important antibiotic streptomycin for use on citrus trees. This is a transformative moment when we are working to shift society, starting with our communities and local decision-makers and individuals, to eliminate toxic fossil-fuel-based pesticides and fertilizers. 

See news story. Read the full case: BP v. Sargento

The Case Against ExxonMobil [Continued]. Our case against Exxon-Mobil for the company’s destructive fossil fuel-related impacts on climate (including their contribution to petroleum-based fertilizer production and use) was put on hold as a result of emergency legislation passed in the District of Columbia that preempts cases where the District’s Attorney General is also litigating on the issue. The AG is suing Exxon-Mobil, and while the case does not have the exact focus of our litigation, it is close enough and could encompass our claim, enabling them to exercise preemption. Exxon and tried and failed several times to get the case removed to federal court from the DC Superior Court, where consumer protection provides us with standing to challenge misleading claims.

Lawsuit Against EPA for Registration of Antibiotic of Streptomycin for Use in Citrus The Case Against EPA. Beyond Pesticides joined a lawsuit in March with NRDC, Earthjustice, Center for Biological Diversity, and others against EPA for its registration of streptomycin for use in citrus. The litigation challenges EPA’s final registration decision for the new uses of streptomycin sulfate on citrus crops. The litigation brings claims under both the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The lawyers are continuing to evaluate potential claims, but expect to make at least the following arguments. Under ESA, EPA failed to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, despite EPA’s finding that registration of streptomycin as a pesticide may affect threatened or endangered mammals; and EPA failed to determine whether the registration may also affect the critical habitat of these species.

THE FUTURE

The challenges ahead require that we redouble our efforts. Beyond Pesticides’ collaboration with people and communities in every state is providing the energy and enthusiasm to embrace the changes necessary to stop toxic pesticide use and embrace organic practices and policies. We know it can be done if we join together to protect health and the environment with science, policy, and activism. The solutions are within our reach. We look forward to working with you—with the required sense of urgency—to ensure that change happens.

Many Thanks to You!

We would like to give special thanks to you, our Daily News Blog readers. Daily News and Action of the Week is taking a break during the holiday season. Daily News and Action of the Week will be back on January 3, 2021. In the meantime, please consider a gift to Beyond Pesticides—we can’t do our work without you! See you in 2022! Have a healthy holiday season and new year.

(Beyond Pesticides, December 22, 2021) A promising new biocontrol agent for the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima)—considered an invasive species in the U.S. and Europe by some—was recently discovered by French-based scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The finding centers on a small mite of the Eriophyidae family, Aculus mosoniensis, which has been found to feed on tree of heaven. The finding is encouraging for the future management of this species in conjuction with balanced ecosystems. “In Europe, this Eriophyid mite is considered one of the most promising biological control agents of tree-of-heaven,” said Javid Kashefi, senior support scientist at the European Biological Control Laboratory (EBCL) in France. “This finding provides encouraging evidence that the geographic occurrence of this species is expanding in the continent.”

Tree of heaven is a fast-growing deciduous tree native to Asia that has spread throughout Europe and North America. First introduced in the 1700s as a shade tree, it was appreciated for its quick growing ability and low propensity for insect damage, but quickly became problematic. Researchers identify five traits that warrant its classification as ‘invasive,’ including its ability to tolerate extreme environmental conditions, produce hundreds of alleopathic compounds (which harm, or inhibit the growth of nearby plants), bear abundant seeds with excellent viability, reproduce from its roots through sprouting and cutting, and escape nearly all herbivorous predators outside of its native range.

These characteristics provide Ailanthus altissima the ability to rapidly crowd out native species, particularly in ecosystems already experiencing some level of disturbance. In the built environment, because of its cosmopolitan nature and ability to grow in the smallest of spaces, it causes problems ranging from broken sewer lines to damaged ditches, sidewalks, and house foundations. The tree poses a growing threat to agriculture, increasingly invading French wine vineyards. In addition to its alleopathic ability to kill and suppress nearby vegetation, the tree functions as a preferred host for the spotted lanternfly, another organism native to the Asian continent. Spotted lanterfly, a major pest of fruit trees and vineyards, was first discovered in Pennsylvania in 2014, and has spread rapidly, with current detections ranging west from Indiana to Massachusetts, and southward into central Virginia.

Researchers analyzed mite infested leaves on tree of heaven found in France in mid to late 2020, after first finding presence of the insect farther east in Hungary and Italy near the end of the last decade. Positive identification based on various characteristics confirmed the presence of Aculus mosoniensis, an herbivorous mite native to tree of heaven’s home range that forms dense populations on the underside of young plant leaves. Affected trees experience leaf curl, yellowing, and premature leaf loss. Heavily infested trees also experience limb drying. These findings represented the first evidence for the presence of this mite in France, and scientists see this insect as a potential biocontrol agent to replace toxic chemical use. The mite’s ability to expand geographically and close association with its target plant covers two important characteristics of a potential biocontrol: wide dispersal and host-specificity.

Apart from A. mosoniensis, there is one other potential biocontrol for tree of heaven, a pathogen that causes wilting, known as Verticillium dahlia, which was recently discovered in Italy. Biological controls like these represent a viable pest management approach that does not employ highly toxic chemical pesticides. It is common to read recommendations for tree of heaven management that suggest the use of carcinogenic chemicals like glyphosate. However, even “minor” applications that, for instance, suggest painting tree stumps with Roundup or another similar product present health risks to the applicator and ecological risks to the local environment. Although mechanical management, primarily in the form of consistent sprout and root pulling for tree of heaven, can be labor intensive, it represents a safer approach than handling toxic chemicals. Whatever one’s approach may be to eliminating tree of heaven on one’s property, it is critically important to consider the conditions that allowed the plant to colonize an area in the first place, and have a plan to replace the area where the tree system was uprooted with native species. While tree of heaven has the ability to displace native species, a healthy, functioning native ecosystem makes success much more difficult for the plant.

Biocontrols like A. mosoniensis can provide wide area solutions for widespreading plants like the tree of heaven. According to a study published in late 2020, biocontrol agents have added billions in benefits to economies, particularly in agriculture, providing critical solutions and “durable pest control” throughout the globe. Rather than have humans function as crude predators armed with chemical weapons in degraded ecosystems, biological controls provide a targeted approach that works with natural processes. For information and approaches to safer pest management, see Beyond Pesticide ManageSafe webpage. And for more on the issue of ‘invasive’ or opportunistic species see the page on Ecological Management of Problem Vegetation.

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

Source: USDA press release, Phytoparasitica

(Beyond Pesticides, December 21, 2021)  A research team undertaking a review of industry-conducted glyphosate safety studies submitted to EU (European Union) regulators shows that most of the research fails to meet current international standards for scientific validity. The researchers find that of the 11 reviewed studies, which were submitted to regulators by Bayer AG (now owner of the Monsanto “Roundup” brand of glyphosate herbicide) and several other chemical companies, only two are scientifically “reliable”; six others are deemed “partly reliable,” and the remaining three, “not reliable.” These results go, in part, to the age of some of the studies (see below); but they also underscore the point Beyond Pesticides has made for years. Regulators, whether in the UK, the U.S., or anywhere else, ought not be relying solely and without adequate auditing on industry-generated and -funded safety research in making safety determinations that underlie regulations impacting the well-being of millions of people (and other organisms), never mind the environment writ large.

The report, from a team working out of the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) at the Medical University of Vienna, is timely: the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) are currently considering whether or not to renew EU approval of glyphosate when the existing license expires in December 2022. In 2017, glyphosate was granted, by a narrow vote margin, a five-year renewal following the European Parliament’s vote against renewal. According to The Guardian, “The analysis comes at a critical time as Bayer and a contingent of companies calling themselves the Glyphosate Renewal Group are again asking European regulators to reauthorize glyphosate ahead of the expiration of approval next year, and as the industry battles to preserve glyphosate use globally.”

The Guardian reported, “In August, authorities from France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden weighed in on the renewal question with a draft report concluding that glyphosate is not carcinogenic.” EFSA and ECHA allowed other parties to comment, up until November 22, 2021, on the issue of glyphosate’s potential re-licensing in 2022. Lead author of the ICR report, Siegfried Knasmueller, issued an earlier report on glyphosate studies in July, titled “Corporate studies asserting herbicide safety show many flaws, new analysis finds.” This study, which reviewed 53 corporate studies submitted to regulators, was requested by the SumOfUs nonprofit organization, and was submitted in response to the November deadline. A spokesperson for EFSA indicated that the body would “develop its opinion” on the matter by June 2022.

The industry research studies reviewed by the ICR team focused on the genotoxicity (ability to cause DNA damage) of glyphosate. This issue is a huge and concerning one because damage to DNA is a well-recognized contributor to the development of cancers. The studies reviewed through the Austrian team’s project maintain that glyphosate is not genotoxic. Yet the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) in 2015 declared not only that glyphosate is a “likely human carcinogen,” but also, that it causes DNA and chromosomal damage in human cells. As Beyond Pesticides noted then, “Epidemiologic studies have found that exposure to glyphosate is significantly associated with an increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL).”

In addition, multiple studies have found that glyphosate can induce genetic changes, including statistically significant increases in fatty liver disease and liver cell death. Certainly, the juries in several high-profile glyphosate trials in the U.S. have understood the relationship between glyphosate exposure and development of cancer — and of NHL, in particular.

Professor Siegfried Knasmueller, PhD, the ICR team’s principal investigator — who is an expert in genetic toxicology, a researcher at the Medical University of Vienna’s Cancer Research Institute, and editor-in-chief of two scientific journals, including Mutation Research/Genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis — has commented on the team’s review. He told The Guardian, “Not only are most of the studies lacking in quality, but . . . the industry research does not include new and ‘probably better tests for the detection of genotoxic carcinogens.’ He said there is evidence in published research that glyphosate may cause DNA damage in human-derived liver cells. . . . [And] that while several industry studies were ‘correct from a methodological point of view at the time when they were conducted,’ they are not in agreement with the current strategy.’”

The team’s findings about reliability constellate in part on the currency of analytical methodologies; the two studies deemed “reliable” were relatively recent (2016 and 2020), while the “not reliable” ones were conducted one or more decades ago. The findings of the July report identify a specific problem: many of the industry studies focused on “testing for chromosome damage in early stages in red blood cells of the bone marrow in laboratory mice and rats. These tests routinely detect only 50–60% of carcinogens, according to Knasmueller. ‘So many carcinogens are not detected with this method,’ he said.” Professor Knasmueller indicated that a kind of test called a ‘comet assay’ can detect and quantify DNA damage in the individual cells of a range of organs — and thus, is more valuable in identifying carcinogens. This comet assay is commonly used to evaluate genotoxicity, but was not used in the glyphosate studies submitted to EFSA and ECHA.

The Guardian reported on these aspects from the July paper: “Researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria said a thorough review of 53 safety studies submitted to regulators by large chemical companies showed that most do not comply with modern international standards for scientific rigor, and lack the types of tests most able to detect cancer risks. The quality of these studies, not of all, but of many of these studies is very poor. The health authorities . . . accepted some of these very poor studies as informative and acceptable, which is not justified from a scientific point of view.’” The Guardian added, “If Knasmueller’s observations are accurate, the new finding of flaws in industry studies means regulatory assurances about glyphosate safety in Europe and the United States have been based, at least in part, on shoddy science.”

In response to that July report, the former director of the U.S. National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Linda Birnbaum, PhD, indicated that the problem of regulators accepting industry studies “at industry’s word” and simultaneously “ignoring red flags raised in non–industry funded research” is ongoing, according to The Guardian. The paper also wrote that EPA confirmed that no comet assay testing is required (to ferret out genotoxic potential) for industry studies used by the agency. An EPA spokesperson issued a statement at the time, saying that the agency “strives to use high-quality studies” and “a broad set of data” in its evaluations of pesticides, and “independently evaluates required studies for scientific acceptability.”

The EPA website brandishes this text: “EPA’s pesticide program is committed to using current state-of-the-science methods to enable a more effective and efficient testing and assessment paradigm for chemical risk management. . . . Also, we encourage the incorporation of genotoxicity endpoints into routine toxicology studies where scientifically feasible. Certain genotoxicity studies, including the micronucleus and comet assays, can effectively be incorporated into routine toxicology studies.” Beyond Pesticides notes that “encouraging” use of such assays in industry-conducted research — on which EPA relies — is a far cry from requiring use of such methodologies that can more effectively identify genotoxic properties of pesticides, and therefore, shape more-protective risk assessment and regulation.

The track records of both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and ECHA have been riddled with less-than-protective actions. On the European front, for example: (1) EFSA ignored a study linking Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide to cancer — after consulting with an EPA official linked to Monsanto; and (2) documents showed that text in an EU report declaring glyphosate safe was copied and pasted from a Monsanto study.

Across the pond in the U.S., Beyond Pesticides has covered both the EPA’s reliance on industry research in its evaluation of pesticides, and industry influence on, and corruption within, EPA that have made its pesticide regulation so often misguided and ineffectual. Investigative journalist Carey Gillam, in a speech to Beyond Pesticides’ 2018 National Pesticide Forum on the so-called “Monsanto Papers” — chronicling a litany of company malfeasance related to glyphosate, and the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs’ (OPP’s) preposterous alignment with industry’s wishes. Just one example was that of Jess Rowland, a Deputy Division Director of the Office of Pesticide Programs, who moved heaven and Earth to protect the ability of Monsanto to continue to sell Roundup, unencumbered by pesky warnings of carcinogenicity. Read more on EPA dysfunction here, here, and here.

EPA’s sketchy relationship with scientific integrity may be one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington, DC. In December 2016, when EPA consulted with a scientific advisory panel, The Guardian notes, members of the panel griped that the agency was failing to follow “proper scientific guidelines for how to asses research about glyphosate health impacts.” Nina Holland, a researcher with Corporate Europe Observatory, commenting to The Guardian on the same phenomenon in the EU, said: “This puts once more a finger on a sore spot: that national regulators do not seem to pay close scrutiny when looking at the quality of industry’s studies. This is shocking as it is their job to protect people’s health and the environment, not to serve the interests of the pesticide industry.” Her critique holds up when applied to EPA, according to Beyond Pesticides, which has written extensively (and recently) about such failings of the agency tasked with protecting public health and the environment.

Stay current with developments in the world of glyphosate (and all pesticides) with the Daily News Blog, with opportunities to take action via the Action of the Week, and via wider and deeper dives in Beyond Pesticides’ journal, Pesticides and You

Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/26/glyphosate-eu-regulators-studies-roundup-weedkiller and https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/02/glyphosate-herbicide-roundup-corporate-safety-studies

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

(Beyond Pesticides, December 20, 2021) Despite a high-profile tour of communities affected by toxic chemicals by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan, EPA still fails to make connections that could help protect against poisoning of workers, fenceline communities, and others. For example, as Mr. Regan, in November, visited Houston, Texas, where thousands of residents are suing Union Pacific Railroad Company for contaminating their properties with highly hazardous creosote wood preservatives, EPA is in the process of reauthorizing creosote use for another 15 years with the knowledge that it is virtually impossible to produce and use without causing contamination and poisoning.

Tell EPA to truly integrate environmental justice into all of EPA’s programs. 

Environmental justice issues arise at every stage of the cradle-to-grave life cycle of toxic chemicals, from production, transportation, handling, and use, to disposal. Petroleum refineries are likely to be sited near poor communities composed of people of color. Mines contaminate tribal lands and poor rural communities. Manufacturing facilities are also located near low-income neighborhoods, employing their inhabitants in hazardous jobs. Pesticides are applied by farmworkers whose housing is surrounded by poisoned fields. And, coming full circle, hazardous waste “disposal” sites are surrounded by low-income communities.

In April, Mr. Regan directed all EPA offices to clearly integrate environmental justice considerations into their plans and actions, saying, “Too many communities whose residents are predominantly of color, Indigenous, or low-income continue to suffer from disproportionately high pollution levels and the resulting adverse health and environmental impacts. We must do better. This will be one of my top priorities as Administrator, and I expect it to be one of yours as well.” This effort follows President Biden’s Executive Order, Modernizing Regulatory Review (January 20, 2021), which mandates the adoption of agency policy across government to seriously and with urgency confront disproportionate harm to people of color communities (environmental racism) with the directive to “forward health, racial equity, and environmental stewardship.”

If environmental justice were truly integrated into all of EPA’s programs, the agency would scrutinize use patterns, evaluate the “reasonableness” of hazards and harm in the context of available alternatives, and prohibit continued sales and use—which drive the cradle-to-grave cycle—of toxic pesticides. The Office of Pesticide Programs would be transformed into a program for transitioning farmers and others addicted to pesticides to organic management practices. Instead of reducing the cost to manufacturers of registering pesticides, EPA would incrementally increase the cost of registration each year to pay for the transition to organic practices.

Tell EPA to truly integrate environmental justice into all of EPA’s programs.

Letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan

Despite a high-profile tour of communities affected by toxic chemicals by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan, EPA still fails to make connections that could help protect against poisoning of workers, fenceline communities, and others. For example, as Mr. Regan, in November, visited Houston, Texas, where thousands of residents are suing Union Pacific Railroad Company for contaminating their properties with highly hazardous creosote wood preservatives, EPA is in the process of reauthorizing creosote use for another 15 years with the knowledge that it is virtually impossible to produce and use without causing contamination and poisoning.

