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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GLP podcast: Three phony health fads making your wallet lighter
"It really implies risk when there is none." That's how geneticist and farmer Kevin Folta summarizes the fatal flaw behind ...
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GLP spaces on X: Psychedelics—groundbreaking depression therapies or dangerous drugs?
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Just because a chemical ingredient used in food is found in household products or medicine does not mean its unsafe
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‘A historic failure’: MIT management professor who falsely claimed Covid shots were ineffective and deadly appointed head of CDC vaccine oversight
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Viewpoint: Profiling Dr. David Geier, the anti-vax quack who is guiding RFK, Jr.’s vaccine policy
By Jessica SteierGraphics by Sara Chodosh and Taylor Maggiacomo Dr. Steier is a public health scientist who specializes in science ...
Appeal to Nature Fallacy: Understanding soaring chemophobia from the ideological left and right
Chemophobia is complicated, but, in short, it’s a distrust or fear of chemicals and appears in many of aspects of ...
Can bacteria replace synthetic fertilizer?
Synthetic fertilizer is a modern wonder, helping to feed billions of people, but it’s not without its costs. Fertilizer runoff ...
Viewpoint: What the media and policymakers miss about containing agricultural pests—Exaggerating risk and underestimating benefits
The debate on the extent and necessity of regulating the use of plant protection products essentially concerns an objective assessment ...
Viewpoint: Appeal to Nature Fallacy: How MAHA is stoking chemophobia
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GLP spaces on X: Do Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs promote ‘fat phobia’ as some fat activists claim?
Obesity may have finally found its match in Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs that are helping many millions of people ...
Despite no evidence of health harm in humans, companies scramble to phase out synthetic dyes
On January 15, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revoked authorization of Red No. 3 in food, causing it ...
AI paired with gene editing poised to escalate fight against tomato diseases
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Viewpoint: Activist hyped study ‘proving’ that glyphosate can cause leukemia is junk science
The discussion around glyphosate, a widely used herbicide, is becoming increasingly charged, especially with new studies surfacing that suggest a ...
Farmers and MAHA forged a bond of convenience to help elect Trump. The weedkiller glyphosate is tearing them apart
The fact is, the Trump administration spends a lot of time trying to please completely contradictory parts of its coalition: ...
Viewpoint: No, childhood vaccines are not more harmful than the diseases they effectively prevent
Vaccinations not only safeguard individual health but also preserve the collective health of our communities, ensuring that preventable infectious diseases ...
Bayer’s plan to contain still spiraling suits against glyphosate
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Is sunscreen bad for your health? MAHA and social media disinformation threatens a resurgence in skin cancer
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Viewpoint: ‘Travesty of science’: Latest ‘global glyphosate study’ is a scientific mess issued by the ethically-compromised Ramazzini Institute
In June, the Ramazzini Institute published the results of its long-heralded Global Glyphosate Study via an article in a Ramazzini-managed ...
‘Scared …less’: Chemophobic ‘precautionary principle’ undermines science of food and health, and MAHA makes it worse
These days, the average American consumer … is scared $#!+less. Just about everywhere you turn there’s a health guru or ...
GLP podcast: Deadly mistake? RFK, Jr. guts mRNA vaccine research
Iconoclastic Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has once again roiled the science community, cancelling $500 million ...
10 years ago, the hazard agency IARC called glyphosate a ‘likely carcinogen’. It weaponized chemophobia, corrupted environmental groups and ignited a tort bonanza
Ten years ago this week, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released the full Monograph 112, that included a ...
Viewpoint: GOP-loyal farmers surprised by ‘friendly fire’ amid Trump agenda of deportations, trade wars, and pesticide bans
Farmers, a solidly Republican constituency, are scratching their heads over what they see as a barrage of friendly fire. Agriculture ...
Viewpoint: Everything is a carcinogen! Here’s why there are so many lawsuits claiming safe chemicals cause cancer
Somewhere in Berkeley, California, Ramazzini fellow, Martyn T Smith, is looking out of his window dreaming of methods to find ...
‘Feel Free’: People getting addicted to this addictive ‘botanical’ supplement drink with kava root and kratom, and regulators are doing nothing
Feel Free’s most well-known variant — the “Classic” tonic made by the company Botanic Tonics, which also makes a “Kava ...
Viewpoint: Misconstruing risk—Anti-glyphosate hyperbole sows unwarranted public anxiety and confusion
The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) was passed in 1996 and established new safety standards (i.e., tolerances) for pesticides. The act mandated ...
Viewpoint: California’s science-challenged Proposition 65 toxic chemical regulation are at center of ‘tort shakedown’ racket
Not to0 many years ago, my wife and I once elebrated our anniversary in South Lake Tahoe, situated on the ...
