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.
Crop chemophobia I: Pesticides are vital to organic and conventional agriculture — but they can be misused. Here’s how to distinguish between legitimate concerns and anti-science propaganda
It seems not a month goes by without an “investigative reporter” somewhere on the internet warning about the dangers of ...
Nature study finds growth and body composition of Zebra finches are ‘positively impacted’ by early life exposure to low doses of neonicotinoids
Neonicotinoids are insecticides widely used as seed treatments that appear to have multiple negative effects on birds at a diversity ...
Facing 30,000 unresolved cancer claims, Bayer plans to pull glyphosate from US lawn and garden market by 2023
German drugs and chemicals giant [Bayer] has repeatedly failed to put the Roundup woes behind it. Bayer inherited the legal ...
Viewpoint: It’s time for a reassessment of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)’s role in sabotaging glyphosate, one of the world’s most popular — and safest — herbicides
As we’re in the midst of a reevaluation of whether the Virology Laboratory in Wuhan, China was the true source ...
‘What isn’t an endocrine disruptor?’ Silent Spring Institute claims hundreds of common chemicals cause breast cancer — but the science is lacking
A study by the Silent Spring Institute (1), with funding from the politically sympathetic National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences ...
Viewpoint: ‘Europe has abandoned science-based assessments’ — Kenya and the rest of Africa face economic devastation, mass starvation if they adopt proposal to ban all products banned in the EU
It is hard to remember any decision that posed harm to Kenya as much as the recommendation before Parliament that ...
Viewpoint: ‘Well intentioned’ Sri Lankan plan to embrace organic farming tainted by lack of science, damaging its economy, health, and food security
In Sri Lanka, world renowned for its tea production, an initiative to go all-organic — the textbook definition of a ...
Viewpoint: Warning to Sri Lanka — Tunnel vision embrace of an organic-only farming model sets country up for economic and environmental backwardness
An Open Letter to Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa: Your recent endeavor to ‘rush’ the country from conventional farming to ...
Viewpoint: ‘Glyphosate is socially dead’ — While every major government regulator in the world finds the herbicide safe, politicians have caved to activists, and farmers are the victims
The specialist authorities from France, Sweden, Hungary and the Netherlands have come to a clear conclusion when it comes to ...
GLP Podcast: ‘It’s banned in Europe’ fallacy, debunked; Conversation’s bad glyphosate article; Fighting pregnancy stress
If a pesticide is banned in Europe, does that make it dangerous? Nope. Typically an excellent source of science commentary, ...
Organic pesticide copper sulfate—unlike glyphosate—is a carcinogen, kills beneficial insects, decimates soil, pollutes water. It also works. Here are political and science reasons why regulators give it a free pass
Europe is currently in a frenzy trying to drum up enough support to dramatically rollback approvals of targeted synthetic pesticides, ...
Viewpoint: How does the scientifically bankrupt claim glyphosate poses harm to humans remain popular? By dishonest ‘reporting,’ including from scientists who put ideology over evidence
The Conversation bills itself as a website designed to “Unlock the knowledge of researchers and academics to provide the public with ...
Viewpoint: This 11,000 page European Union report should end the debate over the ‘dangers’ posed by glyphosate weedkiller
Glyphosate is a weed killer widely used by the agricultural industry and also available for consumer use in products like ...
‘We create mosquito sex parties’: How an eco-friendly, AI-guided release of sterile mosquito females might control the scourge of disease-carrying insects
Jerusalem-based Diptera.ai has figured out a way to use AI to fight the growing threat of mosquitoes, which are spreading ...
Kenya on track to commercialize GM maize by 2022 to increase yields, cut pesticide use
Whether it is ugali, a popular dish prepared from maize flour and often accompanied by meat, vegetables and pulses, or porridge, ...
GLP Podcast: ‘Lefty’ anti-GMO groups embrace lab-leak story; Organic nutrition myths; CRISPR treats crippling disease
Anti-GMO groups have hitched their wagons to the COVID lab-leak hypothesis to keep their flagging agenda alive. Organic produce is ...
‘Uncertain and confused’: Sri Lankan farmers facing government’s ‘misguided’ ban on all synthetic chemicals fear sustainable farming will be unattainable
The [Sri Lankan Cabinet of Ministers recently] approved President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s proposal to ban the importation of chemical fertilisers. In ...
Another study finds glyphosate herbicide kills tumor cells. Is the much-maligned weedkiller a cancer fighter?
If Roundup or one of its ingredients turns out to be an effective cancer treatment, it would be a stunning ...
Glyphosate can cure cancer? Yes, some research ‘shows’ that — but what does it mean? And what does it say about Roundup doomsday claims?
A demonstration of the fine art of cherrypicking ...
Decades-past DDT exposure shown to ‘haunt’ our bodies for three generations or more
Friends and family often ask Barbara Cohn, an epidemiologist at Oakland's Public Health Institute, why she studies the effects of ...
‘There’s so much misinformation swirling around the internet’: Are pesticides really safe and necessary?
Here are 5 things you may not know about pesticides — from their long backstory to their development and testing ...
Viewpoint: ‘The European Green Deal has been captured by chemophobic activists with no understanding of science’. Here’s how the EU can put sustainability ahead of ideology
After seeing rampant chemophobia and fear-mongering influence the REACH process in the mid-2000s, I set up a satirical blog called ...
Glyphosate does not cause cancer, latest independent European Union study concludes
Despite the allegations of greedy trial lawyers and greedy, ideological activist groups, a massive body of peer-reviewed research has confirmed ...
GLP Podcast: Hollywood’s vaccine-autism nonsense; COVID lab-leak story won’t die; Africa ignores Greenpeace on pesticides
Many Hollywood celebrities have endorsed the bogus link between vaccines to autism. Looking back, it appears their influence has been ...
Viewpoint: ‘Smart pesticide use’ — Here’s a way we can protect crops while preserving beneficial insects
Currently, products are developed and marketed to kill pest insects immediately. This has become the goal of crop treatments, and ...
Farmers warn Mexico’s GM corn ban will raise food prices
Mexico’s farmer associations are teaming up and pushing back through legal battles in opposition to a presidential decree to ban ...
Viewpoint: New York’s ‘Birds and Bees Protection Act’ targeting neonicotinoid pesticides doesn’t protect either and would hurt farmers
[Recently,] the New York legislature began advancing the Birds and Bees Protection Act. If it passes both chambers and is ...
