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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Viewpoint: How trial lawyers rigged IARC’s cancer monograph program to fuel lawsuits targeting glyphosate, other chemicals
IARC is a troubling example of a UN agency used for personal profit ...
EU farmers ‘fed up’ with rapeseed as neonicotinoid insecticide ban, dry weather cripple crop yields
Rapeseed, easily spotted with its bright yellow flowers in summer, is used for meal and oil in products ranging from ...
Podcast: Do it for the kids? Federal children’s health research grants fund anti-pesticide, organic food activism
How would taxpayers feel about funding organic food activism masquerading as children's health research? ...
General Mills urges suppliers to cut glyphosate use, citing growing consumer pesticide fears
General Mills, like all companies, needs happy and satisfied customers. That’s why it’s asking suppliers, farmers who produce oats, wheat, ...
Bayer faces dozens of potentially costly glyphosate-cancer lawsuits in Hawaii
Dozens of lawsuits potentially worth tens of millions of dollars in damages are in the works in Hawaii targeting Monsanto ...
French town’s failed pesticide ban reignites national campaign against Bayer’s Roundup weed killer
Daniel Cueff’s failed crusade to ban pesticides in his tiny Breton village lays bare the deep political contradictions at the ...
Viewpoint: Eat 1,500 strawberries in one sitting—and pesticides still won’t harm you
Can you identify which of the following is NOT true about pesticides? A: Pesticides are extremely dangerous to humans. B: ...
Infographic: GMO crops ‘wreck’ the environment, human health? Latest evidence says otherwise
"GMOs are not saving farmers money, they're not producing higher yields, and perhaps most significantly they're wrecking the environment and ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide exposure could harm ground-nesting bees, study suggests
In a first-ever study investigating the risk of neonicotinoid insecticides to ground-nesting bees, University of Guelph researchers have discovered at ...
EU urges member states to ban insecticide chlorpyrifos, citing potential threat to children’s health
The European Commission will put forward a proposal to EU countries not to renew the license for the pesticide chlorpyrifos ...
French President Emmanuel Macron challenges legality of town’s glyphosate weed killer ban
French President Emmanuel Macron told a mayor from Brittany who ordered a ban on the use of pesticides near his ...
‘Severe blow’ to Irish agriculture: Regulators reject farmers’ request to use neonicotinoid insecticides
The failure to grant a derogation for the use of Redigo Deter seed dressing – which contains the neonicotinoid clothianidin ...
Battle over cancer warning label, glyphosate ban could complicate Roundup lawsuit settlement
Bayer AG is in mediation to potentially settle thousands of U.S. lawsuits claiming that the company’s Roundup weed killer causes ...
Off-patent GMO Bt corn could slash seed costs for farmers, boost crop yields
Extremely low-cost and high-yield Bt corn? Off-patent, generic Bt corn is rapidly approaching farmland and the price differential might cause ...
Gene-silencing biopesticide targets harmful insects without threatening pollinators
A natural, sustainable alternative to pesticides that targets specific pests, without harming beneficial pollinators such as honeybees, is being developed ...
20 French mayors ban glyphosate, spurring new legal battle over Bayer’s controversial weed killer
Some 20 French mayors have banned glyphosate from their municipalities, defying the government, which is now taking legal action to ...
Viewpoint: Produce is sugary, GMO ‘poison’? Scientific American embraces long-debunked food safety tropes
The lies and distortions start early in this appalling Scientific American article -- and they keep going to the end ...
Bayer sells animal health division for $7.6 billion, denies deal prompted by glyphosate-cancer lawsuits
Agriculture and pharmaceutical giant Bayer [August 20] agreed [to] a $7.6 billion deal to sell its animal health business to ...
Kenya will approve biotech crops on case-by-case basis, three months after proposing to lift GMO ban
Kenyans are still waiting on the Government’s decision as to whether it will lift the ban on Genetically Modified Organisms ...
UK farmers struggle to control ‘largely symptomless’ virus without neonicotinoid insecticides
A mild autumn and winter combined with a build-up in aphid numbers since the loss of neonicotinoid seed treatments has ...
Judge tosses glyphosate-in-Cheerios lawsuit for no evidence of ‘injury’
The active ingredient in popular weed killers, glyphosate, has gotten bad press lately .... Some advocacy groups are claiming that ...
Viewpoint: EPA has science on its side in glyphosate-cancer label battle with California
By any measure, California’s Proposition 65 is an exercise in madness. The law, which is officially titled “The Safe Drinking Water ...
Strict evidence standards in upcoming glyphosate-cancer trials could yield science-based verdicts, legal analyst says
Three trials in California against Bayer have sided with plaintiffs involving allegations that the glyphosate in the herbicide Roundup causes ...
Microorganisms could help rid soil of lingering pesticides
Pesticides have been widely used after the Second World War in management of weeds, diseases and pests of plants. Most ...
California advances ban on insecticide chlorpyrifos, claims ‘politics’ prevent EPA from acting
California regulators on [August 14] took formal legal steps to ban a widely used pesticide that had been rescued from ...
Viewpoint: Biologist Tyrone Hayes, author of suspect atrazine weed killer study, nominated for EPA’s Scientific Advisory Panel
Comments opened on the recent EPA nominations to serve on the Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) .... The name at number ...
India won’t ban glyphosate to stop illegal planting of herbicide-tolerant GMO crops
The government is unlikely to put a ban on the controversial herbicide glyphosate as there is no proven record to ...