Environmental justice issues arise at every stage of the cradle-to-grave life cycle of toxic chemicals, from production, transportation, handling, and use, to disposal. Petroleum refineries are likely to be sited near poor communities composed of people of color. Mines contaminate tribal lands and poor rural communities. Manufacturing facilities are also located near low-income neighborhoods, employing their inhabitants in hazardous jobs. Pesticides are applied by farmworkers whose housing is surrounded by poisoned fields. And, coming full circle, hazardous waste “disposal” sites are surrounded by low-income communities.

In April, Mr. Regan directed all EPA offices to clearly integrate environmental justice considerations into their plans and actions, saying, “Too many communities whose residents are predominantly of color, Indigenous, or low-income continue to suffer from disproportionately high pollution levels and the resulting adverse health and environmental impacts. We must do better. This will be one of my top priorities as Administrator, and I expect it to be one of yours as well.” This effort follows President Biden’s Executive Order, Modernizing Regulatory Review (January 20, 2021), which mandates the adoption of agency policy across government to seriously and with urgency confront disproportionate harm to people of color communities (environmental racism) with the directive to “forward health, racial equity, and environmental stewardship.”

If environmental justice were truly integrated into all of EPA’s programs, the agency would scrutinize use patterns, evaluate the “reasonableness” of hazards and harm in the context of available alternatives, and prohibit continued sales and use—which drive the cradle-to-grave cycle—of toxic pesticides. The Office of Pesticide Programs would be transformed into a program for transitioning farmers and others addicted to pesticides to organic management practices. Instead of reducing the cost to manufacturers of registering pesticides, EPA would incrementally increase the cost of registration each year to pay for the transition to organic practices.

I look forward to seeing the transformation of EPA’s programs toward a just, non-toxic future. Please let me know your plans with the reregistration of creosote in the context of environmental justice and the protection of public health.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, December 17, 2021) Los Alamos, New Mexico is the latest locality to act on some degree of protection of the community from pesticides. Its County Council passed a proposal on December 15 that will ban use of glyphosate-based herbicides on county properties, among other provisions (outlined below). Cities, towns, and counties (and occasionally, a state) across the U.S. are moving to protect their parks, playing fields, other green spaces, and the communities broadly from the harms of synthetic pesticide and fertilizer use. The approaches vary: sometimes comprehensive, though often piecemeal, i.e., tackling the problem one compound, one category of pesticide, or one or two kinds of properties at a time. Beyond Pesticides endorses comprehensive approaches that embrace the transition to organic land management. Because these can sometimes be more challenging for localities to enact, Beyond Pesticides has announced its program — Parks for a Sustainable Future — that helps localities learn about, secure training in, and benefit from the guidance of experts on, organic management.

Synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are used widely in agriculture, but also, in a large variety of public spaces — on and in playgrounds, parks, and playing/recreational fields and courts; along roads, sidewalks, and hiking and bike trails; next to fences of all kinds; and in many other locations. In these green spaces and corridors, use of herbicides to control growth of weeds, invasive species, and/or those considered “noxious” (such as poison ivy, oak, or sumac, or giant hogweed, e.g.) is very common. These land areas may be managed by municipalities, counties, state agencies, water districts, transportation authorities, utility companies or entities, or others.

For larger expanses of turf, such as playing fields, golf courses, and parks, herbicides are often “spot” applied, and use of synthetic fertilizers is routine, as managers and the public have come to expect such fields to be a perky, bright green all the time. This expectation runs counter to how plants actually behave in most circumstances; most plants have cycles of decline and dormancy, followed by renewal and growth. But in many places, the expectation is that the baseball field or the golf course or the park has to look 100% all the time — a notion that helps drive use of high-nitrogen, synthetic, petrochemical fertilizers.

As members of the public increasingly recognize the multiple environmental and health challenges that are caused by, associated with, and/or made worse by the use of synthetic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers — as well as the inadequacy of response to them at the federal and state levels — they are calling on local governments to step in and up to protect public and environmental health. (That said, some states do takes action, as Maine and Connecticut have done.)

To be fair, sometimes, governments take initiative without significant public pressure, but most often some nongovernmental organizations representing the public have roles in persuading governments to act. (See Beyond Pesticides’ coverage of other local pesticide actions, starting more than a decade ago, here, here, here, and here.) Most local government entities find it easier to tackle such issues in what Beyond Pesticides might term a “piecemeal” approach, rather than undertaking a comprehensive program to transition to organic land management.

The Los Alamos County Council decision, for example, goes directly to banning use of one synthetic herbicide compound — glyphosate. Traveling with that ban in the adopted proposal are provisions for notification of pesticide applications, and for expansion of Integrative Pest Management (IPM) efforts by relevant departments (with a direction that staff develop an IPM implementation plan and return to the council within 90 days for approval). IPM has its own issues, as Beyond Pesticides has reported, and is an insufficient approach to the pesticide problem. Brought forward by the county’s Environmental Sustainability Board (ESB), the proposal was endorsed by the Rio Grande and Pajarito chapters of the Sierra Club, and the League of Women Voters.

The ESB included, in its case presentation on the matter, many of the points that Beyond Pesticides has covered regarding glyphosate: it is an antibiotic and endocrine disruptor that has become ubiquitous in the environment and in human bodies; it is more toxic in product formulations than per se because of the adjuvant ingredients the manufacturers include; and its use has triggered many thousands of lawsuits for the damage it has caused — most notably, the development of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. The firehose of litigation against Bayer (now owner of the Monsanto brand that originally introduced the infamous Roundup product line) evidences the potential liability associated with glyphosate’s use: Bayer has already ponied up more than $14 billion in attempts to sever the flow of litigation. No locality wants to be in the legal crosshairs of such suits.

New York City has taken a more ambitious approach. In the Spring of 2021, the New York City Council passed landmark legislation that restricts the use of toxic pesticides on all city properties, including parks and playgrounds. The law favors, instead, use of compounds permitted under the National Organic Program (NOP) National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances, or those designated as “minimum risk” — the least-toxic available.

About the NYC legislation (the bill moniker was “Intro 1524”), Beyond Pesticides wrote, in April 2021, “According to public health advocates, by restricting pesticide use, the City will provide critical protections for community health, particularly for children, the elderly, and vulnerable population groups that suffer from compromised immune and neurological systems, cancer, reproductive problems, respiratory illness and asthma, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, or learning disabilities.” Further, it wrote that neither the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nor the responsible state agencies — the Department of Environmental Conservation in New York, but departments of agriculture in most of the country — are adequately protecting people and the environment from pesticides, creating urgency for local actions like that taken by New York City.

This is certainly a more comprehensive strategy than banning a single compound; still, the NYC law acts only on pesticides. It does not tackle use of synthetic fertilizers, nor does it take the genuinely holistic step of moving to organic land management practices. Other localities have moved the needle. Philadelphia stepped up its game in 2020 by banning herbicides on its public property; the City Council stopped short of banning all toxic pesticides, but did encouraging the adoption of organic land management. Beyond Pesticides noted at the time that the “bill’s language indicates a clear spirit and intent to move Philadelphia’s public spaces to organic practices.”

In Summer 2021, the Maui (Hawai’i) County Council passed a law that will prevent the use of toxic pesticides and fertilizers on county properties, allowing only those materials permitted under the NOP National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances. The law does not affect property managed by the state or private owners, county agricultural parks, or county property used for agricultural purposes. The new law will be in effect starting in August 2022 for most county parcels; a few other large facilities will phase in over the next several years.

Beyond Pesticides Executive Direct Jay Feldman lauded the “‘whole systems’ approach to county land management that this law would launch, saying that it ‘creates a framework for nurturing desirable plant life in a management system, like the one we developed for the organic transition plan provided to Maui County.’ Beyond Pesticides has been working on Mau’i, Kaua’i, and the Big Island, and — with Osborne Organics — has developed organic land management plans for public parks and playing fields.”

Mr. Feldman also commented — on the Maui County action, but the sentiment is broadly applicable in the U.S. and is the crux of the organization’s approach. “‘We need to stop the use of hazardous chemicals, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers, and replace them with a different approach. We do not need toxic pesticides to achieve our community goals for aesthetic[s] or safety in the parks, [on] playing fields or sports fields, and along the roadside. We are not talking about product substitution. We are talking about a systems change’ — to organic, regenerative approaches to all land management.”

As of 2019, more than 150 communities throughout the U.S. had passed laws or established policies to restrict the use of toxic pesticides, given the level of inaction by EPA. The number has no doubt increased since then. (See the map on this Beyond Pesticides webpage.) Increasingly, communities are looking to eliminate toxic pesticide use — with particular recent focus on glyphosate, given recent court decisions and legal liability concerns. The cities of Portland (ME), Baltimore, and Philadelphia, as well as Montgomery County (MD), for example, have all enacted laws similar to the New York City “Intro 1524” statute.

Beyond Pesticides recognizes that these are all good steps in a protective direction. Yet, the real solution to the multiplicity of public health, environmental, biodiversity, and climate harms generated by the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers in all land management (including agriculture) is the shift to organic land management. In a new effort to support, train, and guide localities in their transition efforts, Beyond Pesticides has initiated its Parks for a Sustainable Future program. The organization is partnering with retailer Natural Grocers and food processor Stonyfield Organic, and dozens of communities across the country, to advance the transition “on the ground” at the local level.

The program is an in-depth training that supports “community land managers in transitioning two public green spaces to organic landscape management, while aiming to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to eventually transition all public areas in a locality to these safer practices. . . . [Beyond Pesticides and partners] provide this service to qualified communities because of our organization’s mission to protect public health and the environment, starting at the local level. Given increasing public understanding of the dangers associated with lawn care pesticides, our organization strongly encourages localities to take advantage of the growing availability of alternative practices and products that do not subject people or local environment to these hazards.” Successful “organic pilots” tend to leverage broader adoption in communities, which is, of course, the goal.

The program is available, via an application process, to local government staff who oversee land care management. Communities that qualify will benefit from the expertise of Osborne Organics (or an equivalent service provider) — a long-time leader in organic landscape management.

The Parks for a Sustainable Future webpage says, “Envision an organic community where local parks, playing fields, and greenways are managed without unnecessary toxic pesticides, children and pets are safe to run around on the grass, and bees and other pollinators are safeguarded from toxic chemicals. At Beyond Pesticides, this is the future we envision and are working to achieve.” If your community may be interested in transitioning away from synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and to protective organic strategies, please encourage your local government staff to apply for the program. As always, reach out to Beyond Pesticides with questions at [email protected] or 1.202.543.5450.

Source: https://losalamosreporter.com/2021/12/11/county-council-to-vote-tuesday-on-pesticide-issue/; The Pesticide Ban Movement Gains Momentum, Environmental Health News

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

(Beyond Pesticides, December 16, 2021) A study by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, finds Parkinson’s Disease (PD) risk increases with elevated levels of organochlorine (OCP) and organophosphate (OP) pesticides in blood. Among patients with PD, specific organochlorine compounds have greater associations with cognitive impairments, including depression and brain function. Research finds exposure to chemical toxicants, like pesticides, can cause neurotoxic effects or exacerbate preexisting chemical damage to the nervous system. Although the mechanism by which pesticides induce disease development remains unclear, researchers suggest changes in protein enzyme composition and cellular dysfunction from pesticide exposure interrupt normal brain function.

Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, with at least one million Americans living with PD and about 50,000 new diagnoses each year. The disease affects 50% more men than women, and individuals with PD have a variety of symptoms, including loss of muscle control and trembling, anxiety and depression, constipation and urinary difficulties, dementia, and sleep disturbances. Over time, symptoms intensify, but there is no current cure for this fatal disease. While only 10 to 15 percent of PD incidences are genetic, PD is quickly becoming the world’s fastest-growing brain disease. Therefore, research like this highlights the need to examine alternate risk factors for disease development, especially if disease triggers are overwhelmingly non-hereditary. The researcher notes, “Based on these findings, more stringent environmental regulations may need to be implemented to reduce PD risk in the population, especially in agricultural areas where communities may be exposed to unsafe pesticide levels.”

The study evaluates 90 patients with idiopathic or spontaneous (non-genetic) PD and their spouses, as well as 90 healthy control individuals. The patients included in the study adhere to specific criteria: “diagnosed as idiopathic [spontaneous] PD according to 2015 MDS clinical diagnostic criteria for PD; no family history of PD; no history of other significant neurological disorders (i.e., stroke, epilepsy, head trauma); and no familial history of behavioral abnormality.” Most PD patients are male, which is consistent with the PD diagnoses ratio among the general population. Researchers collected blood samples from PD patients and the control group after an overnight fasting period. Using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS), researchers analyze samples of 19 commonly used pesticides in the Shanghai, China region, including 16 OCP (α-hexachlorocyclohexane [HCH], β-HCH, γ-HCH, δ-HCH, propanil, vinclozolin, heptachlor, aldrin, dieldrin, endosulfan, hexachlorobenzene, quintozene, p,p’-DDE, p,p’-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane [DDD], o,p’-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane [DDT], p,p’-DDT), and three OP (parathion-methyl, methidathion, and phosalone) pesticide compounds.

Concentrations of organochlorine pesticides (α-HCH, β-HCH, γ-HCH, δ-HCH, propanil, heptachlor, dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene, p,p’-DDT and o,p’-DDT) are higher among patients with PD compared to healthy patients. Of the organochlorines, α-HCH and propanil concentrations have the greatest association with PD risk through increasing reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and decreasing mitochondrial membrane function in SH-SY5Y cells. However, only propanil induced accumulation of α-synuclein, a predominant protein in the brain tissue of PD patients. Lastly, using the Hamilton Depression Scale and Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores, researchers discover PD patients have higher depression scores and lower cognitive function.

Parkinson’s disease occurs when there is damage to the dopaminergic nerve cells (i.e., those activated by or sensitive to dopamine) in the brain responsible for dopamine production, one of the primary neurotransmitters mediating motor function. Although the cause of dopaminergic cell damage remains unknown, evidence suggests that pesticide exposure, especially chronic exposure, may be the culprit. Although organochlorine pesticides are been phased out in food production, these pesticides were ubiquitous, especially in the rural U.S., where pesticide exposure is nearly unavoidable due to drift and runoff. DDE, a breakdown product of DDT, is still widely found in the environment, including waterways and food. Moreover, occupational exposure poses a unique risk, as pesticide exposure is direct via handling and application. A 2017 study finds that occupational use of pesticides (i.e., fungicides, herbicides, or insecticides) increases PD risk by 110 to 211 percent. Even more concerning is that some personal protection equipment (PPE) may not adequately protect workers from chemical exposure during application. However, 90 percent of Americans have at least one pesticide compound in their body, primarily stemming from dietary exposure, like food and drinking water. These compounds have a global distribution, with evaporation and precipitation facilitating long-range atmospheric transport, deposition, and bioaccumulation of hazardous chemicals in the environment. Thus, exposure to these toxicants can cause several adverse environmental and biological health effects. With the increasing ubiquity of pesticides, current measures safeguarding against pesticide use must adequately detect and assess total chemical contaminants.

This study is one of four to investigate disparities between pesticide blood serum levels among PD patients and healthy controls. Additionally, this study is the first to find a correlation between specific pesticide compounds in blood samples and PD in the population, focusing on mechanisms of cellular dysfunction of α-HCH and propanil. Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) can persist in the environment decades after use stops as OCPs have higher chemical stability and gradual attenuation. Thus, these compounds tend to bioaccumulate in the ecosystem and within the bodies of most species from high lipophilicity (chemical uptake by fats). Organophosphate insecticides originate from the same compounds as World War II nerve agents, producing adverse effects on the nervous system. Chemical exposure can cause a buildup of acetylcholine (a chemical neurotransmitter responsible for brain and muscle function) can lead to acute impacts, such as uncontrolled, rapid twitching of some muscles, paralyzed breathing, convulsions, and, in extreme cases, death. The compromise of nerve impulse transmission can have broad systemic impacts on the function of multiple body systems. Regarding mental health disorders, pesticides, including organophosphates (OPs), have associations with a higher prevalence of minor psychiatric disorders. Moreover, OPs are one of the leading causes of intentional poisoning globally as pesticide toxicity makes them potentially lethal substances.

Although many countries ban most organochlorine compounds, these chemicals remain in soils, water (solid and liquid), and the surrounding air at levels exceeding U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards. Moreover, several studies identify various current-use pesticides involved in the pathology of PD. These include the insecticides rotenone and chlorpyrifos, herbicides 2,4-D, glyphosate and paraquat, carbamate compounds, and fungicides maneb and mancozeb. A Washington State University study determined that residents living near areas treated with glyphosate—the most widely used herbicides in the U.S.—are one-third more likely to die prematurely from Parkinson’s disease. In the Louisiana State University study, exposure to 2,4-D, chlorpyrifos, and paraquat from pasture land, forestry, or woodland operations, is a risk factor for PD. The highest risks occur in areas where chemicals quickly percolate into drinking water sources. Similar to the organochlorines in the study, acute and chronic exposure to rotenone can inhibit mitochondrial brain function responsible for cell regeneration and induce oxidative stress. Carbamate pesticides increase PD risk by 455 percent, with risk doubling for individuals with ten or more years of chemical use. Overall, research finds exposure to pesticides increases the risk of developing PD from 33 percent to 80 percent, with some pesticides prompting a higher risk than others. While PD risk increases with pesticide exposure periods, researchers indicate there is still a need for further research on the chemical threshold for harm to the brain.

