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.
Farmers in four states sue Monsanto, BASF and Dupont over dicamba herbicide damage
Farmers in the heartland have filed at least 11 lawsuits in federal court over the last two years against the ...
Germany agrees to ban GMO crops, phase out glyphosate herbicide ‘as soon as possible’
After a week of talks, German coalition negotiators agreed on the cornerstones of their new programme. But when a new government ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide may increase honeybee survival when manure bacteria is present, lab study finds
Recent studies of honeybees and bumblebees have examined combinatory effects of different stressors, as insect pollinators are naturally exposed to ...
Viewpoint: California’s looming coffee cancer warning shows how judges and lawyers can subvert science
A judge in California is going to determine whether or not coffee causes cancer. Think about that. We live in ...
Trace amounts of neonicotinoid insecticides found in 70 percent of Great Lakes stream samples
Pesticides thought to harm some kinds of bees are turning up in Great Lakes tributaries at unexpected times of the year ...
GMO insect-resistant Bt tomatoes could control leaf miner pest, reduce insecticide use
Editor's note: Anne Frary is a professor in the department of molecular biology and genetics at the Izmir Institute of ...
Coffee causes cancer? That may be California’s next required food warning label
California coffee shops may soon be forced to warn customers about a possible cancer risk linked to their morning jolt ...
Facts not fear: Science Moms’ documentary debunks common food myths about GMOs, organic farming
Editor's note: Sally Kuzemchak, MS, RD, is a registered dietitian, educator, and mom of two In the new documentary, Science Moms, they ...
Will Australian stores’ removal of household neonicotinoid products help bees?
Katja Hogendoorn is a native bee expert and Research Associate within the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the ...
Stonyfield-Gary Hirshberg fiasco grows over video with young girls spreading misinformation about farming and GMOs
Usually, a video with kids talking is cute, funny, perhaps poignant. However, scientists’ and farmers’ reactions to a promotional video ...
French President Macron: Farmers will face glyphosate ban only if there is ‘credible alternative’
France will exempt farmers from a ban on using the weed-killer glyphosate in three years time where there is no ...
Beepocalypse myth busting: Honey bees, not wild species, key for crop pollination—and they’re doing fine
Like GMOs and vaccines, misinformation is rife on the topic of bees. Fearmongers warn of a coming "Beepocalypse." The media ...
Cancer researcher: Media hysteria over glyphosate herbicide undermines science
Editor's note: Guy André Pelouze is a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon who did cancer research during his training and lung cancer treatment ...
DowDuPont, BASF to challenge Monsanto’s dominance of herbicide-tolerant GMO soybean market
Monsanto Co is facing major threats to its historic dominance of seed and herbicide technology for the $40 billion U.S ...
Is glyphosate unsafe? European Food Safety Authority rejects accusations of ‘undue industry influence’ in rejecting carcinogenic designation
Editor's note: Bernhard Url is the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority The job of the European Food Safety Authority ...
Lessons learned from the 2017 Monsanto dicamba herbicide fiasco
Farmers, university scientists, the EPA and ag companies are working together to figure out what went wrong and how to ...
Some large Australian supermarket chains removing neonicotinoid insecticides from shelves, citing bee health concerns
Woolworths in Australia has joined a growing list of companies to stop supplying a controversial pesticide linked to global declines in ...
EU sets up special committee to investigate Greens’ glyphosate herbicide reapproval concerns
The European Parliament has given the green light to a special committee which aims to look into the EU’s authorisation ...
Plagued by pest, African farmers may soon have access to insect-resistant GMO cowpeas—for free
US government funding and royalty-free Bt technology from Monsanto will enable West African countries to provide farmers with free cowpea ...
Monsanto looks to launch new herbicide-tolerant canola, soybean varieties in coming years
Dicamba-tolerant canola is coming and so is a triple-threat soybean, resistant to glyphosate, dicamba and glufosinate. That’s just some of ...
New Zealand garden centers continue selling neonicotinoid insecticides, won’t follow Bunnings’ lead
Kiwi garden centres will not immediately follow hardware giant Bunnings' lead and stop selling controversial pesticides said to harm bees ...
Viewpoint: 6 ways IARC Director Christopher Wild lied to Congress about cancer agency’s glyphosate debacle
While the outgoing head of the embattled agency refused to testify before the US House Science Committee, he did send ...
No set date to end glyphosate herbicide use in Germany, says agriculture minister
German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt said on Thursday [Jan. 18] he could see no set date for an end to ...
Myth busting: Do farmers ‘drench, douse or slather’ crops in pesticides?
One common belief about modern farming is that farmers use pesticides in excess on their crops. A plant scientist explains ...
Glyphosate herbicide harms human gut microbiome? ‘Not biologically plausible’
[O]n numerous occasions I have heard glyphosate critics argue that glyphosate should be opposed because it might alter the microbiome ...
11 states join Monsanto in lawsuit against California’s glyphosate cancer warning
Monsanto Co has gained the support of 11 states in its fight to stop California from requiring the company to ...
IARC cancer agency mounts PR effort as probe of possible corruption grows
The agency was heavily criticized for the methodology used in declaring the herbicide glyphosate a "probable carcinogen." Now IARC is ...
