Chemical Controversies
Pesticides are substances that prevent, destroy, repel, or reduce the severity of pests. Pests are living things that occur where they are not wanted or that cause damage to humans, crops, or animals. Pests can be insects, rodents, unwanted plants, bacteria, viruses, or different types of fungus. Pesticides can vary in how toxic they are to humans and the environment. Some are persistent in the environment, animals, and birds, lasting for years; others break down soon after they are released. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants licenses, or registrations, to pesticides that it has found do not pose unreasonable risks to human health and the environment; it has registered at least 865 pesticides, which are used in thousands of pesticide products.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
GLP podcast: NPR’s chemophobic hypocrisy; Could MAGA stifle mRNA vaccine progress? AI could shift human evolution
After years of flogging one chemical scare after another, NPR has abruptly changed its tune, defending Girl Scout cookies against ...
Organic produce now costs as much as 53% more than conventional alternatives, and the price disparity is getting worse
Clean eating is important to many Americans, and that often goes beyond fruits and veggies. The quality of those products ...
Swamped by lawsuits targeting its weedkiller paraquat, Syngenta reaches mass settlement but reaffirms global regulatory consensus that the chemical is safe-as-used
Besieged by thousands of lawsuits alleging that its paraquat weedkiller causes Parkinson’s disease, its manufacturer, Syngenta, has entered into an agreement aimed ...
Viewpoint: Every independent risk agency in the world has concluded that the herbicide glyphosate is safe as used. What about its impact on wildlife, soil and watersheds?
Glyphosate is the most controversial pesticide in the world, even though it is the most studied and generally deemed as ...
Fighting over the science facts: Legislative battles over PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ intensify
As health and environmental concerns about forever chemicals mount nationally, New Mexico joins a small but growing number of states ...
Viewpoint: We have a successful playbook to beat measles. RFK, Jr. is doing mostly the opposite
There is well-known playbook for stopping measles outbreaks. It takes hard work, because measles is so contagious that 9 of out of ...
CRISPR offers unique food safety tools
At its core, CRISPR works like a genetic search-and-replace tool. The system uses guide RNA to locate specific DNA sequences ...
What causes autism? It’s not vaccines, but a new study finds one driving factor
Just as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called for an investigation into debunked claims of vaccines causing autism, a massive new study ...
What’s the recipe for healthier food? Healthier soil?
Greater biodiversity is the key to healthier soil. And healthier soil is the key to a range of environmental and ...
GLP spaces on X: How California’s Prop. 65 wreaks havoc on US science and industry
Sold to well-meaning California voters in 1986 as a means of protecting public health, Proposition 65 has undermined American science ...
Combinations of some sweeteners and food additives slightly increase health risks
Food additives are widely used by the agri-food industry and are especially common in ultra-processed products found in supermarkets. Scientific ...
Foreign entities are partnering with American tort forms to fund environmental lawsuits that undermine science and U.S. national security
One of the most insidious threats today is not on the battlefield, but in our courtrooms—where foreign entities are using ...
Toxic tort opportunists: What’s behind the ballooning number of court cases targeting ‘dangerous’ chemicals?
Some day you may be on a jury trial, and it may be about “toxic” chemicals. Although you may be ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr. declares he will personally determine the cause of autism by September—which means he will generate rigged and fraudulent research
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised that “by September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and ...
Human ‘bodyoids’: We will soon be able to manufacture brain-less human bodies to generate replacement organs
Why do we hear about medical breakthroughs in mice, but rarely see them translate into cures for human disease? ...
Viewpoint: Agroecology is a cult dogma that is taking global agriculture hostage
Agroecology is a cult dogma that imposes arbitrary political restrictions on agriculture (no industry involvement, no global trade, no innovative ...
Viewpoint: ‘It’s going to get worse’: More than 12.6 million infants and children are highly susceptible to getting measles
The current measles outbreak, with more than 480 cases, largely in unvaccinated children, is gearing up to be the worst ...
GLP podcast: ‘Big Pharma’ owns the FDA? Challenging a cherished MAHA myth
It's a widely believed myth spread by wellness gurus, Hollywood stars, politicians and even many scientists: the pharmaceutical industry "owns" ...
From nuclear energy to chemicals to vaccines to GMO crops and food, conspiracy theories and disinformation are as rampant on the political left as the far right
The great majority of conspiracy theories and disinformation spread about environmental and health topics are popularly attributed to the conservative/right side of the political spectrum. But ...
Viewpoint: In RFK, Jr.’s Brave New World of food and health, Zen Honeycutt and and other ‘zealots and gurus’ roam freely
In an NPR article on Moms Across America’s Zen Honeycutt, covered in The Firebreak, the anti-vax activist stated she had given her co-conspirator, ...
Viewpoint: ‘Sending science backward’—MAGA fuels a culture war against life-saving mRNA vaccines
US health agency leadership and policymakers seem intent on undermining trust in mRNA, the technology that saved millions of lives ...
Viewpoint: Basil, clove, hand creams and perfumes contain killer chemicals? Here’s why the European hazard agency IARC is considered a running joke in the science community
While aspartame’s classification as a possible carcinogen grabbed headlines, the classification of another ubiquitous chemical slid silently beneath the diet ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr. finally conceded that the measles vaccine is ‘the most effective way to prevent its spread’—MAHA anti-vaccine activists are calling him a turncoat
For vaccine opponents, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment as secretary of health and human services represented something close to nirvana ...
Viewpoint: ‘We need to protect ag’ — ‘Meritless’ threats to ban safe pesticides and chemicals could surge US food costs by $10 billion
Along with volatile market conditions and erratic weather, Florida’s farmers now face growing legal assaults brought on by activist lawyers ...
Viewpoint: Trump says he’s targeting health care fraud. He’s pardoned or commuted sentences of 68 people convicted of interfering in fraud investigations
Five years ago, the CEO of one of the largest pain clinic companies in the Southeast was sentenced to more than ...
Viewpoint: ‘This is Hollywood science, not real science’ — RFK, Jr.’s ‘plan’ to let avian flu ‘run through the flock’ courts a catastrophic, global pandemic
In two recent interviews on Fox News, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed concerns about H5N1 avian influenza in the U.S., raising alarm among ...
Bayer petitions Supreme Court to block lawsuits targeting Roundup and set aside verdicts because EPA has determined it is safe as used
Bayer (BAYGn.DE) said on [April 4, 2025] it was again petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to sharply limit legal claims that ...
