Today, over 100 farmworker, public health, and environmental organizations led by Earthjustice submitted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urging the Biden administration to ban chlorpyrifos. In December, Trump’s EPA proposed that 11 food uses of the neurotoxic pesticide continue, prolonging harmful exposure to children, farmworkers,…
By Kenny Stancil While Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has given farmers in the country a 2024 deadline to stop using glyphosate, The Guardian reported Tuesday that agrochemical company Bayer, industry lobbyist CropLife America, and U.S. officials have been pressuring Mexico’s government to drop its proposed ban…
“Right now, it’s very difficult to find a population that is not exposed to glyphosate to have a control group for comparison.” Exposure to the widely used weed-killer glyphosate makes genetic changes to rats that can be linked to increased disease in their grandchildren and…
Center for Biological Diversity, Children’s Health Defense Waking Times The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a draft biological evaluation last week finding that glyphosate is likely to injure or kill 93% of the plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act. The long-anticipated…
By Eddie Galdamez According to a 2019 peer-reviewed study in MEDICC, “chronic kidney disease has reached epidemic proportions in El Salvador.” The number of people affected by this silent illness is staggering; it is the second cause of death in men and the third cause…
By Stacy Malkan, Children’s Health Defense Waking Times Chlorpyrifos insecticides were introduced by Dow Chemical in 1965 and have been used widely in agricultural settings. Commonly known as the active ingredient in the brand names Dursban and Lorsban, chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate insecticide, acaricide and…
The loss of flowering plants and the widespread use of pesticides could be a double punch to wild bee populations. In a new study, researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that the combined threats reduced blue orchard bee reproduction by 57 percent and…
By Anthony McLennan Farmers in some countries prefer ducks and geese over pesticides when it comes to controlling bugs, snails, and weeds in crop plantations. It proves to be an organic solution as the birds eat the pests and then release their own waste back…
A previously banned insecticide, which was approved for agricultural use last year in the United States, is harmful for bees and other beneficial insects that are crucial for agriculture, and a second pesticide in widespread use also harms these insects. That is according to a…
In light of emerging evidence showing how a commonly used class of insecticides can spread through the environment to pollinators, predators and other insects they are not intended to kill, researchers are warning about the potential for widespread environmental contamination. In an opinion in the…
Scientists have estimated for the first time how nature-based solutions for agricultural pest control deliver US$ 14.6 to US$ 19.5 billion annually across 23 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The new research, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, suggests that non-chemical crop protection…
Bird biodiversity is rapidly declining in the U.S. The overall bird population decreased by 29% since 1970, while grassland birds declined by an alarming 53%. Valuable for so much more than flight and song, birds hold a key place in ecosystems worldwide. When bird numbers…
In an analysis of how regulators review pesticides for their potential to cause cancer, researchers at Silent Spring Institute identified more than two dozen registered pesticides that were linked with mammary gland tumors in animal studies. The new findings raise concerns about how the US…
New research led by The University of Queensland has provided the first comprehensive analysis of pesticide mixtures in creeks and rivers discharging to the Great Barrier Reef. UQ’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences researcher Associate Professor Michael Warne conducted the study with the Queensland…
The lives of honeybees are shortened – with evidence of physiological stress – when they are exposed to the suggested application rates of two commercially available and widely used pesticides, according to new Oregon State University research. In a study published in the journal PLOS…
New evidence identifies 64 pesticide residues in milkweed, the main food for monarch butterflies in the west. Milkweed samples from all of the locations studied in California’s Central Valley were contaminated with pesticides, sometimes at levels harmful to monarchs and other insects. The study raises…
Elevated blood levels of toxic chemicals found in pesticides, nonstick cookware, and fire retardants have been tied to an increased risk for celiac disease in young people, new research shows. According to NYU Grossman School of Medicine researchers who led the study, people with the…
Pesticide-coated seeds — such as neonicotinoids, many of which are highly toxic to both pest and beneficial insects — are increasingly used in the major field crops, but are underreported, in part, because farmers often do not know what pesticides are on their seeds, according…
By Mayukh Saha The bee population has seen a decrease of over 30% in the last hundred years in America and Europe. Declining habitat and climate change are among the top reasons for this decline, along with harmful pesticides. This Tuesday, scientists from the Imperial…
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch Poor people in developing countries are far more likely to suffer from exposure to pesticides classified as having high hazard to human health or the environment, according to new data that Unearthed analyzed. The analysis shows that the world’s top five pesticide makers are making billions,…
