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.
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Viewpoint: ‘Alt-right’ piles into the RFK. Jr. science-distorting chemophobia-promoting clown car
[Robert Francis Kennedy Jr.] has spread misinformation multiple times over the past three years claiming that herbicides and other chemicals ...
GLP podcast: AI chatbot convinces student to commit suicide. ‘Smart’ agriculture isn’t so smart; Will alcohol warning labels save lives?
Another teenager has committed suicide following some horrifying encouragement from an AI chatbot to "please die." Who's at fault when ...
Viewpoint: Europe is rushing to regulate microplastics and activists are clamoring for the U.S. to follow suit. Good science or environmental folly?
When regulating toxic substances, we first identify a risk (aim), and then, and only then, take action to reduce that ...
No, the modern world is not killing us–Viewpoint: RFK. Jr.’s reckless war on food and agriculture
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his Children's Defense Fund and his work as a trial lawyer for Natural Resources Defense ...
GLP podcast: Our food is poisoning us? Here are the facts about red dye, pesticides and processing
With a few thumb taps on a smart phone, we can order an almost limitless selection of foods and have ...
Smart agriculture: African farmers urged to gradually reduce use of pesticides and fertilizers rather than abandon them to reduce risk of significant crop and economic losses
After decades of mono-cropping and overgrazing, around 65% of Africa’s farmland is now considered unproductive or degraded, leaving more than 270 million people ...
French Association for Scientific Information rebukes hysteria-promoting anti-pesticide activists for endangering sustainable agriculture
We are witnessing a new campaign promoting unfounded fears. In terms of the media, it all started with an AFP ...
RFK Jr. claims to want healthy food, but demonizes the science that makes it possible
It’s been an... interesting couple of weeks, to put it mildly. Donald Trump nominated RFK Jr. as Secretary of the ...
Viewpoint: $3 billion a year industry exploits unwarranted fears about the dangers of ‘synthetic chemicals’
A [paper published in Science] claims that even at low doses pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides are changing the behavior of ...
Viewpoint: ‘Chemical cocktail’ speculation is homeopathic hysteria
Blood samples of pregnant women have detectable levels of chemicals and that 'chemical cocktail' may pose [a] "neurotoxic risk", according ...
GLP podcast: Modern farming—’a miracle of science’; extreme weather threatens our food supply? Activists promote retracted pesticide study
Food production has absolutely exploded since the 1960s, feeding billions more people while innovative technologies reduced the environmental impact of ...
Viewpoint: What is ‘Spatula-Gate’? Or how reckless, chemophobic media and environmentalists bungled the science of plastics yet again
For months, the media indulged in a frenzy of fearmongering, plastering headlines about toxic flame retardants supposedly hiding in your ...
Viewpoint: U.S. taxpayer funded UN sub-agency International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)’s broken cancer evaluation system hurts consumers and the regulatory process
TPAF [Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation] has even been able to use FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests to hold global ...
35 years after Alar hysteria devastated the apple industry, there are more varieties than ever before. What happened?
[I]n 1989 the apple industry was hit with the notorious “Alar Scare” when the environmental group NRDC asserted that a ...
The science behind water fluoridation: What is hysteria, what fears are justified?
Water fluoridation is supported by a robust body of evidence. Numerous epidemiological studies have demonstrated significant reductions in cavities in ...
GLP podcast: ‘Spatula Gate’—The black plastic chemical scare collapses
In early October a small study published in an obscure science journal went viral for alleging that cookware and children's ...
Viewpoint: NGO claim that crop pesticides has led to hundreds of thousands of poisoning deaths has proven false but activists don’t retract it
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” The sentence in the ...
Viewpoint: 15 explanations for why activists lie and try to scare people about ‘killer’ chemicals, genetically engineered crops and nuclear energy
We always hear NGOs saying that we cannot trust industry, that we have to exclude industry evidence or that industry ...
Viewpoint: Want to stay well? Avoid every product sold by the wellness industry
In the health and wellness space fear is often used as a marketing technique, with patent medicine salesmen, pharmaceutical companies, ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr., Vani Hari and the Environmental Working Group are trying to dupe you—How the organic movement built its reputation on chemophobia
There is a LOT of misinformation out there when it comes to our foods, including how our foods are grown ...
Here’s how the organic industry greenwashes its commitment to regenerative agriculture
Think-tank reports Soil Association ‘greenwashing’ claims to advertising watchdog Pro-innovation think-tank Science for Sustainable Agriculture (SSA) has written to the Advertising ...
Bernie Sanders says RFK, Jr. is ‘exactly correct in criticizing the food industry but his views on health are ‘extremely dangerous’
Sen. Bernie Sanders praised Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s message on food issues ... and said he had not [decided] whether ...
Viewpoint: Does peanut oil in vaccines cause an allergy to peanuts? That’s the latest RFK, Jr. health claim and like most others he’s wrong
I want to address this recent excerpt from RFK Jr.’s appearance on Mikhaila [Peterson's] podcast, so let’s get into it ...
Viewpoint: ‘Progressives think rural people are dumb rubes’—Farmers know that neonicotinoid insecticides do not harm honeybees
Minnesota is having a challenging year, so challenging they are approaching California as the wackiest state, according to other states ...
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr ‘would put the public’s health in jeopardy: 75+ Nobel laureates urge Senate to reject HHS nominee
More than 75 Nobel Prize winners have signed a letter urging senators not to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect ...
What is the likely future for glyphosate and other synthetic crop chemicals under the Trump Administration
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, will likely not be ...
Trump pledges to crack down on ‘harmful chemical poisoning’ and address a ‘chronic disease epidemic’. Here are some details
The next four years of federal food and health leadership could bring changes to what packaging materials are allowed in ...
