Failure-to-Warn
In 2026, Failure-to-warn bills are expected to be introduced in at least several state legislatures. For ease of reference, please see the links below for target resources based on regions that currently have live legislation in the Midwest and Southeast. Stay tuned for additional resources as information becomes available, including an updated Bills to Track 2026 page.
We succeeded in blocking this legislation in ten states in 2025; unfortunately, two bills passed in Georgia and North Dakota, but the fight continues! For additional information, see our history from 2024 onward. You can view the archive page for 2025/2024 for additional information here or at the button below.
Please see our press release on January 16, 2026, in response to U.S. Supreme Court's decision to take on Durnell, John L. v. Monsanto, which could take away the public's right to sue chemical manufacturers that do not warn of product hazards.
Resources & Assets Archive (2024-2025)
Take Action in Your State
Click on the button below with your state to contact your elected officials, requesting their opposition to this legislation.
Missouri Tennessee Florida North Carolina
Ongoing Public Health Crisis
Pesticide exposure has been attributed to heightened risk of severe health conditions, including but not limited to various cancers, neurological disorders, reproductive disorders, immune system disorders, and obesity. The preponderance of scientific evidence on the adverse health consequences can be reviewed in our Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database (PIDD).
According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,1,851,238 new cases of cancer were reported in 2022 (the latest year of available incidence data). This figure is up roughly 4 percent from the 2021 available data of 1,777,566 new cases during that calendar year. In 2025, the National Cancer Institute estimates 2,041,910 new cancer cases in the U.S. and 618,120 fatalities.
The Institute also analyzes the economic and healthcare costs burden of cancer: “Estimated national expenditures for cancer care in the United States in 2020 were $208.9 billion. In future years, costs are likely to increase as the population ages and more people have cancer. Costs are also likely to increase as new, and often more expensive, treatments are adopted as standards of care.”
Given that up to 93% of cancer diagnoses can be attributed to non-hereditary, environmental factors (National Institutes of Health), it raises the question of the long-term viability of pesticide dependence, given the readily available alternative pest management practices. A 2022 study commissioned by Parkinson's Foundation found there was a 50% increase in expected annual diagnoses for Parkinson's Disease, with 90,000 new individuals diagnosed each year. Data from the CDC-led National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2021-2023) indicates that approximately four in ten Americans are obese.
Amidst the corresponding surges in chronic illnesses and severe health diagnoses of the past decades, alongside the unprecedented increases in pesticide use around the nation, advocates question the long-term viability of pesticide dependence given the readily available alternative pest management practices.
History
The industry’s campaign follows its playbook of going to state legislatures to seek relief after failing to win at the federal level, which is what was successfully achieved in the 1990s when local authority to restrict pesticides under Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) was upheld by the Supreme Court. The industry convinced most states to preempt their local political subdivisions from adopting pesticide restrictions that were more stringent than those of the state.
In 1991, the Supreme Court specifically upheld the authority of local governments to restrict pesticides throughout their jurisdictions under federal pesticide law in Wisconsin Public Intervenor v. Mortier (1991). (Wisconsin Pub. Intervenor v. Mortier, 501 U.S. 597 (1991))
The Court ruled that federal pesticide law does not prohibit or preempt local jurisdictions from restricting the use of pesticides more stringently than the federal government throughout their jurisdiction. According to Mortier, however, states may retain the authority to take away local control.
After that loss, the industry went to every state legislature to do at the state level what it could not achieve at the federal level—preemption of local governments to adopt pesticide restrictions more stringent than the state and the federal government.
In an amicus brief published on December 1, 2025, the Office of the Solicitor General (SG) and the White House are calling on the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to grant certiorari on Bayer’s petition to shield chemical companies that fail to warn people about the potential hazards of their pesticide products.
The industry appears to be attempting to reverse the current law, as clarified by SCOTUS in the previous court decision, specifically Bates v. Dow (2005) (Bates v. Dow Agrosciences LLC, 544 U.S. 431 (2005)). The court ruled the following:
“The long history of tort litigation against manufacturers of poisonous substances adds force to the basic presumption against preemption. If Congress had intended to deprive injured parties of a long available form of compensation, it surely would have expressed that intent more clearly. See Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp., 464 U. S. 238, 251 (1984). Moreover, this history emphasizes the importance of providing an incentive to manufacturers to use the utmost care in the business of distributing inherently dangerous items.”
See Daily News, Trump Administration to U.S. Supreme Court: Pesticide Companies Cannot Be Sued for Failing to Disclose Hazards, for additional history and context. See Daily News here and here for additional context.
Fiscal Year 2026 Appropriations
Section 453 of the House version of the FY 26 Interior-Environment Appropriations bill (H.R.4754) included pesticide liability shield language, while the Senate-side version (S. 2431) did not. A broad coalition, including Beyond Pesticides and over fifty organizations, coalitions, businesses, and leaders, continues to call on Congress not to include Section 453 language in any federal appropriations package for the upcoming fiscal year. Please see our press release on January 6, 2026, regarding recent developments on Section 453 language in the latest minibus spending package.
You can view the archive page, linked above, for 2025/2024 for additional information.
A Note on the Farm Bill
Industry failure-to-warn immunity language was incorporated into the House GOP Farm bill draft released in May 2024, and is still being negotiated in Congress. The last version of the House Agriculture Committee bill voted out of committee on May 30, 2024, incorporates immunity language. Corporations would financially benefit from revoking this right to sue, as evidenced by a surge in state-level campaign spending in target states, based on reporting from the U.S. Right to Know. In 2016, Bayer and Corteva contributed 5 percent of total PAC contributions to state campaigns. In 2024, this jumped to 30 percent.
There is a likelihood for a “Farm Bill 2.0” to move forward in early 2026—please stay tuned for future updates.