(Beyond Pesticides, April 15, 2026) Researchers in the Czech Republic tested indoor dust across 116 homes and found that 93 percent of homes across urban and rural areas contained residue of at least one current-use pesticide (CUP). The study also found in every household residues of hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and pentachlorobenzene (PeCB), the breakdown products or byproducts of certain banned organochlorine pesticides (OCP). These compounds, as well as DDT metabolites DDE and DDD, were detected in more than half of the homes tested. Results in this study and previous research confirm that pesticides used outdoors find their way indoors, resulting in an exposure pattern that is not calculated when pesticides are registered and allowed on the market. The findings are published in Indoor Environments. These findings characterize the legacy of toxic pesticide exposure resulting from the proliferation of pesticides in the United States and around the world without a complete assessment of the chemicals’ residual activity and multigenerational adverse impacts on health. Based on the decades of peer-reviewed scientific literature on pesticide exposure and effects from across the globe, public health and environmental advocates warn that there is a continuation of this pattern of long-term effects associated with new pesticides linked […]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 2, 2026) In advance of opening U.S. Supreme Court arguments in Monsanto v. Durnell, Beyond Pesticides joined an amicus brief filed yesterday and led by Center for Food Safety (CFS), which challenges Bayer/Monsanto’s position that it should not be held liable for failing to warn consumers that the use of their pesticide products could cause cancer. The chemical company giant, along with the broader chemical and agribusiness industry, argues that they should be given immunity from litigation because their products are registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a claim that is disputed in detail in the amicus brief. Groups joining the brief include Consumer Federation of America, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (BCPP), Rural Coalition, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Center for Biological Diversity, Beyond Pesticides, and Food & Water Watch.  Click to access the 17 additional amicus briefs filed in support of the respondents: Stand for Health Freedom; The American Association for Justice and Public Justice; Children’s Health Defense; 36 State Legislators; The Local Government Legal Center, National Association of Counties, National League of Cities, and International Municipal Lawyers Association; Former EPA Officials and Environmental Protection Network; Philip Landrigan, MD, MSc, Lianne Sheppard, PhD, […]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 26, 2026) A review of pesticide exposure from a family member working in agriculture (“take-home” residues) finds that pesticide levels in the home are elevated between 2.6- and 3.7-times. This and other nonoccupational exposure data from homes are drawn from the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), a National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) prospective study of cancer and other health outcomes in a cohort of licensed pesticide applicators and their spouses from Iowa and North Carolina. Between 1993 and 1997, with follow-up between 1999 and 2021, AHS tracks occupational and nonoccupational exposure and subsequent health effects from pesticide exposure. The current study, published in Environmental Advances, reexamines a quantitative analysis on nontarget, “active-ingredient-specific” exposure to pesticides from multiple pathways—applying new criteria to AHS spousal exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos and the herbicide atrazine. The three pesticide exposure pathways include take-home, agricultural drift, and residential use. Building on a 2019 study, researchers consider data from additional studies published between 2019 and 2024, “providing support that all three pathways contribute to pesticide exposure.” More importantly, the updated estimates of nontarget exposure to chlorpyrifos and atrazine are overall strengthened by the incorporation of new data, highlighting the […]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 17, 2026) An article in Microorganisms by researchers from the U.S., Israel, and Australia analyzes the adverse health and environmental effects of genetic engineering and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), specifically genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs). As the authors state, the prevalence of genetic engineering has “accelerated the creation and large-scale environmental release” of GMMs, which “present unique, long-term risks to human and environmental health.” One of the authors, André Leu, DSc, spoke at the first session of Beyond Pesticides’ National Forum Series: Forging a Future with Nature in 2023. (See recording here.) This review provides risk scenarios of GMMs, showing the threat to ecological systems, particularly within the soil, and human health. As GMMs are “biologically active, self-replicating entities capable of rapid mutation and global dispersal” they present greater risks, and current regulatory frameworks do not adequately assess their potential harm. Genetically altering microorganisms, the most complex and diverse systems in biology, and creating new gene combinations with unknown implications, “has