Although the exact cause of PD remains unknown, studies continuously identify exposure to pesticides and specific gene-pesticide interactions as significant adverse risk factors. Environmental triggers like occupational exposure to pesticides can prompt PD in individuals with or without the genetic precursor. However, PD can develop regardless of whether an individual is a carrier of GBA gene mutation or not.

This study adds to the large body of scientific studies strongly implicating pesticide’s involvement in Parkinson’s disease development. In addition to this research, several studies demonstrate autism, mood disorders (e.g., depression), and degenerative neurological conditions (e.g., ALS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s) among aquatic and terrestrial animals, including humans, exposed to pesticides. Pesticides themselves, mixtures of chemicals such as Agent Orange or dioxins, and therapeutic hormones or pharmaceutical products can possess the ability to disrupt neurological function. Therefore, the impacts of pesticides on the nervous system, including the brain, are hazardous, especially for chronically exposed individuals (e.g., farm workers) or during critical windows of vulnerability and development (e.g., childhood, pregnancy). Considering health officials expect Parkinson’s disease diagnosis to double over the next 20 years, it is essential to mitigate preventable exposure from disease-inducing pesticides.

The scientific literature demonstrates pesticides’ long history of severe adverse effects on human health (i.e., endocrine disruption, cancer, reproductive/birth problems, neurotoxicity, loss of biodiversity, etc.) and wildlife and biodiversity. However, there are several limitations in defining real-world poisoning as captured by epidemiologic studies in Beyond Pesticides’ Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database. The adverse health effects of pesticides, exposure, and the aggregate risk of pesticides showcase a need for more extensive research on occupational and nonoccupational pesticide exposure, especially in agriculture. For more information on the effects of pesticide exposure on neurological health, see PIDD pages on Parkinson’s disease, dementia-like diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, and other impacts on cognitive function. 

Parkinson’s disease may have no cure, but prevention practices like organics can eliminate exposure to toxic PD-inducing pesticides. Organic agriculture represents a safer, healthier approach to crop production that does not necessitate toxic pesticide use. Beyond Pesticides encourages farmers to embrace regenerative, organic practices. A compliment to buying organic is contacting various organic farming organizations to learn more about what you can do. Those impacted by pesticide drift can refer to Beyond Pesticides’ webpage on What to Do in a Pesticide Emergency and contact the organization for additional information. Furthermore, see Beyond Pesticides’ Parkinson’s Disease article from the Spring 2008 issue of Pesticides and You.

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

Source: Neurotoxicology (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

(Beyond Pesticides, December 15, 2021) Monsanto has pleaded guilty to multiple environmental crimes in Hawaiʻi for the second time in less than four years, and the island communities are left asking “when is enough enough?”

In the most recent case, Monsanto will plead guilty to 30 environmental crimes in Hawaiʻi, related to pesticide use violations and putting field workers at risk.  In both cases, they admit that they knowingly violated pesticide law and put field workers in harmʻs way.  They will pay a $12 million fine this time, bringing their criminal fines and “community service payments” to a total of $22 million since 2019.

At the center of these cases is the fact that the Monsanto field workers had to transport, apply, and suffer exposure to these toxic and banned pesticides as a part of their job. Autumn Ness, director of Beyond Pesticides’ Hawai’i organic land management program,  said: “In small island communities of Hawaiʻi, Monsanto workers are our friends and family. Folks live just downwind and next door to these fields.  We are concerned about their health, and those concerns are glaringly missing from news reports and in the distribution agreements for the community service payments.”

There are two separate incidents that have become related because of a deferred prosecution agreement between Monsanto and the courts.

From March 2013 through August 2014, Monsanto stored 160 pounds of Penncap-M hazardous waste at a facility on Molokai.  In 2014, they transported Penncap-M to its valley farm on a neighboring island, and “failed to use a proper shipping manifest to identify the hazardous material and failed to obtain a permit to accept hazardous waste at its Valley Farm site.”

Monsanto admitted using Penncap-M on corn seed and research crops at its facility on Maui, knowing that its use was prohibited after 2013 because of a “cancellation order” issued by EPA, a news release said. Monsanto also admitted that, after the 2014 spraying, it told employees to reenter the sprayed fields seven days later — even though Monsanto knew that workers should have been prohibited from entering the area for 31 days.  

If we center the story around Monsantoʻs workers, and other people who were put in danger, this is what happened: A hazardous pesticide was being stored at a site on Molokaʻi, a small island community, for over a year. It was transported by truck, and airplane or boat without proper documentation, which means that any crash, accident, or spillage could not have been handled properly, putting transportation crews and the environment at risk. On Maui, workers were told to spray a banned pesticide, and then to enter the sprayed fields during the do-not-enter period, exposing and re-exposing themselves to a toxic, banned pesticide.

In the 2019 Penncap-M case, Monsanto pleaded guilty to these offenses, and paid $10 million – a $6 million criminal fine and $4 million in community service payments to Hawaiian government entities. No mention was made of compensation for workers, or funds to assist them with long-term health monitoring and care.  The government also agreed to dismiss the felony charges in two years if Monsanto abides by the agreement, which in addition to the fines, included successfully completing a two-year period of compliance with the agreement’s terms, and maintaining a comprehensive environmental compliance program at all of its facilities in Hawaii to ensure compliance with all federal environmental laws.

Monsanto did not maintain compliance. 

In 2020, Monsanto instructed workers to use Forfeit 280 on Oahu corn fields.  Then, they instructed workers to enter the fields to check for weeds, insects and disease 30 times during a six-day “restricted-entry interval.”  A restricted-entry interval is established by EPA based on the acute toxicity of the active ingredients in the pesticide and is meant to limit the exposure of pesticide residues to workers or other persons. In these cases, workers were knowingly sent into treated fields during the periods of time that have been deemed unsafe to humans.

The 2020 Forfeit 280 incidents mean that the company violated the terms of the 2019 deferred prosecution agreement, along with racking up another 30 misdemeanor charges.

Monsanto is now pleading guilty to the second serious charge of knowingly violating pesticide law by using banned pesticides and exposing multiple individuals to pesticide residues at work.

Advocates and leaders in Hawaiʻi are angry.

“Maui will not continue to be predated by this company. People of Kihei are living just downwind of Monsanto, now Bayerʻs, clandestine and apparently often illegal operations.  Their open windows are exposed to everything they spray. Itʻs time for the chemical company/seed industry to leave Hawaiʻi.  Their mono-crop toxic tech doesnʻt fit with the Hawaiian values of mālama ʻāina (to care for the land).  They contribute little to our economy. Big Ag practices are killing our reefs, the real driver of our economy,” says State Representative Tina Wildberger, whose South Maui district contains two large outdoor Monsanto facilities.

In the news releases, court findings and fine distribution details, Monsantoʻs actions are at the center, but the workers are overlooked. Again, if we center the most vulnerable people in the story, it reads differently.

Monsanto didnʻt spray a banned pesticide, putting them in danger of exposure.  Workers did. 

Monsantoʻs health wasnʻt put in danger by having to enter sprayed fields and be further exposed to a toxic pesticide. Workers did. 

Monsanto doesnʻt have to worry for the rest of its existence small symptoms that develop may be a sign of long-term health effects due to pesticide exposure.  Workers DO.

A plea agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in Honolulu, calls for the company to serve three years of probation and pay $12 million, including a $6 million criminal fine and $6 million in community service payments to four state agencies.

The agencies that each will receive $1.5 million from the additional $6 million in community service payments are the Department of Agriculture, Pesticide Use Revolving Fund — Pesticide Disposal Program/Pesticide Safety Training; the Department of the Attorney General, Criminal Justice/Investigations Division; the Department of Health, Environmental Management Division, to support environmental-health programs; and the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Aquatic Resources. 

None of these agencies have been tasked with assisting Monsanto workers with health care costs, exams, or regular checkups as follow-up care to pesticide exposure. Residents of Maui are fed up, and looking for recourse. In 2014, Maui voters passed a ballot initiative calling for a moratorium on the production of genetically engineered (GE) crops, until their production and associated pesticide use could be proven safe with studies. Monsanto sued the County of Maui and the ballot initiative was overturned in court. Seven years and $22 million in fines later, we are still forced to share neighborhoods with this company, residents say. 

Two Maui residents who live directly downwind from their fields are currently suing Monsanto over birth defects. “Monsanto’s reckless use of pesticides and harmful chemicals near a residential neighborhood have put numerous Maui families at risk,” said Ilana Waxman, partner at Galiher DeRobertis & Waxman, in a news release last week. “Monsanto knew these dangerous substances would drift into nearby communities.”

The movement to evict Monsanto from Maui has birthed a new generation of activists, organic farmers, and elected officials that do put mālama ʻāina at the center of their work, and statewide GE seed production has decreased.  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the value of Hawaii’s seed industry was estimated at $106 million for the 2018-19 season. That’s a 13% drop from the previous year – and a 56% decline from 2011, when the industry’s value peaked at $241.6 million. There is still much work to do though, while community members continue to be affected by Monsantoʻs egregious pesticide use.

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

Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Press Release

(Beyond Pesticides, December 14, 2021) Multinational technology corporation Amazon.com, Inc will pay $2.5 million as part of a settlement with the Washington state Attorney General over illegal sales of highly toxic restricted use pesticides. The company has entered into a consent decree with the state of Washington, requiring the retailer to perform certain actions if it wants to restart pesticide sales, in addition to the fine. This is the second major penalty Amazon has received for illegal pesticide sales in recent years. The company was fined $1.2 million by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2018. Heath advocates are applauding Washington State officials for addressing the issue and urging increased vigilance and enforcement from other states regarding illegal online pesticide sales.

According to the legal complaint, between 2013-2020, Amazon sold thousands of both restricted and general use pesticides to individuals in the state of Washington without a pesticide sales license. The company failed to disclose this information to consumers, and also failed to connect information from buyers of restricted use pesticides, a requirement in Washington state. As a result of Amazon’s illegal activities, there are now thousands of highly hazardous pesticides being used in Washington without documentation on its use site or location. In addition to its own sales, the company is accused of facilitating illegal sales from third party dealers, who also violated aforementioned licensing and documentation requirements. As the legal complaint reads, “Amazon’s sale and distribution of RUPs [restricted use pesticides] and GUP-Ls in Washington is a matter of public interest because it  endangered consumer health and welfare, and the environment. Some of these pesticides can cause  damage or injury to  and, humans, desirable plants and animals, or wildlife.”

In addition to paying Washington State $2.5 million, under the consent decree Amazon is required to obtain a pesticide seller license if it plans to continue selling pesticides. It must track the pesticides it is listing for sale and prohibit illegal sales. If a customer “inadvertently” purchased a restricted use pesticide, Amazon is also required to notify them and work with the customer to dispose of the product, reimbursing the customer for their costs. Third-party sellers will also be required to obtain a license and maintain sales records.

“Amazon is a powerful corporation — but it’s not above the law,” said Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said. “I will continue to serve as an independent watchdog to protect consumers and our environment, and ensure this major Washington company complies with the law.”

Enforcement around online pesticide sales in an ongoing concern. In 2018, Amazon’s $1.2 million settlement addressed a different illegal practice related to pesticide sales. In this case, Amazon racked up nearly 4,000 violations for allowing third-party sellers to sell imported pesticides that are not registered in the United States. The products sold contained false and misleading statements of safety on their labels, and contain active ingredients like synthetic pyrethroids, propoxur, and azamethiphos, a chemical not permitted in the U.S. In one egregious example, EPA noted the sale of chalk products, applied by drawing a pesticide-laden barrier on a surface the user does not want an insect to cross and survive. They are often packaged in bright colors making the products look like sidewalk chalk, toys or even candy. Children can easily open and play with the products, or even put them in their mouths.

Given the repeat violations, some advocates say that Amazon should not be permitted to sell pesticides online at all any longer. Beyond the illegal sales, the company continues to sell pollinator-toxic insecticides on its website, ignoring the concerns of pollinator advocates that urged the company to stop. A non-exhaustive list produced by Beyond Pesticides at the time identified over 100 products dangerous to pollinators, many of which are still being sold by the company today.

Concerned residents are encouraged to attempt and exhaust nontoxic pest management practices first before considering the use of even an organic compatible pesticide. Try to purchase pesticide products directly from your local home and garden centers. If they don’t carry less these less toxic products, use tools like the Making the Switch webpage to start a conversation about transitioning to safer product selections.

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

Source: Washington State Office of Attorney General (press release)

(Beyond Pesticides, December 13, 2021) If you plan to give socks, sweatshirts, or other items of clothing as holiday gifts, you need to be aware that many such items are treated with toxic chemicals. Such treated items may be labeled as “odor free” and may contain nanosilver, triclosan (banned in soaps, but allowed in textile and household products), or other (undisclosed) chemicals hiding behind brand names such as Microban® or FreshIQ. Since it is not always possible to determine which chemical may be used in these textiles, the best option is to buy clothing that is organic or made locally. 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exempts treated articles from registration requirements under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Although the chemicals themselves may be registered antimicrobial pesticides, the treated products in which they are found—and which expose the public to them—are not considered pesticides. Besides clothing treated with antimicrobials to control odors, EPA also allows seeds, wood, paints, cutting boards, sponges, mops, and even toothbrushes to be treated with antimicrobial pesticides under the exemption—as long as claims made for the treatment only pertain to protecting the treated article. For example, sock manufacturers may claim that the treated socks won’t stink but may not claim that they will protect the wearer from athlete’s foot.

Failure to regard treated articles as pesticides has serious implications. Manufacturers are not required to reveal the actual chemicals to which consumers are exposed. Studies have found that, when impregnated into textiles like sportswear, nanosilver does not just wash out in the washing machine, it can also seep into a person’s sweat and end up being absorbed into the skin. The size of nanosilver means that it can easily pass into the body’s blood and lymph system, and circulate through sensitive areas such as the brain, liver, and heart. Triclosan has been linked to a range of health and environmental effects, from skin irritation, allergy susceptibility, bacterial and compounded antibiotic resistance, and dioxin contamination to destruction of fragile aquatic ecosystems.

EPA does not evaluate the effects of exposure to these fabrics. It does not apply the risk-benefit standard in FIFRA to these uses. It simply considers them outside of the scope of pesticide regulation.

Tell EPA to regulate pesticide-treated articles as pesticides, examining alternatives and requiring labels. 

Letter to EPA (Office of Pesticide Programs and Administrator Regan)

Please remove the exemption for registration of pesticide treated articles (PR-2000-1). Treated articles pose uncontrolled threats to human health and the environment. EPA is not deciding to allow such uses based on FIFRA’s risk-benefit standard but is applying an arbitrary criterion based on the advertising claims of purveyors of treated articles.

Who decides that the benefits of seeds coated with neonicotinoid insecticides outweigh the risk of an apocalyptic collapse of insect populations? Who decides that the benefits of wood impregnated with toxic copper compounds outweigh the risks to workers and those using treated wood? How does EPA justify ignoring the risks to consumers of cutting boards, toothbrushes, socks, and underwear exposed to toxic antimicrobial chemicals?

None of these decisions should be made in the absence of data. None should be made in the absence of a showing of need (“benefits”) of the pesticide. Certainly, none of these uses should be allowed without full and transparent disclosure to the consumer of the chemical—not a brand name whose properties cannot be determined.

In other words, all such “treated articles” should be required to be registered as pesticides.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue.

(Beyond Pesticides, December 10, 2021) In a win for pollinators, a California Superior Court has issued a ruling that sulfoxaflor, a systemic pesticide that is “field legal” but “bee lethal,” can no longer be used in the state. The suit was brought by the Pollinator Stewardship Council and the American Beekeeping Federation. The ruling of the Superior Court of the State of California for Alameda County finds that the argument of the petitioners — that sulfoxaflor approval decisions by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) — is valid. Eliminating this highly bee-toxic pesticide from use in the state is expected to protect not only native bees and other pollinators (including Monarch butterflies in early Spring), but also, the many millions of managed-colony bees that are transported to California for pollination of almond and other crops.

The suit was filed against DPR, Corteva inc., Dow Agrosciences LLC, the Siskiyou County Department of Agriculture, and James E. Smith as Siskiyou County Agricultural Commissioner. Having found for the petitioners’ request for a Writ of Mandate (a court order requiring a lower court or public authority to perform its statutory duty), the court instructed the petitioners to submit a draft writ for the court’s consideration within 30 days of this decision. Thus, the effective date of the ban is not yet known.

Sulfoxaflor is an insecticide registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use in controlling sucking insects such as aphids, stink bugs, plant bugs, and thrips in agricultural production. It was registered in 2013 for use on many fruit and vegetable crops. Then, as The Washington Post reported, “In 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that federal regulators lacked adequate data to show the pesticide did not pose serious risk to pollinators, and the court vacated the agency’s approval of sulfoxaflor. . . . In 2016, EPA approved use of the pesticide for crops that do not attract bees, as well as for use on certain plants after blooming was complete. The agency also has repeatedly granted emergency waivers to states to allow the use of sulfoxaflor on certain crops because of a lack of effective alternatives for farmers — including more than a dozen such exemptions this year alone for sorghum and cotton.”

