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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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 ...
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: 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 ...
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 farmers are digging in their heals in defense of the weedkiller glyphosate demonized by activists
Glyphosate has become a scapegoat in a broader campaign against modern production practices. Activists have cherry picked data, amplified worst-case ...
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 ...
GLP Spaces on X: Misinfo from the mainstream. Hypocritical pediatricians blast RFK Jr.’s anti-vaxx stance while flouting consensus on GMOs
You can't be a stalwart defender of scientific consensus, expertise and evidence-based medicine while taking contrarian positions on critical public ...
Viewpoint: ‘Inciting personal injury litigation’: UN’s cancer hazard agency stumbles again in classifying gasoline as dangerously carcinogenic, echoing glyphosate fiasco
In a move that will boost the spirits of trial lawyers and climate activists the world over, a branch of ...
Sen Cory Booker aligns with MAHA, RFK, Jr., his discredited Children’s Health Defense, and Environmental Working Group to hold companies liable for alleged injuries from crop chemicals found safe by US regulators
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is receiving major support from anti-“Big Ag” activist organizations for his newest bill, the Pesticide ...
Rejecting the suggestions of RFK, Jr.’s MAHA report targeting crop chemicals, White House says it won’t pursue tighter pesticide restrictions
Trump administration officials say the White House has no plans to crack down on pesticides in farming, despite a report ...
EU orders further studies on glyphosate in the wake of controversial study in which activist scientists used cancer-prone rats and found some developed cancer
The European Commission has told two EU agencies to run a study for up to 21 months to figure out ...
Viewpoint: MAHA supporters and anti-vaxxers are spreading chemophobia through the mainstream
A broad spectrum of “sunscreen truthers” on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook have peddled the trope that sunscreen causes ...
GLP podcast: Politics over science. Why food safety debates are driven by ideology
America's ferocious battles over food safety and nutrition are often driven by politics and other ideological considerations rather than cold, ...
Viewpoint: A disturbing conversation about glyphosate with a science-denier
The intent of my previous column on glyphosate was simply to encourage some critical thinking. In it, I wrote: Glyphosate is an ...
What chemicals are used in organic farming?
[N]atural agricultural chemicals ... provide organic farming with pest management, nutrient supplementation and soil improvement solutions. [These include:] ... Pyrethrins: ...
Viewpoint: A world without glyphosate would mean more weeds, soil erosion and carbon emissions, and smaller crop yields
Too much rain can devastate a crop. That was especially true when cultivators were the primary weed technology. It was ...
GLP spaces on X: The ‘Dirty Dozen,’ dissected
Each year the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) "Dirty Dozen" list ranks fruits and vegetables with the supposedly highest pesticide residues, ...