the potential to disrupt the functions, diversity, interactions, and impacts of microbes and microbiomes,” the researchers note. They continue: “This puts human and environmental health at risk. Worst-case scenarios include the promotion of diseases, risks to species […]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 16, 2026) On the brink of the first genetically engineered (GE) wheat to be introduced into the U.S. market, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved it in August, 2024, groups are calling on Congress to instruct USDA to prohibit HB4 wheat and instruct EPA to prohibit the use of glufosinate herbicides on wheat. The herbicide on which the crop is dependent, glufosinate, is a highly toxic herbicide banned in the European Union because of its links to reproductive and developmental harm. The drought- and herbicide-tolerant wheat, known as HB4 GMO wheat, follows a long line of genetically engineered crops that have been allowed to be grown in the U.S., with Roundup ReadyTM (glyphosate-tolerant) soybeans being among the first crops allowed in 1996. While the introduction of this technology promised to reduce pesticide use (herbicides are included under the definition of pesticide), the exact opposite occurred, with the skyrocketing of herbicide use. (See Daily News review of a study by Charles Benbrook, PhD, “Impacts of genetically engineered crops on pesticide use in the U.S.—the first sixteen years.”) The extraordinary increase in herbicide use associated with GE crops has been accompanied by an escalating increase in weed resistance […]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 13, 2026) In a press release on March 10, 2026, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) cites independent test data on the herbicide indaziflam with detections of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the “forever chemicals” known for significant toxicity at low level exposure and high persistence. The product, Rejuvra™, is produced by Envu (a former division of Bayer) and “is being sprayed and considered for use across millions of acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and US Forest Service land.” Scientific literature connects indaziflam and PFAS with adverse effects to human, soil, and biodiversity health, raising serious concerns about their wide use in agriculture and general land management of lawns, parks, playing fields, ornamentals, fence lines, rights-of-way, rangeland, open space, and Christmas trees. Background As a pre-emergent weed killer used to kill annual grasses and unwanted broadleaf plants, the fluoroalkyltriazine herbicide is broadly labeled for use in residential areas, commercial ornamental and sod production, forestry, and mostly orchard crops. While indaziflam is considered a “selective” herbicide, it actually kills and prevents germination of a wide range of broad-leaved plants and grasses and comes close to being a soil sterilant.  Since the chemical is subject to drift […]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 9, 2026) Policy and toxicology are slated to collide as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers allowing the use of a PFAS pesticide by invoking an emergency waiver process in federal pesticide law. If authorized, EPA’s decision will permit the use of an unregistered pesticide under an emergency waiver provision—in this case an emergency caused by weed resistance to weed killers (herbicides) on the market. EPA is accepting public comments until March 16, 11:59pm EDT. Beyond Pesticides is urging the public to object to EPA approval by writing to EPA and Congress stating that herbicide resistance is not an emergency and PFAS chemicals must not be broadcast in the environment.  The pesticide that is being requested for use is a new not yet registered, herbicide tetflupyrolimet (TFP), which is a PFAS chemical according to the definition of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The fact that the chemical is not registered by EPA means that it has not been reviewed in accordance with all the safety assessments reviewed under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The states applying for the exemptions under Section 18 of FIFRA—Missouri and Arkansas—claim that there is an emergency requiring the use of TFP because […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 20, 2026) As pesticides’ adverse effects on human and ecosystem health stack up in the scientific literature, health and environmental groups are focused on striking an entire section of the Republican Farm Bill that will eliminate protections, which have been written into law for generations. The section is Section X, Subtitle C, Part 1 on “Regulatory Reform.” Threatened are policies intended to protect against the diseases and illnesses touching families and communities, including brain and nervous system disorders, birth abnormalities, cancer, developmental and learning disorders, immune and endocrine disruption, reproductive dysfunction, among others. Wildlife, including mammals, bees and other pollinators, fish and other aquatic organisms, birds, and the biota within soil, are adversely affected with reproductive, neurological, endocrine-disruptive, and developmental anomalies, and cancers. (See Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database.) With the urgent threat of a markup of the legislation scheduled to begin on March 3, attention shifted to a newly released Executive Order (EO) that could provide blanket legal protection for the