In 2019, EPA went on to add to registered uses of sulfoxaflor: for alfalfa, corn, cacao, grains, pineapple, sorghum, teff, teosinte, and tree plantations; it also restored approval for its use, on a huge scale, on crops that pollinators find very attractive, such as citrus, cotton, cucurbits, soybeans, and strawberries. Beyond Pesticides covered the resulting lawsuits against EPA, by the Pollinator Stewardship Council and the American Beekeeper Federation, and by both the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety.

Though the agrichemical industry argues that sulfoxaflor is distinct from the neonicotinoid (neonic) class of insecticides, it is considered a very close cousin because its mode of action is essentially the same as that of the neonics. Sulfoxaflor excites or desensitizes nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and thus, can disrupt normal nervous system development and function. (See more here.) Like all neonics, it is a systemically acting compound; it gets absorbed by all parts of a plant, and is a toxic threat to insects for many days following application. All sorts of organisms can be exposed to sulfoxaflor through their consumption of any plant parts, or as in the case of pollinators, in the collection of pollen and/or nectar.

Neonics are very toxic to pollinators. Sulfoxaflor can damage honey bees even via low-level, short-term exposures — impacts of which can include increased adult mortality, reduce rates of offspring survival, compromise of foraging and learning behaviors, and reproductive damage. A recent Daily News Blog article reports on the extreme sensitivity of wild bees to neonic exposures; the headline reads “One Single Neonic Exposure Saps Wild Pollinator’s Ability to Reproduce.” When bees bring sulfoxaflor-contaminated pollen and nectar back to their hives, the effect on the entire colony can be catastrophic, according to EarthJustice.

Neonics have been widely implicated in the scourge of Colony Collapse Disorder. As Beyond Pesticides wrote in its What the Science Shows webpage, “These individual impacts are compounded at the level of social colonies, weakening collective resistance to common parasites, pathogens other pesticides, and thus leading to colony losses and mass population declines. In 2018, more than two hundred scientists co-authored a ‘Call to restrict neonicotinoids’ on the basis of the . . . evidence implicating neonicotinoids in mass pollinator and beneficial insect declines.” Impacts on wild and native bees are likely to be amplified, compared to those on honey bees, writes the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). In addition to effects on bee populations, sulfoxaflor can negatively affect other insects, such as lady beetles, green lacewings, and minute pirate bugs, all of which are considered beneficial insects because they are aphid predators.

Even some mammals are threatened; according to CBD, “Small mammals — [such as] chipmunks, shrews, and bats — can be exposed to enough sulfoxaflor to cause a significant increase in the death of newborn pups. Increased death in newborns was due to involuntary muscle tightening, leading to the constriction of the diaphragm and asphyxiation. Uncontrollable muscle tightening was so severe in newborn pups exposed to sulfoxaflor in utero that the developing bones were bent and contorted enough to produce severe skeletal birth defects at higher doses. . . . Leading pollinator experts have called sulfoximines, of which sulfoxaflor is the first commercially available member, the second-most pressing threat to pollinators in the coming years.”

Response to the court’s decision has been positive in the advocate world. President of the Pollinator Stewardship Council Steve Ellis commented: “Just about every commercial honey bee colony in this country spends at least part of the year in California, so this ruling is incredibly important for protecting pollinators in the United States. In recent years, we’ve seen astounding losses to our honey bee colonies. Removing systemic insecticides such as sulfoxaflor will help ensure honey bees have a healthy future.”

President of the American Beekeeping Federation Joan Gunter had this to say: “The American Beekeeping Federation strongly supports one less systemic insecticide exposure that affects our honey bees. We hope this ruling in California will set a precedent for other systemic insecticides that threaten honey bees.”

One of the two Earthjustice attorneys for the petitioners (with Gregory Muren), Greg Loarie, asserted, “Honeybees and other pollinators are incredibly important in our food systems and our wider ecosystem, but they’re dying in droves because of pesticides like sulfoxaflor. With this ruling, the bees in California are getting much-needed relief just as we’re seeing some of the worst signs of colony collapse. Now, California needs to turn its attention to protecting pollinators from the entire class of neonicotinoid pesticides that threaten our future.”

Beyond Pesticides has reported regularly on the massive decline in insect, and in pollinator, populations, and the outsized role played by pesticides. In 2019, it covered a review of a huge number of insect population studies; the authors pointed to the ubiquity of and reliance on agrochemicals (pesticides and synthetic fertilizers), and increasingly chemical-intensive agriculture globally, as causes of insect decline. Several of the studies in that review cited pesticides as the factor most likely responsible.

EPA’s history of allowing the use of pesticides known to be toxic — to insects, to people, to other organisms, to ecosystems — is literally too long to chronicle in this article. From poor and incomplete risk analysis to what some advocates consider the agency’s “capture” by industry and its agenda, EPA continues its modus operandi — continuing to register, re-register, and expand uses for many noxious pesticides. Beyond Pesticides concurs with this analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity, calling out “EPA’s current trajectory of replacing older neonicotinoids with nearly identical insecticides like sulfoxaflor. Simply replacing one toxic pesticide with another will do nothing to stem the declines in insects we are seeing across the globe.”

Beyond Pesticides welcomes the decision to remove this highly bee-toxic pesticide from use in California, and wishes that EPA would “see the light” and ban sulfoxaflor and all neonics from use. Litigation on damage caused by pesticides is likely only to increase, given the extent of harms and the momentum of recent cases, such as those related to glyphosate and chlorpyrifos. That said, each judicial settlement or knock-down of a particular pesticide highlights the fact that the pace and scope of the “whack-a-mole” approach — whether via litigation or emanating from EPA itself — are wholly inadequate to the harms that toxic pesticides are causing 24/7/365. A precautionary approach is far more suited to the task of genuinely protecting public health and the environment than EPA’s current approach.

As Beyond Pesticides wrote in 2019, “Since Rachel Carson stunned the world and ignited the modern environmental movement with Silent Spring, pesticide regulation has been stuck in a whack-a-mole approach that targets only the most publicly visible, toxic, and researched chemicals for restrictions. By transitioning to organic, not only in food production, but also in the management of pests in lawns and landscapes, and other pest control practices, we can eliminate the broad range of chemicals linked to diseases that are all too common in today’s world, and truly protect public health, wildlife, and the environment.

Sources: https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-challenges-trump-epas-200-million-acre-expansion-of-bee-killing-pesticide-2019-08-20/ and https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/2021-1203_order_granting_writ.pdf

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

(Beyond Pesticides, December 9, 2021) The cost to maintain crops using conventional pesticides outweighs the economic benefits from crop production and yield, according to a report, Pesticides ‘cost double the amount they yield,’ by the French-based organization Bureau for the Appraisal of Social Impacts for Citizen Information (BASIC). Moreover, the annual cost of increasing organic farms three-fold by 2030 is less than the cost of pesticides to society (i.e., adverse health and ecological effects from pesticide use and contamination). However, the price to pay from pesticide use encompasses much more than the products themselves. Researchers point to the need for government and health officials to consider the billion-dollar costs associated with adverse health effects from pesticide use, especially as studies confirm that pesticides cause cancer, Parkinson’s, and other diseases that are increasing. Thus, this report adds to the growing body of research demonstrating the unsustainability of conventional, chemical-intensive agricultural practices. The National Academy of Sciences identifies four goals of sustainable agriculture—productivity, economics, environment, and social well-being for future generations. However, current chemical pesticide use threatens sustainable agriculture. Although the primary concerns about pesticide usage centers on health and ecological concerns, including food security, this report provides an economic assessment that offers an important holistic perspective on real costs and food sovereignty.

The report notes, “In a few decades, and thanks to the constant support of public authorities, the agricultural world has invested massively in the use of pesticides. While the profits of this sector are becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few multinationals, society faces a considerable bill to pay each year to cover the costs linked to pesticide use. But even those amounts will not be able to repair the irreversible damage caused to humans and the environment. In contrast, the varied agroecological models have proven to be more sustainable. While transition to these also requires investments, the latter will be smaller and above all more sustainable… [I]n 2022, Member States will have to assume their responsibility and choose between a costly, polluting model concentrated in the hands of a few players whose decision-making centers are outside Europe, and a sustainable agro-ecological model championed by citizens and farmers. It is the future food sovereignty for the EU – and, more broadly, for the planet – that is at stake.”

The study offers insight into the social and economic costs and benefits of the pesticide industry (i.e., production and use). The BASIC NGO investigated the current agricultural model that relies on conventional toxic chemical use involving four primary manufacturers: BASF, Bayer/Monsanto, Corteva, Syngenta/ChemChina. Although the study’s focus is the European market, pesticide exposure is widespread, and residues can travel across the globe. Thus, researchers analyze new pesticide data to evaluate the repercussions on the ecosystem, including effects on species health, diversity, and services (e.g., pest control, pollination, water/soil/climate regulation). The researcher then established the cost from pesticide use and paid for by European citizens regarding these repercussions. Lastly, the organization evaluated the profits of the four major pesticide producers through pesticide use.

The study finds that Europe pays nearly twice as much (2.3 billion Euros) in subsidies than is generated in economic return to sustain pesticide production and use in 2017. The profit generated by industry that same year was 900 million Euros. The report notes that without subsidies, lobbying, and payment of expenses associated with the adverse effects of pesticides, the pesticide sector would lack profitability. Moreover, the reports confirm intense pesticide use produces multiple harms. Declines in insect populations, birds, and sensitive organisms are prevalent among regions with extensive chemical use. The researchers warn that insufficient pesticide regulations do little to protect the occupational and general population from various toxic substances.

The United Nations’ 1987 report, Our Common Future (the Brundtland Report), outlines the benefits of sustainable agriculture in protecting the Earth’s natural resources for future generations, advancing equal income allocation from food production, and supporting small-scale farming. The report emphasizes the challenges of sustainable agriculture, highlighting, “[it] is to raise not just average productivity and incomes [from resources], but also the productivity and incomes of those poor in resources… Land use in agriculture and forestry must [use] scientific assessment of land capacity, and the annual depletion of topsoil, fish stock, or forest resources must not exceed the rate of regeneration.”

However, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report establishes that pesticide use does not adhere to sustainable agriculture goals. Toxic pesticide residues readily contaminate soils, water (solid and liquid), and the surrounding air at levels exceeding U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set standards. Scientific literature demonstrates pesticides’ long history of adverse effects on the environment, including wildlife, biodiversity, and human health. Pesticides can present acute and long-term health impacts worldwide, especially to farmers, 44 percent of whom experience pesticide poisoning every year. Furthermore, a 2020 study attributes ~385 million cases of non-fatal unintentional poisonings and 11,000 deaths annually to pesticides. Thus, increased use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers—driven by rising demand for food, fiber, fuel, and feedstock crops—puts public and environmental health at risk.

Not only do pesticides impact ecosystem and species health, but also essential ecosystem services such as pollination and nutrient availability. Over the last decade and a half, increasing scientific evidence shows a clear connection between the role of pesticides in the decline of honey bees and wild pollinators (i.e., wild bees, butterflies, beetles, birds, bats, etc.) alike. The agricultural industry relies on insect pollinators to aid in plant pollination and sustain annual crop yield. Globally, the production of crops dependent on pollinators is worth between $253 and $577 billion yearly. Moreover, conventional pesticide use contaminates soil and their respective Critical Zone (CZ) compartments, especially within monocrop (single crop) agriculture systems. It is critical for plants to allocate resources for reproduction or seed-bearing. Commercial, chemical-intensive agriculture has implications on a much grander scale as farmers more frequently apply pesticide treatments to larger, monoculture crop areas. Scientific literature supports that larger, monoculture croplands contain higher pest concentrations. These regions can foster pests that persist as they have ample quantity of the same food source, thus resulting in greater insecticide use. Perversely, monoculture crops induce biodiversity and pollinator loss from exposure to these chemical applications. Pesticides can drift from treated areas and contaminate non-commercial landscapes, limiting pollinator foraging habitat. Considering commercial agricultural management has become more chemical-intensive and less diverse, agricultural and economic productivity and social (human/animal) and environmental well-being are at stake.

Despite an increase in agricultural activity since the 1950s, crop yields are declining. Moreover, scientists cited in the report point to previous studies on lower yields in specialized crops—such as monocrops. The current agricultural production system relies on pesticides that researchers attribute to the “growing phenomena such as pest resistance, soil and biodiversity degradation, and also the destruction of natural resources needed for agricultural production (soil, fauna, and flora required for crop development, etc.).” A 2003 report on pesticide caused damages, estimating a total cost of $10 billion to society. However, the BASIC report finds the number of pesticides used in agriculture doubled in the past 20 years, and so the economic damage is much greater than previous figures demonstrate. Although the pesticide industry carries out large-scale lobbying to defend current pesticide use, total costs for lobbying approaches 10 million euros per year, which is greater than the pesticide regulation budget for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Traditionally, tradeoffs between productivity and environmental benefits focused on productivity and overlooked hazards to the environment and general population. Scientists suggest payment incentives to compensate for any reduction in yield, helping farmers to reconsider excessive pesticide use to sustain profit. Considering studies find that toxic pesticide use does little to benefit farmers through productivity or economic means, the primary focus on yield in agriculture is unsustainable. However, agricultural systems that commit to regenerative organic agriculture and land management can meet future, long-term sustainability goals. Past research shows that organic farming can help address economic insecurity, the climate crisis, and public health disparities. Although there are claims that organic agriculture cannot sustain global crop production, scientific studies argue organic yields are comparable to conventional and require significantly lower chemical inputs. Furthermore, the report reveals the cost to convert to organic farming is much less than the cost to sustain current pesticide use. Therefore, the study researchers advocate for the organic solution to eliminate the economic costs of pesticide damages on society. Organic agriculture can and must feed the world.

Organic farming is increasing globally and on track to meet the European Union sustainability goals. However, the number of organic farms remains under two percent. Increased global participation in organic agriculture can protect human and animal health, promote biodiversity, improve the global socioeconomic status, and eliminate toxic chemical use in agriculture. Organically managed systems support biodiversity, improve soil health, sequester carbon (which helps mitigate the climate crisis), and safeguard surface- and groundwater quality. Everyone plays a key role in promoting a sustainable future through organic practices. Therefore, purchasing organic food whenever possible—which never allows synthetic pesticides—can help curb exposure and resulting adverse health effects. A common misconception is that organic products are “too expensive,” but low-cost organic products exist in the marketplace. Education about organic agriculture, buying organic products (food and non-food items), growing your own organic produce, creating marketplace demand, and advocating for organic regulations in the marketplace can aid in the global transition to organic agriculture. Learn more about how consuming organic products can reduce pesticide exposure and the harmful health and environmental impacts of chemical-intensive farming produces.

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

Source: Bureau for the Appraisal of Social Impacts for Citizen Information (BASIC), EU Observer

(Beyond Pesticides, December 8, 2021) The diversity, abundance, and richness of invertebrate species on oceanic islands declines as a result of pesticide use, urban development, and other human activities, finds research published recently in Royal Society Open Science. Oceanic islands, despite their small size, harbor 20% of all species, and 50% of endangered species, making conservation critically important in the context of a sixth mass extinction and insect apocalypse. As the study indicates, “Although agriculture is currently considered the predominant driver of the worldwide species decline, it is crucial to investigate and consider all human land uses for obtaining a global impact assessment, especially in regions where land use types other than agriculture are predominant.”

To determine the primary drivers of species declines on oceanic islands, researchers divided land use type into urban, tourist, and uninhabited. To provide a clean delineation between the various land uses, the study was carried out in the Republic of Maldives. Out of the roughly 1,200 Maldives Islands, researchers chose four uninhabited islands without any permanent human activity, four densely inhabited ‘urban’ islands comprised of Maldives residents, of four resort islands focused solely on tourism. Researchers applied a grid of 1 by 1 meter plots across a map of each island, and randomly picked 20 grids in which to conduct ground-based species sampling. Remote-sensing data were also utilized to determine vegetation cover.  

Results show that, compared to uninhabited islands, urban islands contain roughly half the number of species, while tourist islands contain approximately one third. On urban islands, researchers attribute the disparity to habitat fragmentation, loss of habitat quality, and loss of natural vegetation cover. Specifically, activities involved in land reclamation and new construction projects were cited as being the major drivers of species decline on densely populated oceanic islands.

Data shows that a different factor is driving species declines on tourist islands. “In contrast with the urban development on the permanently inhabited islands, tourist facilities are interested in keeping much of the natural forest and shrub vegetation intact to conserve the image of a ‘tropical paradise’ for their guest,” the study notes. On tourist islands, natural vegetative cover remains mostly intact, and with most human development occurring in the resort area, habitat fragmentation was much lower than on urban islands. But tourist islands nonetheless display lower diversity indexes than urban islands. With increased occurrences of cosmetic landscaping, small gardens, golf courses, and other tourism-related activities, researchers thus attribute pesticide use as the driver of declines on tourist areas. Every tourist island studied indicates that they regularly apply insecticides, specifically synthetic pyrethroids like deltamethrin, in and around structures to manage common pests like mosquitoes, bedbugs, and cockroaches.  

