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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95% fewer insecticide applications? How integrated pest management (IPM) strategies can improve crop yields while slashing pesticide use
We used a 4-y experiment using commercial-scale fields replicated across multiple sites in the midwestern United States to evaluate the ...
Class action tort reform: Why ‘outrageous’ judgements against Bayer in glyphosate cancer scare makes a case for dramatic legal changes
Legal reform advocates nationwide recognize October as “Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Month.” This year, the U.S. Supreme Court can help highlight ...
Fruits, vegetables and nuts: USDA-EPA-agricultural industry-public partnership project endorses continued support for neonicotinoids in specialty crops
The IR-4 project established by the USDA provides information to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to support use of neonics ...
Sri Lanka pauses organic-inspired ban on synthetic fertilizers
Barely six months after Sri Lanka’s overnight flip to complete organic cultivation and ban on chemical fertiliser imports, several stumbling ...
GLP Podcast: Poison ivy vaccine; Exercise doesn’t always cause weight loss; Essential oil videos debunked
Poison Ivy plagues outdoor enthusiasts everywhere. Is a vaccine on the horizon? Exercise is great for your health, but a ...
Viewpoint: ‘There is nothing chemical-free’ — Organic foods and farming present numerous unacknowledged hazards
[Alexandra Correia:] What do you think when you hear “chemical free product”? [Nuno Maulide, Director of the Institute of Organic ...
GLP Podcast: Smoking prevents COVID? CRISPR and nuclear weapons; Bayer wins first glyphosate case
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Viewpoint: UK’s ‘unreasoned ban pesticides approach’ must give way to an informed debate on which technologies best serve society and the environment
We stand at a real crossroads in our response to the challenge of developing new and better pesticides. The unreasoned ...
Honeybee losses in Canada hit 10-year low, raising doubts about need for neonicotinoid bans to protect pollinators
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Risk vs. hazard: Current regulatory structures rely on outdated and flawed Precautionary Principle to assess potential dangers of chemicals
There has been a long running controversy about the relative merits of hazard-based versus risk-based approaches in managing the potential ...
Church of Scientology key driver of glyphosate class action suits
If it is now established that there would never have been a "glyphosate" case without the decisive impetus given by ...
Bayer claims first victory in glyphosate litigation, as jury rejects claim weedkiller caused a child’s non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Bayer AG won its first trial over claims its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer after a California jury found that the ...
Videos: Debunking three viral social media videos that promote ‘snake oil’ products and spread misinformation about the ‘dangers’ of pesticides on produce
Here I’m going to explore three viral videos I’ve come across on social media in which [multi-level marketing, or] MLM ...
Viewpoint: The EPA is embracing ‘precautionary politics’ — and abandoning its long-time commitment to evidence-based risk-benefit assessments of agricultural chemicals
Unlike the European Union, the U.S. has maintained a reasonable standard on studied substances allowed for use in modern agriculture ...
Replacing industrial produced fertilizers: Specially-bred soil-enriching bacteria poised to dramatically cut crop chemical inputs, protecting farms and the climate
[A]s the world’s demand for agricultural products has grown, the nutrients needed to grow all our crops has far outpaced ...
Viewpoint: How European ‘precautionary politics’ hobble Kenya’s attempts to embrace biotechnology
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‘We’re simultaneously reducing our reliance on crop-protection products and getting better at killing weeds’: Crop biotechnology and other innovations provide pesticide alternatives
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Viewpoint: European political opposition to genetically modified crops softens while US anti-glyphosate hysteria rages
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Viewpoint: Organic only experiment in Sri Lanka goes awry — ‘The government would do well to listen to the country’s agricultural scientists and not to quacks masquerading as experts’
[Sri Lankan] President Rajapaksa’s ill-conceived and extremist policy, announced in April this year, of banning the import of all chemical ...
Viewpoint: Meta-review of 266 studies concludes weedkiller paraquat doesn’t cause Parkinson’s disease
In order to examine the extent to which a consensus exists in the scientific community regarding the relationship between paraquat ...
Viewpoint: Sri Lanka economic crisis deepens as recently-imposed chemical fertilizer ban stirs inflation in a country already suffering from the pandemic
An ill-advised ban on the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, combined with pandemic-induced contraction of the economy and decline ...
Sri Lanka’s plan to go ‘all organic’ and end use of synthetic chemicals leaves staple tea industry in ‘complete disarray’
Sri Lanka’s drive to become the world’s first 100 percent organic food producer threatens its prized tea industry and has ...
Viewpoint: ‘Neonicotinoids and other seed treatments are a precise tool and critical component of safe, integrated pest management practices’ — American Seed Association challenges ‘misunderstandings’
Treated seeds have been widely adopted by growers for two key reasons: 1. They are a highly effective tool for farmers ...
Infographic: Does consuming micro-traces of glyphosate (aka Roundup) in our food cause cancer? All 20 global regulatory and chemical oversight agencies say ‘no’, while anti-biotech activists spin the data
Glyphosate weedkiller, once marketed exclusively under the name RoundUp by its originator Monsanto, is the world's most popular herbicide, used ...
Viewpoint: Here’s how activist scientists use exaggerated fears of trace chemicals as a subterfuge to try to derail crop biotechnology
Environmental Health published on August 3, 2021 “Commentary: Novel strategies and new tools to curtail the health effects of pesticides” ...
Video: Are pesticides harmful or bad for biodiversity? Challenging 5 widely-held myths
Below, you will find five of the most common myths about pesticides, and the truth about them. MYTH: Pesticides are ...
Viewpoint: The biggest threat to our food supply is not chemicals but chemophobia
My cousin is a baking whiz, and runs her own cookie enterprise. The recipes happen to call for potato flour ...