manufacturer of the weed killer glyphosate, Bayer/Monsanto. By activating the Defense Production Act of 1950 and its immunity from lawsuits provision for glyphosate manufacturers, the administration could mandate production of glyphosate as a “national security” concern and provide […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 18, 2026) Research finds that widespread agricultural pesticide use increases chronic dietary exposure in poultry and leads to adverse reproductive effects, despite meeting legal residue limits. As published in Poultry Science by researchers in Poland, the study analyzes low-dose exposure of roosters (Gallus gallus domesticus) to the fungicide tebuconazole (TEB), the insecticide imidacloprid (IMI), and the weed killer glyphosate (GLP) individually and in mixtures, with all concentrations at or below the maximum residue limits (MRLs) established by the European Union (EU). “Sub-MRL pesticide exposure impaired male reproductive function, with the most pronounced effects observed following combined treatments,” the authors report. They continue: “[E]xposure resulted in reduced semen quality, decreased fertility and hatchability, and increased embryo mortality, particularly in groups receiving IMI alone or in combination. These functional impairments were accompanied by detectable pesticide residues in reproductive tissues and body fluids, as well as modulation [modification/alteration] of local and systemic immune parameters.” The results of the experiment highlight how combined pesticide exposure, resulting from common use of multiple pesticide active ingredients concurrently, produces “stronger and more persistent reproductive effects than individual compounds, indicating mixture-specific toxicity.” This study is particularly important, as it represents the chronic exposure to MRL-compliant […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 13, 2026) In a novel, continent-wide study of soil biodiversity throughout Europe published in Nature, researchers find 70% of the sampled sites contain pesticide residues, which “emerged as the second strongest driver of soil biodiversity patterns after soil properties,” particularly in croplands. As soil biodiversity is key for ecosystem functioning, agricultural and land management practices that safeguard biodiversity are imperative. This study, however, highlights how pesticides alter microbial functions, including phosphorus and nitrogen cycling, and suppress beneficial taxa, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and bacterivore nematodes, and adds to a wide body of science that links pesticide residues in soil to adverse effects on biodiversity. In analyzing 373 sites across woodlands, grasslands, and croplands in 26 European countries, and examining the effects of 63 pesticides on soil archaea, bacteria, fungi, protists, nematodes, arthropods, and key functional gene groups, the data reveals “organism- and function-specific patterns, emphasizing complex and widespread non-target effects on soil biodiversity.” As the authors state, “[T]o our knowledge, ours is the first study to demonstrate the relative importance of pesticides in comparison to soil properties, ecosystem type and climate at a continental scale.” Study Importance As Kristin Ohlson describes in her book The Soil […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 12, 2026) Editor’s Note. This is a piece about improving risk assessments and a proposal that could offer a more realistic characterization of the harm associated with the complexities of pesticide exposure. Beyond Pesticides notes that risk assessment methodology, unless it is considered in the context of a rigorous alternatives assessment, begins with the mostly false assumption that petrochemical pesticides are needed (or are essential) to achieve cost-effective pest management, agricultural productivity and profitability, and quality of life, when, in fact, this is not the case. Therefore, improved risk calculations—as the article being reviewed here proposes—while important to characterizing the harm and the unknown adverse effects associated with pesticide use, still impose some level of harm deemed by the government to be acceptable. Even worse, the adverse effects of exposure cannot be fully characterized because of uncertainties or a lack of data on harmful endpoints, as is the case currently with endocrine-disrupting pesticides not fully evaluated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), or other regulatory bodies. These pesticides are known to induce cancer, reproductive harm, infertility, biodiversity decline, and other life-threatening, often multigenerational, effects. The authors do recognize the serious […]