This research reveals that although agriculture is not occurring on these small oceanic islands, pesticide use can still be a significant driver of species decline. Pesticide use can directly and indirectly harm both terrestrial and aquatic species, including coral, as chemicals run off from land into the ocean. With nearly two million unique species inhabiting the ecosystems in and around oceanic islands, it is critical that these areas receive attention. As study co-author Sebastian Steibl told Mongabay, “You can make very effective conservation if you protect islands compared to other ecosystems.”

Tourists and vacationers are encouraged to ask the resorts and hotels they plan to stay at whether they use toxic pesticides as part of their management. The issue is a concern not only for ecological health; horror stories of families poisoned at resort facilities occur far too often for comfort.

Get involved today by urging action to address the sixth extinction. And for more information on the dangers pesticides pose to water quality, see Beyond Pesticides’ Contaminated Waters webpage.  

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

Source: Mongabay, Royal Society Open Source

(Beyond Pesticides, December 7, 2021) One exposure. That’s all it takes for wild bees to experience declines in reproduction and population growth from neonicotinoid insecticides, according to research recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). This incredible sensitivity is exactly the sort of process that could rapidly drive pollinator species into extinction. It is the sort of finding that one would expect government agencies tasked with protecting the environment to discern. Yet, regulators at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs have consistently failed to listen and meaningfully respond to the latest science. As this is done, the agency is fully aware that ever more pollinators are slated for endangered status, jeopardizing our agricultural economy, ecosystem stability, and the joy we all gain from watching our favorite pollinators flit about the landscape.

Over the course of two years, researchers established a crossed experiment with ground-nesting blue orchard bees (Osmia lignaria). These pollinators, native to North America, overwinter and nest in narrow holes or tubes, making them particularly sensitive to ground-based pesticide applications. Researchers conducted their study during the first year by exposing a group of larval bees to the neonicotinoid imidacloprid through a ground drench at the highest rate on the label for the product AdmirePro, produced by Bayer. Another group was left unexposed. Then, during the second year, some of the unexposed adults were dosed with the same rate of imidacloprid.

Orchard bees exposed to imidacloprid as adults during year two were 4% less likely to initiate nesting, and when they did, they created their nest 38% percent slower, and produced 30% less offspring than those left unexposed. This population also produced 49% fewer female offspring than unexposed bees. Larval bees that were exposed during year one, and subsequently established nests during year two also laid significantly (20%) fewer eggs. This finding indicates that a single pesticide exposure at a young age can result in effects on overall fitness that extend into adulthood and negatively impact reproductive success. “Pesticide exposure reduces bee reproduction, and exposure in either past life stages, or a previous generation, impacts performance of the adult be in the next year,” said lead author Carla Stuligross to The Guardian. “Especially in agricultural areas, pesticides are often used multiple times a year and multiple years in a row. So this really shows us what that can actually mean for bee populations.”

These results line up almost identically with the findings of a study on blue orchard bees published in April 2021. At the highest exposure rate of imidacloprid produced 40% fewer offspring overall. Nesting activity was similarly reduced by 42% in the exposed group. For the lowest exposures at 50 ppb (the equivalent of adding 50 drops of pesticide in a 10,000 gallon swimming pool), the sex ratio for offspring was skewed toward male bees. This group had 50% fewer female bees than the unexposed control group.

While the dangers that imidacloprid poses to mason bees are now clear, the current study adds a critical dimension to the equation: time. A pesticide used over a year ago can harm pollinators today, from a single exposure. These results add considerable urgency to efforts to stop pollinator declines. Imidacloprid can remain in soil for nearly a year, meaning that even if these chemicals were eliminated today, it could be two or more years before ground-nesting pollinators stop declining.

It is time to scrap and rebuild our nation’s approach to pesticide safety. EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs is now a shell of its former self, hollowed out by industry flunkies who continue to exchange the future of pollination for the profits of multinational pesticide companies. Help us tell EPA that its failed pesticide program needs a new start. We must also go further. In order to achieve this goal, Congress must act to change the laws that permit this crisis to continue by passing the Saving America’s Pollinators Act. Your voice is also needed for that effort: pollinators and the natural world have no lobbyists – they cannot make campaign donations. They only defense is how much we as humans care about their continued existence, and whether we take action on their behalf as a result.

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

Source: The Guardian, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

(Beyond Pesticides, December 6, 2021) An effort is underway in New York State to restrict, and in certain cases ban, “bug bombs,” led by State Senator Zellnor Myrie (D-NYC). Total release foggers, more aptly referred to as bug bombs (because in some cases, they literally blow up), are dangerous indoor devices that release an aerosolized plume of toxic pesticides and unknown inert (or other) ingredients in an overpowered, ineffectual attempt to manage common pest problems. As Senator Myrie notes in his legislative justification for the bill, “This is an environmental justice issue disproportionately affecting lower-income individuals, as bug bombs are a relatively inexpensive pest management solution. As a result, individuals living in older, larger multi-dwellings, who also suffer from adverse health outcomes like asthma at higher rates, are disproportionately exposed to the harmful effects of bug bombs.”

Urge your Governor (Mayor for DC residents) to ban bug bombs in your state!  

Senator Myrie’s legislation, S.7516, will allow only certified pesticide applicators to purchase and use the dangerous devices, and would completely ban their use in multi-unit dwellings. “Foggers should not be used in multi-dwelling buildings, but existing New York state law does not prohibit this use,” Senator Myrie continues in his legislative justification. “Restricting the sale of pesticide foggers to consumers, restricting their use in multi-dwelling buildings, or restricting the use to licensed pesticide applicators will reduce their use by ensuring they are applied only by personnel trained to understand and follow the restrictions and warnings on the product label and will result in better targeting when they are used.”

While eliminating consumer use by restricting the devices to certified pesticide applicators would be an important step forward, there is considerable evidence to justify an all-out ban that extends beyond multi-family units. Problems with these devices stretch far back. In spite of over 450 bug bomb related illnesses between 2001-2006 in the United States, EPA rejected a petition from the NYC Department of Health (DoH) in 2009, claiming that incidents were “overwhelmingly minor in nature,” resulting from “a few basic errors” and concluded that “label improvements can mitigate these risks.” EPA subsequently introduced new labels, this time with comic-book style pictures indicating the steps required to use the products.

Almost a decade later, in 2018, CDC officials published a new report on the revised labels, determining that EPA’s actions represented a public health failure.  Between 2007 and 2015, CDC cataloged 3,222 illnesses caused by bug bomb use. This nearly 8-fold increase in reported incidents reveals that EPA’s new labels caused more problems and confusion than the previous labels already determined to be deficient. The main cause of poisoning was a failure to leave the premises. The CDC report also notes, “Some users ventilated treated premises for the recommended length of time or longer, but still became ill, suggesting that ventilation might be inadequate or the recommended period might be insufficient to fully eliminate TRF [total release fogger] residuals before occupancy.”

In addition to the inherent dangers of using these products is the fact that they do not work at all, according to a 2019 study.  “In a cost-benefit analysis, you’re getting all costs and no benefits,” said Zachary DeVries, PhD, co-author of the study. “Bug bombs are not killing cockroaches; they’re putting pesticides in places where the cockroaches aren’t; they’re not putting pesticides in places where cockroaches are and they’re increasing pesticide levels in the home.

Many common household pests, like cockroaches and bed bugs, have displayed widespread resistance to the insecticides primarily used in bug bombs—synthetic pyrethroids—the primary failure with bug bombs is that the pesticide does not get into the cracks and crevices where the insects hide. As a result, pesticide levels in one’s home can increase 600-fold – creating a long-term problem, with synthetic pyrethroids persisting on indoor surfaces for over a year.

Beyond Pesticides’ ManageSafe webpage provides nontoxic or least-toxic methods to eliminate cockroaches, bed bugs, ants, and other household pests. The success of these methods highlight the unnecessary danger of allowing use of bug bombs. New York residents are encouraged to write or call their state lawmakers in support of this legislation, and those outside of New York can contact their state elected officials and urge them to introduce a similar ban.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that EPA label restrictions on total release foggers, otherwise known as “bug bombs,” are a public health failure. Bug bombs pose a significant risk of acute illness to individuals even when they attempt to follow new label instructions. Beyond Pesticides has long called for bug bombs to be banned, as myriad nontoxic alternative strategies are available to successfully manage household pests.

Urge your Governor (Mayor for DC residents) to ban bug bombs in your state!   

Bug bombs are small cans primarily comprised of an insecticide, often a synthetic pyrethroid, a synergist such as piperonyl butoxide (PBO), and an aerosol propellant. In addition to the explosion/fire risk if the aerosol product is used in an unattended home near a pilot light or other spark-producing appliance, both synthetic pyrethroids and PBO pose acute and chronic human health risks. PBO is added to pesticide formulations to increase the toxicity of synthetic pyrethroids, and has been linked to childhood cough. Peer-reviewed research associates synthetic pyrethroids with behavioral disorders, ADHD, and delayed cognitive and motor development, and premature puberty in boys. Not only can bug bombs acutely poison, but once applied these chemicals can persist in the home for over a year, putting individuals and families at risk of chronic exposure and subsequent health issues.

CDC’s 2018 report, Acute Illnesses and Injuries Related to Total Release Foggers, updates a previous study released in 2008 with new data reveals that EPA’s attempt to reduce bug bomb illness and injury through label changes was unsuccessful. Looking at records from 2007-2015, a total of 3,222 unique cases of illness and injury were reported. The report indicates, “No statistically significant reduction in overall incidence of TRF [total release fogger]-associated injuries and illnesses was observed in the first 3 years after the label revisions took effect.” Incidents ranged from failing to leave an area after releasing the bug bomb, reentering the premises too early, use of too many products for the space provided, and even explosions related to the ignition of aerosols released from the product.

Urge your Governor (Mayor for DC residents) to ban bug bombs in your state!  

With EPA’s failure to protect people from the aptly named “bombs,” it is important for states to take action to protect citizens. Many of us have had problems with these products. Please add your own experience to the suggested letter below.

Letter to Governor (states other than NY):

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that EPA label restrictions on total release foggers, otherwise known as “bug bombs,” are a public health failure. Bug bombs pose a significant risk of acute illness to individuals even when attempting to follow new label instructions. Myriad nontoxic alternative strategies are available to successfully manage household pests. Most common pest problems can be successfully dealt with by eliminating pest entryways into the home (e.g., caulking cracks/crevices, doorsweeps, repairs, etc.), and sealing off access to food, water, and shelter (e.g., cleaning often, removing clutter, sealing food in airtight containers, placing a tight lid on trash can). Remaining pests can be dealt with through least toxic products such as boric acid bait stations and desiccating dusts. Many pests, such as bed bugs, display widespread resistance to the pyrethroid insecticides contained in most bug bombs.

CDC’s 2018 report, Acute Illnesses and Injuries Related to Total Release Foggers, updates a previous study released in 2008 with new data revealing that EPA’s attempt to reduce bug bomb illness and injury through label changes was unsuccessful. In the period 2007-2015, a total of 3,222 unique cases of illness and injury were reported. The report states, “No statistically significant reduction in overall incidence of TRF [total release fogger]-associated injuries and illnesses was observed in the first three years after the label revisions took effect.” Incidents ranged from failing to leave an area after releasing the bug bomb, reentering the premises too early, use of too many products for the space provided, and even explosions related to the ignition of aerosols released from the product.

Now New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie (D-NYC) has introduced legislation to restrict, and in certain cases ban, the use of ‘bug bombs’ in the state. Senator Myrie’s legislation, S.7516, allows only certified pesticide applicators to purchase and use the dangerous devices, and would completely ban their use in multi-unit dwellings. Total release foggers are dangerous indoor devices that release an aerosolized plume of toxic pesticides and unknown “inert” ingredients in an overpowered, ineffectual attempt to manage common pest problems. As Sen. Myrie notes in his legislative justification for the bill, “This is an environmental justice issue disproportionately affecting lower-income individuals, as bug bombs are a relatively inexpensive pest management solution. As a result, individuals living in older, larger multi-dwellings, who also suffer from adverse health outcomes like asthma at higher rates, are disproportionately exposed to the harmful effects of bug bombs.”

Please protect citizens from these dangerous “bombs.”

Thank you.

Letter to New York Governor (or Mayor of District of Columbia) and state legislators

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that EPA label restrictions on total release foggers, otherwise known as “bug bombs,” are a public health failure. Bug bombs pose a significant risk of acute illness to individuals even when attempting to follow new label instructions. Myriad nontoxic alternative strategies are available to successfully manage household pests. Most common pest problems can be successfully dealt with by eliminating pest entryways into the home (e.g., caulking cracks/crevices, doorsweeps, repairs, etc.), and sealing off access to food, water, and shelter (e.g., cleaning often, removing clutter, sealing food in airtight containers, placing a tight lid on trash can). Remaining pests can be dealt with through least toxic products such as boric acid bait stations and desiccating dusts. Many pests, such as bed bugs, display widespread resistance to the pyrethroid insecticides contained in most bug bombs.

CDC’s 2018 report, Acute Illnesses and Injuries Related to Total Release Foggers, updates a previous study released in 2008 with new data revealing that EPA’s attempt to reduce bug bomb illness and injury through label changes was unsuccessful. In the period 2007-2015, a total of 3,222 unique cases of illness and injury were reported. The report states, “No statistically significant reduction in overall incidence of TRF [total release fogger]-associated injuries and illnesses was observed in the first 3 years after the label revisions took effect.” Incidents ranged from failing to leave an area after releasing the bug bomb, reentering the premises too early, use of too many products for the space provided, and even explosions related to the ignition of aerosols released from the product.

Now New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie (D-NYC) has introduced legislation to restrict, and in certain cases ban, the use of ‘bug bombs’ in the state. Senator Myrie’s legislation, S.7516, allows only certified pesticide applicators to purchase and use the dangerous devices, and would completely ban their use in multi-unit dwellings. Total release foggers are dangerous indoor devices that release an aerosolized plume of toxic pesticides and unknown “inert” ingredients in an overpowered, ineffectual attempt to manage common pest problems. As Sen. Myrie notes in his legislative justification for the bill, “This is an environmental justice issue disproportionately affecting lower-income individuals, as bug bombs are a relatively inexpensive pest management solution. As a result, individuals living in older, larger multi-dwellings, who also suffer from adverse health outcomes like asthma at higher rates, are disproportionately exposed to the harmful effects of bug bombs.”

Please protect citizens from these dangerous “bombs” by supporting S.7516.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, December 2, 2021) A study published in Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry finds atrazine (ATR) exposure worsens lung disease outcomes in individuals with idiopathic (spontaneous) pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a group of incurable lung diseases involving damaged/scarred lung tissue. Furthermore, chemotherapeutic products used to treat lymphoma (immune system cell cancer) like bleomycin can induce pulmonary fibrosis complications exacerbated by pesticide exposure. However, pesticide-related pulmonary fibrosis can have implications for neurological health, such as motor function. Scientific literature already finds an association between pesticide exposure and respiratory illnesses such as asthma, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic bronchitis). Although IPF impacts over 5 million people a year globally, the disease is difficult to predict, which is concerning as the death rate is 50 to 56 percent within the first few years. Therefore, studies like this highlight the significance of evaluating how pesticide exposure impacts respiratory function, especially when exposure to respiratory toxicants increases vulnerability to existing respiratory-fixated illnesses like Covid-19. Advocate have urged the U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) to incorporate scientific findings that these—where chemical exposures exacerbate an existing medical condition—into its pesticide registration review program.

Researchers note, “[O]ur data represent an addition to the complex information on ATR-induced pulmonary toxicity. In particular, in this study, we aimed to demonstrate that not only is atrazine able to induce alterations to lung parenchyma, fibrosis, oxidative stress, inflammation and behavioral alterations, but it can also worsen the situation that arises following the injection of bleomycin. This could also represent the first step in recognizing that this substance as a problematic air pollutant and not only a water and/or soil pollutant.”

Researchers exposed select cohorts of mice to atrazine, bleomycin (from an administered intratracheal injection), or both. Since the European Union classifies atrazine as an endocrine-disrupting chemical, the study evaluated tissue damage, cell inflammation, oxidative stress, and behavioral alterations following exposure. Next, the researchers examined blood and lung samples and compared behavioral data to sample results. The results demonstrate that damage, fibrosis (tissue scarring), and oxidative stress within the lungs increases after chemical exposure. These adverse effects worsen among cohorts exposed to atrazine and bleomycin, with mice experiencing concurrent brain impairment (i.e., motor function).

The connection between pesticides and associated respiratory risks is nothing new as various studies link pesticide use and residue to various respiratory pathologies. Previous reports demonstrate 78 agricultural pesticides have direct links to wheezing – potentially the first step towards chronic disease. A 2017 study finds lifetime pesticide exposure has associations with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a degenerative lung disease. Furthermore, pesticide use increases a person’s risk of lung cancer, and a comprehensive literature review found strong correlations between pesticide exposure and various respiratory diseases. The respiratory system is essential to human survival, regulating gas exchange (oxygen-carbon dioxide) in the body to balance acid and base tissue cells for normal function. However, damage to the respiratory system can cause a plethora of issues—from asthma and bronchitis to oxidative stress that triggers the development of extra-respiratory manifestations or comorbidities (co-occurring illnesses) like rheumatoid arthritis and cardiovascular disease. Therefore, the rise in respiratory illnesses over the last three decades is highly concerning, especially as research fails to identify an exact cause for the increase in respiratory disease cases. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, a disease that does significant damage to the body’s pulmonary system, it is essential to alleviate respiratory stress from egregious environmental pollutants.

