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.
Bayer lawsuit: First federal glyphosate-cancer trial heads to jury
A trial in which a California man alleged his use of Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer caused his cancer ...
Viewpoint: Neonicotinoid ban puts UK sugar beet yields at risk for first time in 25 years
For the past 25 years, sugar beet agronomy hasn’t been complicated by the threat of virus yellows – it’s only ...
Ban on aerial glyphosate spraying of coca crops could ‘derail’ peace efforts, Colombia’s president warns
A judicial ban on aerial spraying of the herbicide glyphosate to eliminate coca crops should be modified, Colombia’s President Ivan ...
Viewpoint: Farmers’ crops are failing, and Europe’s precautionary assault on neonicotinoid insecticides is to blame
Farmers will never forget the last five years of incompetence from the European Commission ...
Court-mandated release of unpublished glyphosate studies could ‘reinvigorate’ EU’s Monsanto Roundup controversy
An EU court ruled [March 7] that European lawmakers must be given access to scientific studies examining the safety of ...
Viewpoint: Sri Lanka’s glyphosate-kidney disease scare illustrates why science, not politics, should dictate public health policy
On Feb. 4, the [American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)] announced that “two public health researchers who battled powerful ...
First case of dicamba, 2,4-D herbicide resistance detected in hard-to-control Palmer amaranth weed population
Kansas State University (KSU) weed scientists have confirmed a Palmer amaranth population that resists the synthetic auxin (Group 4) herbicides ...
Roundup lawsuit: Plaintiff takes the stand against Monsanto in first federal glyphosate-cancer trial
Edwin Hardeman, the first person to challenge Monsanto’s Roundup in a federal trial, testified [March 5] that he sprayed the ...
RNA-based pesticides are coming, but how will they affect the ecosystem?
New research shows how a new kind of genetically engineered pesticide moves through and degrades in the soil. This new generation ...
Podcast: Roundup resistance—new tactics help farmers keep glyphosate-resistant weeds in check
Weed resistance to herbicides has no field boundaries....Jeff Evans is an ecologist and the owner of Farmscape Analytics, LLC. He ...
Biotech startup aims to challenge ‘Big Ag’s’ dominance in the US seed market
Farmers don’t have a reputation for skewing to the political left, but just get them talking about seeds. At an ...
Neutralizing toxic military explosives with GMO plants
Military preparedness means testing ammunition in controlled field trials, as well as decommissioning obsolete weaponry. The result is a significant ...
New herbicide controls hard-to-kill weeds, could be paired with resistant GMO crops
Purdue University researchers have developed a compound effective for controlling weeds that is also safe for people and the environment. They ...
Viewpoint: Monsanto’s Roundup is safe, but PR battle to defend weed killer may be lost cause
Let me state for the record. I believe glyphosate to be perfectly safe. There have been hundreds of studies by ...
Predatort Part II: How predatory lawyers, activist scientists hijacked IARC—International Agency for Research on Cancer—for personal profit and ideological vanity
How the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has forsaken academic integrity and knowingly contributes to the Predatort litigation ...
Viewpoint: Controversy flares over activist ‘predatort lawyers’ who ‘massaged facts’ in the Monsanto-glyphosate case
Lawyers often use a certain breed of self-interested scientist to terrify a jury of vulnerable non-specialists ...
Citing ‘unintended’ environmental impacts, Scottish politician urges UK to ditch EU’s neonicotinoid ban post Brexit
EUROPE’S ban on neonicotinoid pesticides should not be transferred into the UK’s post-Brexit legislation, according to Scottish Conservative MP Colin ...
Bayer’s legal woes multiply as chemical giant battles onslaught of glyphosate, dicamba lawsuits
Many Bayer AG investors didn’t realize just how much litigation risk they were getting when the German company spent $66 ...
As US legal battle over Monsanto’s Roundup rages, Brazil health officials say glyphosate doesn’t cause cancer
Analysts at Brazil health agency Anvisa have determined that the weed-killer glyphosate does not cause cancer while recommending a series ...
EU neonicotinoid insecticide ban, Brexit prompt some UK farmers to grow less risky crops to protect yields
The [UK] Paterson Farming Partnership is a joint venture between Worstead Farms, run by brothers Gavin, Bruce and Alex Paterson, ...
Activist group finds drinking 140 glasses of wine a day could expose alcoholics to potentially harmful levels of the herbicide glyphosate
A new report by the public-interest advocacy group U.S. PIRG reveals that tests of five wines and 15 beers....found traces of the controversial ...
Monsanto lawsuit: Judge threatens to ‘shut down’ plaintiff’s attorney for presenting banned evidence in glyphosate-cancer trial
Monsanto is facing its first federal trial over allegations that its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer, but a US judge has blocked ...
Nigeria has its first GMO cowpea. The battle for public acceptance is just getting started
A war of words over a recently-released genetically modified cowpea has divided the Nigerian public and raised concerns about the ...
Roundup on trial: Second glyphosate-cancer lawsuit heads to federal court
Bayer AG is set to face a second U.S. jury over allegations that its popular glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup causes ...
Talking Biotech: Epidemiologist Geoffrey Kabat debunks flawed glyphosate-cancer meta-analysis. Were the mistakes deliberate?
A skeptical look at the latest glyphosate-cancer study reveals critical errors ...
US farmers to plant new biotech soybeans as DowDuPont receives final international regulatory approval
DowDuPont Inc has won the final international regulatory approval needed, from the Philippines, for a global launch of a new ...
US Rep Earl Blumenauer introduces bill to suspend neonicotinoid insecticide use, citing ‘devastating’ impact on bees
On [February 21], Congressman Earl Blumenauer [of Oregon] introduced legislation he said will help bees by suspending the use of insecticides that ...