[Update on February 9, 2026: In a press release on Friday, February 6, titled “EPA Implements Strongest Protections in Agency History for Over-the-Top Dicamba Use on Cotton and Soybeans for Next Two Growing Seasons,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to ignore the wide body of science that documents harms from dicamba, as well as the viability of alternative methods, in establishing what the agency is boasting are “the strongest protections in agency history for over-the-top (OTT) dicamba application on dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybean crops” as a direct response to the “strong advocacy of America’s cotton and soybean farmers.” These so-called “strong protections” are described as a way to ensure farmers can access the tools they “need” while also protecting the environment from dicamba’s harmful drift. In using “gold-standard science and radical transparency,” EPA created new label restrictions for the next two growing seasons that include “cutting the amount of dicamba that can be used annually in half, doubling required safety agents, requiring conservation practices to protect endangered species, and restricting applications during high temperatures when exposure and volatility risks increase.” Relying on unenforceable label restrictions and mitigation measures, however, fails to adequately protect health and the environment. See […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 3, 2026) In analyzing the direct and indirect effects of pesticides that act simultaneously upon macrozoobenthos communities (invertebrates living in or on sediment) in standing small water bodies (SWBs) in Germany, researchers find high risks to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Published in Hydrobiologia, the experiment finds high risks to invertebrates and highlights how both direct and indirect effects are vital to comprehensive assessments of pesticides. While typically overlooked in regulatory reviews, SWBs are defined as shallow standing or running freshwaters “with a surface area of less than 50 hectares (ha),” such as lakes or ponds, including farm ponds, as well as headwater streams, springs and flushes, and ditches. SWBs are biodiversity hotspots that contribute to numerous ecosystem services and are adversely affected by agricultural land use effects such as pesticide contamination. “Holistic assessments of pesticide effects on invertebrate communities in standing small water bodies have, however, not yet been successful,” the authors note. To address this, the researchers developed an indicator for evaluating pesticide impacts on macrozoobenthos communities, populated with aquatic invertebrates, such as snails, worms, crayfish, and clams, through indirect toxic effects on aquatic plants called INPOND: INdirect Pesticide impacts ON Diversity in standing small water […]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 2 2025) With the Trump administration withdrawing from international organizations that historically advance a shared world view of global sustainability (from health and the environment, to peace and justice), people are calling on the U.S. Congress and state governors to support critical health and environmental programs that link humanity across the globe. Beyond Pesticides is collaborating on an action to: Tell Congress to support and fund international organizations critical to the global health of humans and the biosphere, AND Tell Governors/Lieutenant Governors to join (as well as thank them for joining) the Governors Public Health Alliance and to expand their support for international agencies that protect biodiversity and mitigate the climate crisis (IUCN, IPBES, and IPCC).  Will the U.S. Congress and state government step up to link across national borders when the Trump administration steps back from worldwide existential health and environmental crises? Among the 66 organizations affected by this action are the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These organizations all support global health, and withdrawing from them is “contrary to the interests of the United […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 21, 2026) The data in the annual U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) pesticide residue report, released earlier this month, continues to show a pattern of pesticide residues in the majority of food tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Health advocates say low-level pesticide residues in the food supply within legal limits raise serious hazard concerns, while USDA, in its Pesticide Data Program–Annual Summary, Calendar Year 2024, points to controversial residue standards as a measure of safety. The USDA report finds that over 57 percent of tested commodities contain at least one pesticide and that less than one percent of detected residues violate the legal limit set as a tolerance by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Residues allowed under tolerances establish allowable pesticide use patterns in agriculture that, beyond dietary risks, result in exposure to farmworkers, farmers, waterways, wildlife, and the broad ecosystem in which they are used. (See Eating with a Conscience for a list of pesticides allowed in food production by commodity.) With respect to the preponderance of evidence on adverse health and ecological effects of cumulative exposure to toxic agrichemicals, including pesticides, Beyond Pesticides has called for the transition to organic agriculture. […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 14, 2026) Adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in children 4–6 years old occur with reported maternal occupational exposure during pregnancy, as published in a study in PLOS One, according to research from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania and the Centre for International Health at the University of Bergen in Norway. “Our results show that self-reported maternal exposure to pesticides through direct spraying during pregnancy was associated with lower scores in social-emotional and executive function domains among children,” the authors state. Additionally, the authors note that they found an association between social-emotion scores in children and weeding practices of their mothers during pregnancy, as well as reduced overall neurodevelopmental scores following