Endocrine disruption is an ever-present, growing issue that plagues the global population. Research demonstrates that endocrine disruption is prevalent among many pesticide products like herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and even pesticide manufacturing by-products like dioxin (TCDD). Hence, it is concerning that scientific literature demonstrates exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals also affects the brain, nervous system, and accompanying components, similar to this study. A 2021 study finds that all classifiable endocrine-disrupting chemicals, including common use pesticides like atrazine and Roundup/glyphosate, negatively affect the nervous system, causing neurological disruption via the thyroid (20 percent) or other general mechanisms (80 percent). These chemical ingredients can enter the body, disrupting hormones and causing adverse developmental, disease, and reproductive problems. In addition to this research, several studies demonstrate autism, mood disorders (e.g., depression), and degenerative neurological conditions (e.g., ALS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s) among aquatic and terrestrial animals, including humans, exposed to pesticides. Although the biological function and cause/effect of neurotoxicity related to endocrine and nervous disruptors is unclear, scientists note synchronized communication within and between cells. Many of these endocrine compounds are petroleum derivatives that have a mechanism of action involving “spamming” communication signals.

The nervous system is an integral part of the human body and includes the brain, spinal cord, a vast network of nerves and neurons, all of which are responsible for many of our bodily functions—from what we sense to how we move. Thus, the impacts of pesticides on the nervous system, including the brain, are hazardous, especially for chronically exposed individuals (e.g., farm workers) or during critical windows of vulnerability and development (e.g., childhood, pregnancy). Mounting evidence over the past years shows that chronic exposure to sublethal (low) levels of pesticides adversely affects the central nervous system (CNS). Specifically, researchers identify agricultural chemical exposure as a cause of many adverse CNS impacts. In addition to CNS effects, pesticide exposure can impact a plethora of neurological diseases. These diseases include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson’s disease, dementia-like diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and other effects on cognitive function. Therefore, advocates say it is essential to avoid toxic chemical exposure to lessen potential acute and chronic health risks.

EPA registers atrazine as a restricted-use pesticide, and only certified pesticide applicators can use the chemical due to the effects on health and ecology. However, contact with pesticides can happen at any point in the production, transportation, preparation, or application processes. According to this study, the general population mainly encounters atrazine through drinking water. These findings are consistent with preceding reports of atrazine contamination being commonplace in waterways (i.e., rivers, streams, surface/groundwater). However, licensed pesticide applicators may also encounter atrazine via inhalation during crop treatments. Furthermore, atrazine can evaporate into the atmosphere by up to 14 percent of the applied volume during treatments. Atrazine is a notoriously toxic herbicide known to cause an amalgamation of different health issues, including skin and respiratory diseases, cancer, and kidney/liver damage. An Agricultural Health Research (AHS) analysis on respiratory illnesses finds a correlation between wheezing and atrazine exposure. 

The etiology or cause of pulmonary fibrosis can be from genetics, immune disorders, or exposure to environmental toxicants. Although the cause may differ, the overproduction and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) inducing oxidative stress remains a common underlying disease mechanism. This study suggests atrazine induces toxicity by producing ROS, leading to an antioxidant system imbalance involving nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) expression. NRf2 is essential in protecting against lung inflammation and damage from oxidation. According to the University of Tokyo, Nrf2 is an emerging treatment for chronic diseases in which oxidative stress and inflammation are the manners of disease development. Furthermore, studies find Nrf2 can alleviate pulmonary fibrosis risk induced by bleomycin treatments for lymphocytic cancers.

This study adds to the many that highlight comorbidities involved with endocrine-disrupting chemicals that occur outside the endocrine system. Past research shows exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals can adversely impact human, animal—and thus environmental—health by altering the natural hormones in the body responsible for conventional fertile, physical, and mental development. Hence, advocates maintain that policies should enforce stricter pesticide regulations and increase research on the long-term impacts of pesticide exposure.

Furthermore, the connection between common and chronic respiratory diseases and exposure to pesticides continues to strengthen, despite efforts to restrict individual chemical exposure or mitigate chemical risks using risk assessment-based policy. Although the etiology of respiratory diseases encompasses several circumstances, including smoking patterns, poverty, occupation, and diet, studies show that relative exposure to chemicals like pesticides can occur within each circumstance, making chemical exposure ubiquitous. Additionally, pesticide drift is an omnipresent issue affecting communities surrounding farming operations, and dust may harm humans, plants, and aquatic systems.

It is vital to understand how exposure to pesticides can increase the risk of developing acute and chronic respiratory problems. Beyond Pesticides tracks the most recent studies related to pesticide exposure through our Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database (PIDD). This database supports the clear need for strategic action to shift away from pesticide dependency. For more information on the harms of pesticide exposure, see PIDD pages on asthma/respiratory effects, cancer, endocrine disruption, and other diseases. Additionally, buying, growing, and supporting organic can help eliminate the extensive use of pesticides in the environment. Organic agriculture has many health and environmental benefits, which curtail the need for chemical-intensive agricultural practices. Regenerative organic agriculture revitalizes soil health through organic carbon sequestration while reducing pests and generating a higher return than chemical-intensive agriculture. For more information on how organic is the right choice for consumers and the farmworkers who grow our food, see Beyond Pesticides webpage, Health Benefits of Organic Agriculture.

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

Source: Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry

(Beyond Pesticides, December 2, 2021) Thousands of residents in Houston, Texas are suing Union Pacific Railroad Company for contaminating their properties with highly hazardous creosote wood preservatives. One of these lawsuits comes from Latonya Payne, legal guardian of Corinthian Giles, a 13-year-old boy who died of leukemia after a five year battle with the disease. A recent report found that the community is in the midst of a childhood leukemia cancer cluster, with disease rates five times the national average. Late last month, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan toured the area as part of his Journey to Justice tour. However, while Administrator Regan vows federal assistance with the cleanup of these long-lived chemicals, EPA is currently in the process of reauthorizing creosote use for another 15 years with the knowledge that it is virtually impossible to produce and use without causing contamination and poisoning. Some environmental advocates are suggesting that Administrator Regan take a tour of EPA’s pesticide registration program and stop the unnecessary poisoning that disproportionately affects people of color and those with vulnerabilities or preexisting medical conditions that increase their vulnerability to toxic chemical exposure. While advocates say that cleaning up EPA’s mess in communities is critical, they insist that it is just as important to prevent future harm by keeping hazardous chemicals out of the market.

Creosote was used to treat and extend the life of railroad ties at a location in Houston’s Greater Fifth Ward up until 1984, but since that time a plume of contamination in the soil has slowly worked its way through the low-income, predominantly black community currently living near the old site. Creosote is a is a complex mixture of approximately 150 to 200 chemicals derived from coal. Chemical analysis of creosotes show that it is composed of approximately 85 percent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), 10 percent phenolic compounds, and five percent nitrogen-, sulfur-, or oxygen- containing heterocyclic compounds. PAHs are hazardous environmental pollutants and are well known carcinogens and mutagens with endocrine disrupting properties that pose a serious threat to human health. The International Agency for Research on Cancer lists creosotes as probable carcinogens (group 2A) with sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity based on animal studies. Creosote is still registered for use on railroad ties and utility poles.

Residents of the Fifth Ward say they have been dealing with the health effects of creosote pollution for decades. Long-time resident Dianna Cormier Jackson told Click2Houston that she could smell the creosote when living in the area as a child. “My mom, my uncle, two of my brothers, one of them worked for Southern Pacific, but they just brushed it off, my ex-husband died, my mother in law, a whole bunch of my neighbors,” Ms. Jackson told the news station. Houston resident Sandra Edwards told CBS News that over a dozen people living on her street have died of cancer. “We’ve been fighting this threat four, five years and nobody has come over,” she said. “Everybody want to come see what’s going on, but nothing has been done.” 

Pressure increased on Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and the city eventually requested that the state conduct a cancer cluster study in the region. The findings reveal incidence of acute lymphoblastic leukemia nearly five times higher than what would be expected. These results add considerable weight to ongoing lawsuits, including Latonya Payne’s fight for justice for her nephew Corinthian Giles. Ms. Payne’s wrongful death suit names Union Pacific, alleging that the company consciously released hazardous creosote into the area and then attempted to conceal the danger the contamination posed. The lawsuit was also filed against the City of Houston, claiming that the city failed to alert the community to the hazards of creosote, or take any action to reduce or mitigate the contamination. “He just wanted to make sure that the doctors did everything they could to try to save his life. Until the very last breath, he fought and he fought,” Ms. Payne told CBS News. “Everyday it’s hard, honestly, we are all struggling with having to live without him.” 

“Children are dying from contamination that has been spreading for decades. Enough is enough. Union Pacific and the City of Houston need to accept responsibility and take action to remedy this tragedy immediately,” said attorney Jason Gibson of The Gibson Law Firm to Bellenews.

Administrator Regan visited Fifth Ward neighborhoods and acknowledged the lack of action from state and federal officials. “We have a sense of urgency in cleaning up this mess,” Mr. Regan told CBS News. “I don’t believe we’ve been aggressive enough in terms of state and federal reaction.” At a roundtable meeting, KHOU11 indicates he told residents, “The goal is definitely not a photo-op for EPA, but it is an opportunity to elevate environmental justice on the national stage.”

While it is important for this environmental crisis to receive additional attention from state and federal officials, and begin the long clean up process, it is equally important for regulators to stop this issue from happening to other Americans in the future. Last year, a proposal to produce another highly hazardous wood preservative, pentachlorophenol at a site in South Carolina was met with overwhelming public opposition. Gulbrandsen Chemicals, a multinational company with ties to India, attempted to site the penta plant in the majority low-income African American community Orangeburg, South Carolina, raising serious concerns over environmental racism. However, a series of high-profile investigative reports, community advocacy, and political action ultimately resulted in the company abandoning its plans. This victory all but eliminated the global market for penta, leading EPA to issue a notice of intent to cancel uses of pentachlorophenol wood preservatives earlier this year.

But EPA and Administrator Regan still stand behind carcinogenic creosotes. In its proposed interim decision for creosote, EPA wrote, “Creosote-treated wood offers unique benefits in the preservation of railroad crossties, wooden utility poles, and round timber foundation piles for land, freshwater, and marine use.” In light of these “unique benefits,” the agency did not even consider the viability of alternatives, such as steel, composites, and fiberglass that could replace the hazardous wood preservative process with non or less toxic materials.

It is evident from both history and the present day that chemical corporations target low income, BIPOC neighborhoods to site hazardous industrial processes, creating fence line communities with higher rates of disease incidence and other health problems. Administrator Regan now has the opportunity to not only clean up contamination caused by past injustices, but also stop future injustice directed toward black and brown communities by suspending the registration of hazardous wood preservatives like creosote. America’s ongoing post-cautionary approach to environmental management, where we address issues only after environmental pollution and contamination has already occurred, is unsustainable and anathema to public health and environmental stability. Administrator Regan has the power to move our regulatory systems toward precaution, preventing the need for long-term pain and suffering by taking action to stop the release of harmful pesticides and other chemicals before they wreak havoc on individual lives.

Join us today in calling on Administrator Regan, EPA, and Congress to chart a new path for pesticide regulation that holds pesticide companies accountable, and stops unnecessary poisoning. For more information on the dangers of creosote and other wood preservatives, see Beyond Pesticides  wood preservative program page, as well as comments submitted by Beyond Pesticides to EPA earlier this year.

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

Source: CBS News, KHOU 11, Click2Houston, BelleNews

(Beyond Pesticides, December 1, 2021) Women exposed to metabolites of the banned insecticide chlordane are over three times more likely to develop endometriosis, finds research published in the journal Environment International. The study is the latest to find links between persistent organic pollutants (POPs), still lingering in our environment and in our bodies, and chronic disease. According to an economic analysis conducted in 2016, exposure to endocrine (hormone) disrupting chemicals, often implicated in considerable damage to the body’s reproductive system, results in billions of dollars of health care costs from female reproductive disorders.

Researchers set out to integrate two methodologies into their evaluation, combining analysis of POP biomarkers in blood with an analysis of biomarkers in that body that correspond with cell functioning, inflammation, and stress. A total of 87 women were enrolled in the study, half of whom had deep endometriosis, a quarter of whom also had the disease and sought surgical intervention, and a remaining quarter without reproductive concerns acted as a control. Twenty polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and 30 organochlorine pesticide compounds were analyzed, as were various biomarkers and inflammatory cytokines.

The analysis revealed two compounds to be positively associated with endometriosis – trans-nonachlor, a breakdown product of the banned organochlorine insecticide chlordane, and PCB 114 (there are 209 different PCB compounds), with odds ratios of 3.38 and 1.83, respectively. Compared to the control group, those with endometriosis also had higher total levels of PCB in their blood. Scientists also identified cytokine biomarkers, determining that women with higher levels of these compounds in their bodies were more likely to have endometriosis with endometrioma. According to the study, “Results suggest the role of certain POPs in promoting pro-inflammatory metabolic conditions which may be involved in the development of severe endometriosis.”

Although the authors note the need for additional, larger studies, there is already a considerable body of literature linking POPs and other legacy chemicals to chronic female reproductive diseases. Research published in 2012 found links between high blood levels of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), a breakdown product of the insecticide lindane and endometriosis. A 2013 study looking at technical grade organochlorine insecticides lindane and mirex found similar results. In that study, women with the highest levels of mirex in their bodies had a 50% greater risk than women with the lowest levels. For lindane, the risk was higher, at 70%. While both chemicals have long been banned on food crops, lindane is still permitted for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to kill head lice.

While the long-term dangers of organochlorine insecticides are now well known, organophosphates insecticides developed to replace these hazardous chemicals pose similar health risks. A 2019 study found that both the metabolite of the organophosphate diazinon and a breakdown product of the organophosphate chlorpyrifos were both associated with increased risk of endometriosis. While risks from breakdown products are likely to be similar to effects seen with the parent compound, there is growing evidence that these metabolites are even more toxic than the original compound. Relevant to the current analysis, a 2021 study found that many of these breakdown products may exhibit MORE powerful endocrine-disrupting impacts than its parent chemical.

The decision to approve a pesticide has effects that ripple across the future. In the U.S. these decisions, made under a cloak of secrecy that skirts public oversight, are often unofficially approved before even reviewing the science, with agencies receiving “yes packages” from powerful individuals connected to the pesticide industry. But the impacts of these decisions have real impacts on the health of individuals, and the subsequently trajectory their lives take. These health impacts also weigh down economic potential, costing billions of dollars in health care.

When viable alternatives to the use of hazardous pesticides are available, we must deny pesticide registrations in favor of safer practices, and less toxic compounds. Join today with Beyond Pesticides and 37 other health, farming, beekeeper, and environmental groups urging major reforms at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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

Source: Contemporary OB/GYN, Environment International

(Beyond Pesticides, November 30, 2021) The chronicle of developments in the glyphosate saga has just grown longer: the California Supreme Court has rejected a request by Bayer AG for review of the August 2021 First District Court of Appeal (San Francisco) ruling, for the plaintiffs, that Monsanto knowingly marketed a product — Roundup — whose active ingredient (glyphosate) could be dangerous. The $87 million in damages awarded to the plaintiffs in the litigation, Alberta and Alva Pilliod, has thus survived Bayer’s challenge. This highest state court decision racks up another loss for Bayer (which now owns the Monsanto “Roundup” brand) — despite its dogged insistence, throughout multiple lawsuits (with many more still in the pipeline), that glyphosate is safe. Beyond Pesticides has covered the glyphosate saga extensively; see its litigation archives for multiple articles on glyphosate lawsuits.

Glyphosate has been the subject of a great deal of public, advocacy, and regulatory attention, as well as the target of thousands of lawsuits — particularly since the 2015 declaration by the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) that the compound is a likely human carcinogen. In June 2020, facing approximately 125,000 suits for Roundup’s role in cancer outcomes, Bayer announced a $10 billion settlement to resolve roughly 75% of current and potential future litigation; claimants who signed on to the settlement were to receive compensation and were not to pursue any additional legal action.

That said, roughly 30,000 complainants ultimately did not sign on to the settlement, so the queue of potential lawsuits is still potentially enormous. Seeing the writing on the wall, Bayer tried for a second settlement (of roughly $2 billion) to handle any future claims, but in 2021, a U.S. District Court judge (for the Northern District of California) rejected Bayer’s settlement proposal, saying that it was inadequate for future victims diagnosed with cancer after using the herbicide.

Still, Bayer has never acknowledged any harm caused by glyphosate. Indeed, the company responded to the California Supreme Court’s decision with this: “We continue to stand strongly behind the safety of Roundup, a position supported by assessments of expert regulators worldwide as well as the overwhelming weight of four decades of extensive science.” Fast forward to late July 2021, when Bayer announced its plan to end sales of its glyphosate-based herbicides (including its flagship product, Roundup) in the domestic U.S. residential lawn and garden market in 2023.

