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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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 ...
Viewpoint: Appeal to Nature Fallacy: How MAHA is stoking chemophobia
Chemophobia was born from the “appeal to nature fallacy,” said [Andrea] Love, which is “the false belief that natural substances ...
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 ...
AI paired with gene editing poised to escalate fight against tomato diseases
Aided by artificial intelligence, researchers at UC Davis managed to strengthen plants’ immune response by re-engineering protein structures that detect ...
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
Bayer will “significantly contain” glyphosate litigation by the end of 2026, CEO Bill Anderson said ... during the company’s second-quarter ...
Is sunscreen bad for your health? MAHA and social media disinformation threatens a resurgence in skin cancer
Sunscreen protects the skin by either absorbing or reflecting ultraviolet rays that can cause sunburn, premature aging and skin cancer ...
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 ...
Viewpoint: NGO deception II—How environmental activists turn faux chemical crises into marketing and fundraising bonanzas
The ‘Filthy Fifteen’ exposes the worst environmental and health ‘fear profiteers’ and campaigns—from activist ideologues to corporate opportunists—who knowingly spread ...
GLP podcast: Legalize all drugs? Here’s an ER doctor’s perspective
As an increasing number of US states begin to liberalize their drug laws, allowing recreational use of marijuana and even ...
Viewpoint: France’s scientifically backward view on an alleged bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticide will ensure serious destruction of leafy vegetables and fruits
France is a blessed country. After having counted 68 million doctors during the Covid crisis, then 68 million athletes during ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s backward view on pesticides—Banning synthetic crop chemicals for effective organic alternatives ensures armyworms will devastate corn crops
The polyphagous Spodoptera frugiperda (fall armyworm), a Lepidopteran pest, has European farmers in a panic and, when the environmental NGOs ...
Viewpoint: The Chemical Panic Industry — to the delight of tort lawyers, activist researchers invent the myth of the ‘exposome’
There is a chemical in my soup. There’s a microplastic that might be harmful. There are particles in the air ...
GLP podcast: COVID shots in 2025. Who needs a booster and why?
Five years after COVID-19 began to turn the world upside down, controversy continues to rage around the life-saving mRNA vaccines ...
Chemophobic misconceptions people have about chemicals
We must accept that the word 'chemicals' is commonly used as a short hand for toxic and poisonous, and that ...
Viewpoint: Time to shelve the scientifically outdated and misleading Precautionary Principle
Both regulations and toxic tort decisions, being guided by an antiquated Precautionary Principle, routinely seek to lower exposure to potential ...
Why are so many unapproved chemicals found in European-grown organic food?
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a report that investigates the occurrence of 21 active substances frequently present in organic ...