direct maternal pesticide exposure. The study, conducted through self-reported pesticide exposure from the mothers of 432 mother–child pairs in three horticulture-intensive regions in Tanzania and development and learning assessments of their children, reflects the “concerns about maternal occupational exposure during pregnancy and its potential impact on child neurodevelopment,” the researchers describe. Current risk assessments fail to properly capture the disproportionate risks to farmers and farmworkers with various routes of exposure, “particularly in horticultural settings where women of reproductive age represent a substantial proportion of the […]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 6, 2026) Editor’s Note: We begin the new year with a clarion call for meaningful strategies to eliminate petrochemical pesticide and fertilizer use, based on the preponderance of science that documents both the hazards of their use and the abject failure of regulations in the U.S. and worldwide to accurately account for their harm to health and the environment. Over the holiday season, we have been cheered by letters to the editor, one from a pediatrician in Missoula, Montana and another from a student in Cedar Falls, Iowa, calling for the elimination of pesticide use in their communities. This call for action in communities targets the places where we live, work, learn, and play—where critical decisions on the use of poisons and contaminants are being made daily in our parks, playing fields, schools, open space, and other public properties. We have the tools to eliminate pesticide use with defined organic practices and compatible materials. We should accept nothing less. The scientific study we write about today (below) details an outrage of huge proportions, a synergistic effect of chemical interactions of widely used synthetic pyrethroid insecticides in combination with environmental stressors—resulting in adverse effects 70 times greater than when […]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 18, 2025) A study in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health finds peak concentrations of organophosphate pesticide (OP) metabolites in the urine of pregnant mothers 6-12 hours after consuming contaminated fruits and vegetables. “High detection rates were observed for dimethylthiophosphate (DMTP, 96%), dimethylphosphate (DMP, 94%), diethylphosphate (DEP, 89%), and diethylthiophosphate (DETP, 77%) among 431 urine samples taken from 25 pregnant women, over two 24-hr periods, early in pregnancy,” the researchers report. The levels of metabolites within the urine correlate to the consumption of foods treated with organophosphate pesticides, highlighting the importance of adopting an organic diet—particularly for pregnant individuals and their children. “In 2009–2010, 80 pregnant women were recruited from Ottawa, Canada for the Plastics and Personal-care Product use in Pregnancy (P4) Study,” the authors say. “A subset (n = 25) collected multiple spot urines (up to 10 each; total n = 431) over two 24-h periods in early pregnancy—one weekday and weekend day—while logging their food consumption beginning 24 h prior to the first urine void and continuing through the following 24-h urine collection period.” This is the first study looking at the variability of organophosphate metabolites within 24 hours in maternal urine, giving […]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 12, 2025) A study concluding that the weed killer glyphosate did not cause cancer was retracted last week after it was revealed in lawsuit documents that the authors did not disclose their relationship with Monsanto/Bayer. The editor-and-chief, Martin van den Berg, PhD of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, which published the article 25 years ago, wrote in the journal, “Concerns were raised regarding the authorship of this paper, validity of the research findings in the context of misrepresentation of the contributions by the authors and the study sponsor and potential conflicts of interest of the authors.”  The study, titled “Safety Evaluation and Risk Assessment of the Herbicide Roundup and Its Active Ingredient, Glyphosate, for Humans” and coauthored by three researchers in New York, The Netherlands, and Canada, was referred to as a “Landmark glyphosate safety study” in a recent article by U.S. Right to Know.   While this retraction not only sheds light on Monsanto’s influence through ghostwriting, it adds to the wide body of evidence regarding the regulatory deficiencies currently in place. The revelation is a reminder of related incidents in which Monsanto (Bayer) and other companies have wielded excessive influence at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), undermining the integrity of the science needed to inform the regulatory decisions that safeguard health and the environment. (See Daily News Corruption Problems Persist at EPA.)  