At the same time, it also announced its allocation of $4.5 billion to meet potential long-term “exposure” (i.e., financial liability resulting from lawsuits) through litigation brought by people who would suffer harms in the future. Bayer noted that, in lieu of glyphosate for its residential lawn and garden market products, it plans to change to herbicide formulations that “rely on alternative active ingredients” in order to “manage litigation risk and not because of any safety concerns.”

Lest the announcement generate too much excitement (welcome as the move is), Beyond Pesticides noted that: (1) this still leaves Roundup on the market for agricultural food production — where glyphosate gets the heaviest use — and particularly, for use with genetically engineered crops; and (2) what will replace glyphosate in the company’s herbicide formulations is not yet clear, but the residential herbicide market will likely shift to other toxic weed killers to replace glyphosate uses. There is an opportunity, and compelling reason, for members of the public to change their lawn and garden purchasing practices, and for and communities to transition to organic land management practices, which are not dependent on the application of toxic compounds. (See Beyond Pesticides’ Health Effects of 30 Most Commonly Used Pesticides.)

The Pilliods brought suit against the company in 2019 after both developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), claiming that their exposures to the Roundup herbicide over decades of use on their properties were responsible. Theirs was the third prominent Roundup “cancer” case to go to trial and result in big wins for plaintiffs. The award in the Pilliod’s case was originally $2.055 billion; the judge later reduced the verdict to $86.7 million on the basis that “the ratios of punitive to compensatory damages as awarded by the jury (27 to 1 for Alberta and 54 to 1 for Alva) were unconstitutionally large.” The judge in the case wrote that Monsanto had demonstrated a “willful and conscious disregard of the rights or safety of others.”

The law firm that represented the Pilliods (Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman) noted, in a press release on the California Supreme Court’s ruling rejecting Bayer’s request for review, that the couple had their case expedited to trial due to their advanced ages and cancer diagnoses. Brent Wisner, co-lead attorney in the case, commented: “This is not even remotely surprising. It’s not clear how many times Monsanto needs to lose before it stops making frivolous appeals. The Pilliod verdict was based on solid science and unanimous law. They need to stop using the appeals process to deny paying this family its judgment.”

Mr. Wisner has served on the trial teams for all three of the initial, high-profile Monsanto trials:
• that of Dewayne Johnson, who developed NHL through his groundskeeping work and was awarded a staggering $289 million by the jury in his 2018 lawsuit ($39 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages, later reduced by the judge to $39 million for each, for a total of $78 million)

• that of Edwin Hardeman, who also developed NHL following decades of Roundup use on his 56-acre property, and in 2019 was awarded $80 ($5 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages)
• that of Alberta and Alva Pilliod

With that deep experience with litigation on glyphosate and with Bayer/Monsanto, Mr. Wisner has said: “Monsanto’s history is one full of vast lies. They mislead people, promise that their products are safe and make a lot of money by doing so. And when things get uncomfortable, they simply move on to another product. This strategy has proven successful for over 100 years.”

A fellow attorney at the firm, Pedram Esfandiary, said in an interview with Beyond Pesticides’ Daily News that Bayer’s expected withdrawal of glyphosate from the residential uses market is a step in the right direction, but added that the company should also discontinue its use in agriculture, where glyphosate use is a huge issue (as Beyond Pesticides has covered). Mr. Esfandiary said that staff at the firm had spoken with many agriculture workers, as well as with representatives from the United Farm Workers, about glyphosate’s impacts on both farmworker health and the environment in central California. He noted that part of the problem in securing justice for agricultural workers is that some of those most directly and severely impacted are undocumented and, therefore, quite reluctant to come forward.

“We are glad for the settlement in this case,” Mr. Esfandiary said, “but Bayer’s takeaway from this should be a moral reckoning for the damage its products are causing.” He said that, rather than focus solely on shareholder satisfaction, the company should have more regard for its impacts on global health and the environment. That, Beyond Pesticides concurs, would be a lasting win.

Sources: https://apnews.com/article/business-lifestyle-environment-and-nature-california-san-francisco-b0ef61238f5e83778fb12e748bc97593 and author communication with Attorney Pedram Esfandiary

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

(Beyond Pesticides, November 29, 2021) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is reviving its proposal to aerially apply (by helicopter) the toxic rodenticide brodifacoum to kill house mice on the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge off the Northern California coast. Globally significant wildlife populations inhabit the Farallones, including hundreds of thousands of seabirds and thousands of seals and sea lions. According to FWS, these include: thirteen species seabird species that nest on the islands including Leach’s Storm-petrel, Ashy Storm-petrel, Fork-tailed Storm-petrel, Double-crested Cormorant, Brandt’s Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Black Oystercatcher, Western Gull, Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Cassin’s Auklet, Rhinocerous Auklet, and Tufted Puffin; pinnipeds including Northern fur seals, Steller sea lions, California sea lions, harbor seals, and northern elephant seals that breed or haul-out onto Farallon Refuge; and endemic species including white sharks, hoary bats, and arboreal salamanders.

Tell the California Coastal Commission to deny the proposed aerial dispersal of the highly toxic rodenticide brodifacoum on the Farallon Islands.

Brodifacoum is a “second generation anticoagulant rodenticide” (SGAR) that is highly toxic to birds, mammals, and fish. It also poses a secondary poisoning risk to predators. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation quotes the FWS: “Secondary exposure to SGARs is particularly problematic due to the high toxicity of the compounds and their long persistence in body tissues. For example, brodifacoum, a common SGAR, is persistent in tissue, bioaccumulates, and appears to impair reproduction… Even in cases where the proximate cause of death has been identified as automobile strike, predation, or disease, toxicologists and pathologists have attained sufficient toxicological evidence to conclude that rodenticide-induced blood loss increased animal vulnerability to the proximate cause of death.” The threat of secondary poisoning has led the state of California to ban the use of brodifacoum for almost all uses. Although this particular use is an exception, the risks of the use are extremely high.

Aerial application of brodifacoum places at risk the mammalian and avian wildlife on the Farallon Islands, as well as marine life that may be exposed when the poison washes or settles into the ocean. There is no way to limit the impact to the targeted house mouse. A 2015 study conducted after aerial drop of rodenticides on Palmyra Island off the coast of Hawaii reported: “We documented brodifacoum [rodenticide] residues in soil, water, and biota, and documented mortality of nontarget organisms. Some bait (14–19% of the target application rate) entered the marine environment to distances 7 m from the shore. After the application commenced, carcasses of 84 animals representing 15 species of birds, fish, reptiles and invertebrates were collected opportunistically as potential nontarget mortalities. In addition, fish, reptiles, and invertebrates were systematically collected for residue analysis. Brodifacoum residues were detected in most (84.3%) of the animal samples analyzed. Although detection of residues in samples was anticipated, the extent and concentrations in many parts of the food web were greater than expected.”

Home to rare, endemic seabirds such as the ashy storm-petrel, the Farallon Islands certainly have a serious mouse problem – 59,000 rodents occupy the rocky islands. Mice compete with native species for resources and attract an average of six burrowing owls a year. Owls prey upon ashy storm-petrels when mouse populations drop during the winter, killing hundreds of petrels annually. The global population of the ashy storm-petrel is small (10,000 – 20,000), but it is not considered an endangered species.

As important as native ecosystems are, the application of a poison is a toxic, simplified solution to a complex problem that requires the wisdom of nature herself, as species evolve and adapt to new conditions. The SEIS should investigate the possibility of controlling the mice through controlled intensified predation by providing nesting boxes for barn owls and/or kestrels.

Tell the California Coastal Commission to deny the proposed aerial dispersal of the highly toxic rodenticide brodifacoum on the Farallon Islands.

Letter to California Coastal Commission:

I request that you deny the proposal to aerially apply (by helicopter) the toxic rodenticide brodifacoum to kill house mice on the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge. Globally significant wildlife populations inhabit the Farallones, including hundreds of thousands of seabirds and thousands of seals and sea lions. These include: thirteen species seabird species that nest on the islands; pinnipeds including Northern fur seals, Steller sea lions, California sea lions, harbor seals, and northern elephant seals; and endemic species including white sharks, hoary bats, and arboreal salamanders.

Brodifacoum is a “second generation anticoagulant rodenticide” (SGAR) that is highly toxic to birds, mammals, and fish. It also poses a secondary poisoning risk to predators. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation quotes the FWS: “Secondary exposure to SGARs is particularly problematic due to the high toxicity of the compounds and their long persistence in body tissues. For example, brodifacoum, a common SGAR, is persistent in tissue, bioaccumulates, and appears to impair reproduction… Even in cases where the proximate cause of death has been identified as automobile strike, predation, or disease, toxicologists and pathologists have attained sufficient toxicological evidence to conclude that rodenticide-induced blood loss increased animal vulnerability to the proximate cause of death.” The threat of secondary poisoning has led the state of California to ban the use of brodifacoum for almost all uses. Although this particular use is an exception, the risks of the use are extremely high.

Aerial application of brodifacoum places at risk the mammalian and avian wildlife on the Farallon Islands, as well as marine life that may be exposed when the poison washes or settles into the ocean. There is no way to limit the impact to the targeted house mouse. A 2015 study conducted after aerial drop of rodenticides on Palmyra Island off the coast of Hawaii reported: “We documented brodifacoum [rodenticide] residues in soil, water, and biota, and documented mortality of nontarget organisms. Some bait (14–19% of the target application rate) entered the marine environment to distances 7 m from the shore. After the application commenced, carcasses of 84 animals representing 15 species of birds, fish, reptiles and invertebrates were collected opportunistically as potential nontarget mortalities. In addition, fish, reptiles, and invertebrates were systematically collected for residue analysis. Brodifacoum residues were detected in most (84.3%) of the animal samples analyzed. Although detection of residues in samples was anticipated, the extent and concentrations in many parts of the food web were greater than expected.”

Home to rare, endemic seabirds such as the ashy storm-petrel, the Farallon Islands certainly have a serious mouse problem – 59,000 rodents occupy the rocky islands. Mice compete with native species for resources and attract an average of six burrowing owls a year. Owls prey upon ashy storm-petrels when mouse populations drop during the winter, killing hundreds of petrels annually. The global population of the ashy storm-petrel is small (10,000 – 20,000), but it is not considered an endangered species.

As important as native ecosystems are, the application of a poison is a toxic, simplified solution to a complex problem that requires the wisdom of nature herself, as species evolve and adapt to new conditions.

Please deny a finding of consistency of the proposed aerial dispersal of the highly toxic rodenticide brodifacoum on the Farallon Islands and require that a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) be conducted by an independent body examining alternatives, including the no action alternative and nontoxic integrated control methods. The SEIS should investigate the possibility of controlling the mice through controlled intensified predation by providing nesting boxes for barn owls and/or kestrels.

Thank you for considering this request.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 24, 2021) On Thanksgiving, thank you for being a part of Beyond Pesticides and sharing and contributing to the vision necessary to protect the web and fragility of life. We believe that there is no time like Thanksgiving to think about how we can more effectively join together as families and communities across divisions and different points of view to find a common purpose in protecting the health of the environment and all that inhabit it. Unfortunately, there are a host of pesticides, genetically engineered materials, and others in conventional Thanksgiving foods that not only impact human health, but threaten the environment. With far too many adverse health and ecological effects associated with toxic chemicals, organic practices are viable solutions to mitigate pesticide contamination and subsequent exposure. Read on as we consider the range of challenges we must confront, and the solutions that can bring us all together.

The Climate

As climate impacts grow, an increase in uses of synthetic pesticides in agriculture is likely — because of waning efficacy (pesticide resistance) of these compounds, and mounting pest pressure (i.e., increasing insect population and metabolism). Production of pesticides contributes to greenhouse gas emissions gas (e.g., nitrous oxide). In addition to synthetic fertilizers often used alongside pesticides in conventional agriculture, these products contribute to the heating of the atmosphere. Compared to the general population, farmworkers experience greater health risks from climate-related impacts like extreme heat and poor air. Farmworkers, and their families who live near production fields, already experience greater health problems from pesticide use than the average state resident. 

The world faces an existential climate emergency. It also is contending with crises related to: biodiversity and pollinator decline; chemical pesticides that cause disease; pollution of water bodies, waterways, and drinking water sources by tens of thousands of chemicals deployed into the environment; increasing resistance to medically critical antibiotics caused to great extent by their use in livestock industries; food systems rife with pesticide residues and compromised nutritional value because of soil maltreatment with synthetic pesticides and fertilizers; and harm to critical ecosystems that provide environmental services that support all life. As global warming associated with the climate crisis continues to melt glaciers, banned and current-use pesticides pose a risk to human and animal health upon release into the atmosphere and waterways. Lack of adequate persistent pesticide regulations highlights the need for better policies surrounding pesticide use. By contrast, organic agricultural strategies have been shown to increase significantly the carbon drawdown and holding capacity of soils in field trials. Read more from Beyond Pesticides about the relationship between agriculture and the climate crisis

Health

Going organic drastically reduces the amount of pesticide in a person’s body. Although Thanksgiving is generally no time to think about dieting, we’ll aim to make it instructive: recent research finds that one of the biggest health benefits of the Mediterranean Diet comes when you go organic. Compared to individuals on a Mediterranean diet filled with chemically farmed foods, those that ate organic had 91% lower pesticide residue. This finding is backed up by a considerable body of prior research.

A 2015 study based on self-reported food intake found that those who eat organic generally have much lower levels of organophosphate insecticide metabolites in their urine. Additional research published in 2015 conducted an intervention study with children, finding that switching children to an organic diet decreased organophosphate metabolites in urine by 50% and 2,4-D by 25%. Research published in 2019 found that switching to organic reduced urine levels of certain organophosphates by up to 95%, and dropped neonicotinoid insecticide levels by 83%. A 2020 study found that switching to organic reduced glyphosate levels in the body by 70% over just a one week period.

Pesticide levels in our body have important implications for children’s health. A 2013 study found that children with higher levels of pyrethroid insecticides in their urine were more likely to score high on reports of behavioral problems like inattention and hyperactivity. Many pesticides are also considered obesogens, which may modify an individual’s response to diet and fasting, and promote weight gain across generations.

On the other hand, recent data indicate that children who eat higher amounts of organic food score higher on cognitive tests measuring fluid intelligence and working memory.

Disproportionate Risk

The agricultural industry has a long-standing history of synthetic chemical use, which disproportionally affects farmworkers’ health. Farmworkers are at the greatest risk of pesticide-induced diseases, and their average life expectancy bears this out. According to the National Farm Worker Ministry, farmworkers have an average life span of 49 years, a 29 year difference from the general U.S. population. Individuals working with and around these toxic chemicals are more susceptible to the augmented effects associated with adverse health effects. Furthermore, farmworkers’ children are at greater risk as their immune system response is immature and especially vulnerable to stressors from pesticide exposure. Synthetic chemicals present in pesticides can accumulate in bodies, causing an amalgamation of health effects. These effects can range from heightened risks of various cancers (i.e., prostate, hepatic, liver, etc.) and endocrine disruption to mental health problems (i.e., depression), respiratory illnesses (asthma), and many other pesticide-induced diseases. However, pesticide exposure is ubiquitous and not only confined to a field. Although pesticide exposure through the skin or inhalation is most prevalent among individuals working around these toxic chemicals, the general population also experiences pesticide exposure through residues in food and water resources. To learn more about farmworker protection, please visit Beyond Pesticide’s Agricultural Justice page.

People of color and low-income populations are at higher exposure risk of environmental contaminants (i.e., pesticides) exposure that can catalyze adverse health effects, especially in urban areas. Many people of color communities or members of low-socioeconomic backgrounds experience unequal amounts of chemical exposure from various sources. Placement of toxic waste plants, garbage dumps, industrial factories, farms, and other hazardous pollution sources lowers the quality of life for minority populations. Such high levels of chemical exposure can cause these communities to suffer from health outcomes that affect their ability at work and in schools. Women of color are especially vulnerable to chemical exposure as a 2020 study comparing women of different ethnicities in the U.S. finds these women have higher levels of pesticides and their metabolites, including toxic DDE and 2,4-D. The presence of pesticides in the body has implications for women’s health. Studies suggest women are more susceptible than men to certain types of cancers (i.e., breast cancer) as several pesticides produce endocrine-disrupting effects. Endocrine disruption promotes the development of hormone-related cancers that affect women more than men. The connection between cancer and pesticides is of specific concern to communities of color, as etiological studies often attribute cancer to genetics or environmental contamination without considering the disproportionate risk of exposure to contaminants.

Current pesticide laws lack adequate policies that protect workers and minority communities from pesticide exposure. Risk assessments that calculate “acceptable” risks across population groups fail to disclose the disproportionate effects pesticide use has on people of color communities. Although EPA’s Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) establishes safety standards that use a “health-based” standard for pesticide regulation, there is an inherent assumption that if a pesticide meets a highly questionable “acceptable” risk threshold, it has value or benefit. However, this flawed assumption allows the use of unnecessary toxic pesticide products without regard for either the health effects of chemical interactions or the availability of safer, non-toxic practices and products. These standards ignore the disproportionate risk, for example, to African American children whose asthmatic conditions are caused or triggered by the exact pesticide products that meet health-based standards. Furthermore, federal pesticide laws that aim to categorize disproportionate harm allows elevated risk to workers, particularly farmer and landscapers who are predominantly people of color, who experience aggregate effects of pesticide exposure from multiple sources.