EPA Deficiencies  In addition to the initial registration process, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) requires that EPA conduct a registration review of all pesticide […]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 10, 2025) On November 21, 2025, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization (WHO), designated the endocrine-disrupting herbicide atrazine (as well as the herbicide alachlor) as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Manufactured by the multinational, China-based pesticide corporation Syngenta, atrazine has been linked to various adverse health effects and runoff into waterways across the continental United States for years. Tyrone Hayes, PhD, researcher and professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies the endocrine-disrupting properties of atrazine and other chemicals, has said that atrazine induces cancer by turning on the enzyme aromatase. Dr. Hayes told conferees of Beyond Pesticides’ 31st National Pesticide Forum that: “[W]hat is concerning about aromatase expression and estrogen in mammals is breast cancer and prostate cancer. With regard to prostate cancer, there is an 8.4-fold increase in prostate cancer in men who work in atrazine factories and bag atrazine. There is at least one correlational study, which I didn’t publish, that shows women whose well water is contaminated with atrazine are more likely to develop breast cancer than women who live in the same community, but don’t drink the well water. (Kettles, […]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 4, 2025) In a news release last week on November 26, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “issued a comprehensive fact-check addressing dangerous misinformation circulating about EPA’s recent pesticide approvals” that, according to health and environmental advocates, continues to deceive the public about the true risks for health and the environment from petrochemical pesticides including, but not limited to, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Also published on November 26, coverage titled The EPA Is Embracing PFAS Pesticides. These Are The Health Risks in Time further highlights EPA’s deficiencies and the threats of PFAS, which Beyond Pesticides has extensively covered. (See here and here.)  The controversy erupted as a result of EPA’s latest proposal to allow a new fluorinated pesticide to the list of four other similar compounds now widely available for use in homes and gardens, buildings, and agriculture. The newest pesticide proposed for EPA registration, epyrifenacil (agricultural weed killer), joins cyclobutrifluram (soil fungicide/nematicide), isocycloseram (household and agricultural insecticide), diflufenican (lawn and agricultural weed killer), and trifludimoxazin (agricultural weed killer), making a total of five PFAS pesticide proposals this year that have been associated with national and worldwide contamination of food, land, and water. Two of these, cyclobutrifluram and isocycloseram, have been approved. “Instead of constraining the use of fluorinated pesticides—persistent and highly toxic […]

(Beyond Pesticides, November 25, 2025) Chemical pollution is having a profound impact on men’s overall health and reproductive function. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals—which prominently include pesticides—are a major factor. The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) a European organization funded by the European Union (EU) and several private foundations, has issued a strong call for attention to – and action on – the precipitous decline in male reproductive health owing to chemical exposures, including pesticides. In a new report, Chemical pollution and men’s health: A hidden crisis in Europe, the group states, “The scientific evidence is clear. The costs of chemical pollution – human and economic – are mounting. The solutions exist. What we need now is the political will to act.” The report was written by Rosaella Cannarella, M.D., PhD, an endocrinologist at the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolic Diseases and Nutrition, University of Catania (Italy). HEAL’s report details alarming indications of catastrophe in male reproductive health: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, crashing sperm counts, and numerous developmental problems including cryptorchidism, urogenital malformations, and hypospadias. The report highlights pesticides, microplastics, phthalates, bisphenols, PFAS and heavy metals as the likely environmental sources of the crisis. There is evidence that all of these endocrine disrupting chemicals […]

(Beyond Pesticides, November 20, 2025) Recent scientific literature finds heightened toxicity associated with pesticide metabolites, the transformation/breakdown products of the parent compounds, that threaten the health of the soil, wildlife, and humans. This research stresses the importance of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) evaluating metabolites, which is currently insufficiently included in regulatory processes. In a literature review in Global Change Biology, the researchers point out multiple areas in which regulations fail to address key criteria, including metabolites, saying: “Pesticide risk assessments currently rely on surrogate species and focus primarily on acute lethality metrics, failing to capture the broader impacts on non-target organisms and thus biodiversity. Under the directives of regulatory agencies worldwide, this traditional approach overlooks the complex interactions between multiple stressors, including climate change, land-use shifts, and pesticide transformation products. Pesticide risk assessments must therefore undergo a paradigm shift to account for these complex interactions, which disproportionately affect insect pollinators, other non-target species, and biodiversity at large.” A metabolite is a breakdown product that forms when a pesticide is used in the environment and mixes with air, water, soil, or living organisms. All metabolites fall under the category of transformation products, which is the broader term for any […]