Pollinators

Pollinator population declines show no sign of stopping, and in many ways the crisis is entering a new phase. After over a decade of consistent losses in managed pollinators (2021 being the second to worst year ever), driven by acute and chronic exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides, many beekeepers are being forced out of their profession. And with wild pollinators, researchers are now seeing the devastation caused by leaving pollinator-toxic pesticides on the market despite overwhelming evidence of their hazards. The Rusty-patched bumblebee was officially listed as endangered, as were monarch butterflies, and the American bumblebee is now under listing consideration.

One in three bites of food rely on the tireless pollinating efforts of these small and mighty insects. Combine that with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) assessments that pollination contributes between $20 and $30 billion in economic value to agriculture each year and you have not only a necessary link of the food production chain, but an incredibly economically valuable one as well.

Imagine if you will your Thanksgiving dinner without the help of this small but invaluable worker. That tangy and sweet cranberry sauce? Gone. Those crispy morsels of onion on top of the green bean casserole? History. Those honey-sweetened carrots? Extinct. And last but not least, the pumpkin pie and cup of coffee you somehow make room for in your stomach? A figment of your imagination. As strange as a Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie or any of these staples might seem, it is an all-too-real scenario we might face if pollinators are not protected. To stop this crisis, we must stop the use of toxic pesticides that harm these important species. Supporting organic agriculture, which never allows the use of neonicotinoids or other toxic synthetic insecticides, helps grow the market for pollinator-protective practices.

Ecosystems and Biodiversity

Since the 1940s, the ecological theory maintains that greater diversity promotes the stability of an ecosystem. An increase in toxic chemical use threatens human, animal, and environmental health, as well as food security. Ecological research already finds a positive association between plant diversity and biomass productivity in grasslands and meadows. In addition, a University of California, Santa Barbara study demonstrates that crop diversity in commercial agriculture is just as essential to supporting a stable biological system as plant diversity on non-commercial landscapes (i.e., grasslands/meadows). However, U.S. commercial agriculture has become more chemical-intensive in its management and less diverse. Commercial, chemical-intensive agriculture has implications on a much grander scale, as farmers more frequently apply pesticide treatments to larger, monoculture crop areas. A growing body of scientific research supports the finding that larger, monoculture croplands contain higher pest concentrations. These regions can foster specific pests that persist as they have ample quantity of the same food source, thus resulting in greater insecticide use. Perversely, monoculture crops induce biodiversity and pollinator loss as exposure causes harm to pollinators and other animals. Pesticides can drift from treated areas and contaminate non-commercial landscapes, limiting pollinator foraging habitat. Pollinator habitat destruction results in loss of species biodiversity and stable ecosystem processes that are integral to sustainability. If one competent of an agricultural system is unsustainable, then the entire system is unsustainable. Therefore, agricultural systems must commit to regenerative organic agriculture and land management to meet future sustainability goals and alleviate the effect these chemicals have on humans and wildlife.

Genetic Engineering

Over the last 20 years, the use of genetic engineering in agriculture has massively increased toxic pesticide, threatening human health and the ecosystems on which we all depend. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s handling of dicamba, developed as a new GE crop due to widespread glyphosate resistance, is emblematic of an agency concerned more with protecting industry profits than following their namesake mission. The history of dicamba’s use in GE agriculture reveal this to be the case. In the mid-2010s, Bayer/Monsanto developed new dicamba-tolerant seeds and received approval to sell them from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To complete the package, EPA needed to approve a corresponding herbicide the company developed. It failed to do in the time frame Bayer/Monsanto wished, so the company urged farmers to plant its new seed, claiming it would increase yields. The results of this were predictable: farmers began to use older, unapproved dicamba formulations on their new GE seeds, and reports of drift damage began to spring up throughout the US.  Dicamba has a strong propensity to drift off-site and can defoliate other crops at very low levels. Rather than take regulatory action to stop illegal use, EPA and USDA sat on their hands while GE agriculture pitted farmer against farmer, neighbor against neighbor, in communities throughout the U.S.

But by the end of 2017, according to reporting from Reuters, state agriculture departments had received thousands of complaints, and scientists indicated over 3.6 million acres of non-GE soybean crops had been damaged by dicamba drift.

EPA tried to tweak the label of the herbicide to lessen the impact, while Bayer persisted in blaming farmers for using older dicamba formulations. The agency let Bayer write its own rules on drift procedures, undermining the independent scientist who worked closely with the company at the last second. This led to the agency reapproving the highly drift-prone herbicide for another two year stint. Environmental groups sued, and a court ruling resulted in a ban on certain dicamba herbicides used on GE crops. However, EPA responded by reregistering the chemicals anyway, endorsing continued strife in farming communities. Consumers are encouraged to put their food dollars into organic cropping systems that do not utilize synthetic pesticides or GE plants, and place pressure on EPA to reform its failed pesticide regulatory system.

Clean Water

Pesticide contamination in waterways is historically commonplace and widespread throughout U.S. rivers and streams, with at least five or more different pesticides present in 90 percent of water samples. Thousands of tons of pesticides enter waterways (e.g., rivers, streams, lakes, oceans) around the U.S. from agricultural and nonagricultural sources, contaminating essential drinking water sources, such as surface water and groundwater. Thus, Aquatic environments continuously encounter environmental pollutants and certain unmonitored toxic compounds exceed federal drinking water standards. Pesticide use should be phased out and ultimately eliminated to protect the nation’s and world’s waterways and reduce the number of pesticides that make their way into drinking water. Replacing pesticides with organic regenerative systems conserves water, nurtures soil fertility, reduces surface runoff and erosion, and reduces the need for nutrient input (i.e., fertilizers). For more information about pesticide contamination in water, see Beyond Pesticides’ article Pesticides in My Drinking Water? Individual Precautionary Measures and Community Action, where Beyond Pesticides states: “This problem requires individual precautionary measures and preventive, community-based action to protect [individual and public health] and ultimately, stop ongoing pesticide use that ends up in drinking water from numerous agricultural, public land, and home and garden use. Beyond Pesticides urges a solution that keeps pesticides out of the water, rather than trying to clean them up after they enter our waterways and drinking water supply.”

One of the ways the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protects human and environmental health is by regulating pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and point source pollution in waterways as regulated by the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. However, according to advocates, government and state agencies fail to uphold their responsibility to protect the public from toxic pollutants. Previously, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)-National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) has criticized EPA for not establishing sufficient water quality benchmarks for pesticides. This lack of monitorization is concerning for the health of vulnerable individuals such as infants/children, pregnant women, and the elderly or immunocompromised. These health issues range from kidney problems to an increase in various cancers. However, the ubiquity and persistence of certain compounds make it difficult to limit the number of toxicants that enter waterways, especially since aquatic environments continuously encounter environmental pollutants and certain unmonitored toxic compounds exceed federal drinking water standards. Many of the most commonly used pesticides in the U.S. are detectable in both surface and groundwater, which serve as drinking water sources for half of the U.S. population. As the number of pesticides in waterways increases, it has detrimental impacts on aquatic ecosystem health, especially as some chemicals work synergistically (together) with others to increase the severity of the effect. In addition to adverse health effects on marine organisms, these chemicals harm terrestrial organisms relying on surface or groundwater. The report, “Human Health and Ocean Pollution,” finds that the combination of nonpoint source chemical contamination from pesticide runoff can have an adverse synergistic effect on species’ health and ecosystem. Many of these chemicals cause endocrine disruption, reproductive defects, neurotoxicity, and cancer in humans and animals while being highly toxic to aquatic species. 

The Organic Solution

Beyond Pesticides has long advocated for healthier and more environmentally friendly pest management practices to protect the environment and wildlife. Organic agriculture is necessary to eliminate toxic chemical use that threaten so many aspects of human and ecosystem life and ensure the long-term sustainability of food production, the environment, and the economy. Organically managed systems support biodiversity, improve soil health, sequester carbon (which helps mitigate the climate crisis), and safeguard surface- and groundwater quality. There are claims that organic agriculture cannot sustain global crop production. However, scientific studies argue organic yields are comparable to conventional and require significantly lower inputs. Additionally, some pesticide levels in the human body reduce by 70% through a one-week switch to an organic diet. Therefore, purchasing organic food whenever possible—which never allows glyphosate use—can help curb exposure and resulting adverse health effects. Learn more about how consuming organic products can reduce pesticide exposure and the harmful health and environmental impacts of chemical-intensive farming produces. For more information about organic food production, visit Beyond Pesticides’ Keep Organic Strong webpage. To learn more about how organic the right choice for both consumers and farmers, see Beyond Pesticides’ webpage on Health Benefits of Organic Agriculture. 

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

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(Beyond Pesticides, November 23, 2021) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced, in mid-October, a revision of its guidance on the evaluation of antimicrobial pesticides used against Candida auris (C. auris). This pathogen is a type of fungus (a yeast) that can cause serious infection, and can spread readily among patients and staff in hospitals and other congregate healthcare settings (such as nursing homes). C. auris has developed resistance to what used to be the therapeutic impacts of major antifungal medications. (Resistance is a major and growing problem in healthcare and in agriculture, with the latter exacerbating the former.) Another moving part in this unholy development of “chemical compounds no longer working” is EPA’s failure to assess the efficacy of any pesticides that are not used for public health purposes; for example, EPA evaluates the efficacy of only those antimicrobial compounds whose use patterns classify them as human-health-related. This failure to evaluate efficacy of all other pesticide products leaves many people in the dark about whether what they may be using actually works — never mind the potential risks associated with that use.

The antifungal medications that have been used for many years to treat Candida infections often no longer work for C. auris; some infections have shown resistance to all three types of antifungals available as treatments. Beyond Pesticides wrote, in 2019: “Echoing the development of resistance in bacteria, there have lately been resistant fungi showing up in hospitals and labs, adding to the already considerable worry in the medical community about how to treat people who contract infections caused by resistant pathogens. Matthew Fisher, Ph.D, a professor of fungal epidemiology at Imperial College London, has said, ‘It’s an enormous problem. We depend on being able to treat those patients with antifungals.’ Fungi, just like other organisms, adaptively exploit genetic mutations to defend against what would kill them — in this case, antifungal medications.”

The new guidance from EPA on C. auris offers recommendations for laboratory methods on producing and storing cultures of the drug-resistant pathogen, and evaluating the effectiveness of antimicrobial products intended to treat surfaces contaminated with it. To be clear, it is not all isolates (strains) of C. auris that have developed drug resistance — yet. Back in 2017, in consultation with The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), EPA issued interim guidance for evaluating the efficacy of disinfectants used in hospitals against C. auris. Later on, lab data were generated (based on CDC’s tracking of clinical cases of multi–drug resistant C. auris isolates in the U.S.) as a basis for comparing the relative resistance of various isolates of C. auris to antimicrobial disinfectants.

The updated EPA guidance directs that manufacturers of any new products seeking registration should test for efficacy using a more-relevant strain of C. auris. Beyond Pesticides notes again the serious flaw in EPA’s practice: the agency leaves to the chemical industry the responsibility for testing its products for safety (and in this case, efficacy), and submitting related data as part of the registration application process. EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs relies on industry-generated data to register and regulate pesticide products whose uses result in widespread public exposure.

Candida auris can be deadly; indeed, more than one in three patients with a serious C. auris infection of the blood, heart, or brain die from it, and nearly half of those who contract the infection die within 90 days. Immunocompromised people and infants are at high risk of lethality from these infections. C. auris is difficult to eradicate in patient surrounds, so healthcare settings are understandably concerned not only about the increasing inefficacy of antifungal medications, but also, about how to control the spread of C. auris once it has appeared in a patient and facility.

As recent research has noted, “Unfortunately, there are very few data available on the effectiveness of disinfectants against C. auris. Chlorine-based products appear to be the most effective for environmental surface disinfection. Other disinfectants, although less effective than chlorine-based products, may have a role as adjunctive disinfectants. A cleaning protocol will also need to be established as the use of disinfectants alone may not be sufficient for maximal decontamination of patient care areas. Furthermore, there are fewer data on the effectiveness of antiseptics against C. auris for patient decolonization and hand hygiene for healthcare personnel.”

As Beyond Pesticides wrote in its coverage of this growing problem, “One of the factors making this fungus so deadly is that it has developed resistance to existing antifungal medicines, with 90% of infections resistant to one drug, and 30% to two or more. As is true for resistant bacteria, culprits in C. auris’s development of resistance may be the overuse of antifungal medications in healthcare and overreliance on fungicides in agriculture.” The CDC calls C. auris “an emerging fungal pathogen,” with the incidence of infection having increased rapidly across many countries since it was first recognized in 2009 in Japan.

Beyond Pesticides has previously called attention to the role of EPA in the issue of inefficacy of pesticide compounds (which include fungicides, antimicrobials, insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides, parasiticides, and others). The agency has a decades-long poor track record on this front. Back in 1990, the EPA Office of the GAO (U.S. Government Accountability Office) issued recommendations, based on its review of EPA’s regulation of disinfectants, in a document titled “Disinfectants: EPA Lacks Assurance They Work.” Since then, EPA has begun to evaluate — sometimes — the efficacy of disinfectants and antimicrobial compounds through its Antimicrobial Performance Evaluation Program. Yet, even here, the scope of its review is narrow because EPA classifies disinfectants into three categories — hospital disinfectants, broad-spectrum (general) disinfectants, and limited disinfectants — and requires only that hospital disinfectants must have demonstrated efficacy against only two qualifying bacteria — Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.

As for all the other pesticide compounds in use in a variety of settings, EPA essentially neither requests nor requires efficacy data in its registration of any that are used for non–public health purposes. (In addition, although required by law to weigh pesticide risks and benefits, EPA rarely has the data to make that determination). Thus, for nearly all pesticides used in agriculture, around homes and buildings, and on landscapes, decisions about whether a compound even works on the target pest or pathogen — and therefore, whether the risks inherent in its use can be deemed “worth it” — are left to consumers, farmers, and healthcare organizations to figure out. This is, obviously, a problem.

EPA’s position on this is that the marketplace (somehow) determines efficacy. Given that most healthcare professionals, farmers, and consumers do not have at hand the information with which to make such a decision, nor the ability to do laboratory efficacy evaluations, they are left to make decisions without benefit of full information about a pesticide product. This is especially nonsensical because resistance to pesticides builds over relatively short periods of time, meaning that without benefit of accurate, independent evaluation of efficacy, people are applying toxic compounds that may not even “work.”

Farmers may discover product inefficacy when they see infestations of weeds or insects among their crops — because the pests are no longer controlled by the herbicides or insecticides the farm has been purchasing and using, often for some years. [This is the resistance issue about which Beyond Pesticides has written often — see here, here, and here.] If a conventionally operated, chemical-intensive farm enterprise, which is typically very dependent on pesticides for pest control, discovers after a crop loss that a pesticide did not work, the results can be economically devastating.

Further, EPA’s implicit contention that the marketplace can be the arbiter of efficacy is implausible, at best. How can “the marketplace” determine relative benefits (based on efficacy and risks) — and thus, guide farmers’ and consumers’ and health professionals’ decisions — when lack of efficacy is discovered after the fact? That is some serious “cart before the horse” logic.

This lack of information on efficacy can have dire consequences that could be avoided if EPA were to conduct efficacy reviews to determine whether pesticides work over time. In agriculture, in part because the agrichemical industry has successfully indoctrinated producers into the “chemical controls” approach, EPA’s failure to do such reviews often results, downstream, in farmers seeking (very often granted) “emergency exemptions” to use unregistered pesticides (which may be in the registration pipeline), or those that are intended for other purposes.

There is often a “throw whatever you have at it” attitude in these “emergency” situations — which Beyond Pesticides regards as the “chickens of chemical control coming inevitably home to roost.” Agrichemical industry response to the development of resistance has largely been to promote use of yet another pesticide or herbicide for the problem, or to “double down” with paired pesticide compounds, or to roll out yet another herbicide-plus-GE-seed combination to try to stave off the pest. (This has been particularly true in the case of developing resistance to glyphosate-based herbicides.) But this entropic “resistance and response” dynamic is a unidirectional progression along an increasingly poisonous and unsustainable path.

Fraught as it is with negative impacts on human and environmental health, including the mounting resistance issues, chemically intensive agriculture should be understood as a sign of the ineffectiveness of conventional, chemical approaches to pest control. Adoption of organic agricultural practices can diminish the resistance problem, potentially helping to preserve important antibiotic and antifungal medicines for treatment of human infection. But EPA abdicates its responsibility “to protect human health and the environment” when it fails to address the issue of efficacy of pesticide products, causing downstream health, economic, and environmental harms. Beyond Pesticides recommends that EPA Administrator Michael Regan and officials in the Office of Pesticide Programs address this wide gap in agency function.

Sources: https://www.epa.gov/pesticides/epa-revises-guidance-ensure-effectiveness-antimicrobial-pesticides-against-candida-auris and https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/epa-announces-revisions-to-guidance-to-5506501/

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