Everyday, new information about negative health, climate, and economic impacts of chemical-intensive agriculture abound, while new reports emerge showing the benefits of organic agriculture and lifestyle. Read about them here.
Human & Public Health News
Chemicals in home tap water linked to a 33% increase in cancer rates
Earth.com
Recent analysis shows that in parts of the U.S. where PFAS are found in tap water, cancer risk rises by as much as 33%. These synthetic chemicals don’t break down and can build up in the body and environment.
Common Pesticide Linked to “Remarkably Widespread” Brain Abnormalities in Children
SciTech Daily
New research links prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos with widespread changes in brain structure, function, and metabolism, and with poorer motor skills in children. A cohort of 270 New York City youth had exposure measured in umbilical cord blood, and higher exposure predicted greater impact across multiple MRI modalities. Although residential use ended in 2001, agricultural uses continue, leaving families and farmworkers at risk.
International Study Reveals Glyphosate Weed Killers Cause Multiple Types of Cancer
Global Glyphosate Study
A newly released international study found that glyphosate herbicides (like Roundup) caused multiple types of tumors in lab animals, including leukemia and cancers of the liver, skin, thyroid, and testicles. What’s especially concerning is that these cancers occurred at levels of exposure that current regulations still consider safe.
Prenatal pesticide exposure linked to heavy menstrual bleeding in California teens
Environmental Health News
Did you know prenatal exposure to pesticides is linked to health issues in teens, including heavy menstrual bleeding? A California study highlights how pesticide use doesn’t just affect the environment, it leaves long-term impacts on human health. Safer pest management practices are not just a choice: they’re a scientific imperative.
With so many proven alternatives, why are we still relying on harmful chemicals?
Children Exposed to Pesticides Experience “Cellular Distress” and Chronic/Acute Diseases, Study Finds
Beyond Pesticides
A new study highlights the troubling link between pesticide exposure in children and cellular distress, increasing their risk for chronic and acute diseases. This underscores the urgent need to reduce pesticide reliance and prioritize safer alternatives. Protecting children’s health starts with smarter choices in pest management.
‘Forever chemicals’ linked to poor sleep among young adults in first-of-its-kind study
USC Keck School of Medicine
A new study links “forever chemicals” (PFAS) to poor sleep in young adults—a reminder of how important it is to reduce chemical exposure in everyday life. These persistent chemicals, often found in pesticides and other environmental sources, may be affecting our sleep and well-being more than we realize. Minimizing pesticide use at home and advocating for campuses to go pesticide-free could be a step toward healthier environments and better sleep for students everywhere.
Study Finds Disproportionate Risk of Respiratory Effects in Latino School-Aged Children in California
Beyond Pesticides
“Children are already more susceptible to health complications following pesticide exposure, as they take in greater amounts of toxic chemicals relative to their body weight and have still-developing organ systems. Young children in environments with higher levels of pesticide usage and pesticide drift face an even greater threat, such as in the Imperial Valley.”
These common chemicals could affect your health all over your body, expert says
CNN
We know we talk about PFAS often, but we want to thank CNN for providing this valuable and digestible breakdown of how these “forever chemicals” can affect our health. PFAS are found in so many everyday products—cookware, food, water, clothes, and more. Dr. Carmen Marsit explains how these chemicals are linked to cancers, thyroid diseases, and developmental delays. It’s a reminder that while progress is being made on regulations, it’s important to stay informed.
Surprising New Research Links Infant Mortality to Crashing Bat Populations
New York Times
New research reveals that common cockroach sprays are not only losing their effectiveness but could also be putting your health at risk. Cockroaches have developed resistance to pyrethroid insecticides, the primary ingredient in many sprays, making them nearly immune to these treatments. But that’s not all—these sprays come with serious side effects:
Bats are essential for natural pest control, and their decline is forcing us to turn to harmful alternatives like pesticides. Did you know that when bats die from white-nose syndrome, farmers increase pesticide use to protect crops? But this overuse of toxic chemicals doesn’t just harm ecosystems—it also leads to an 8% increase in infant mortality in affected counties, according to new research.
New test finds more than 50 common chemicals may be linked to infertility
The New Lede
Using a new testing tool, US researchers said this week they have found more than 50 chemicals that pose a strong risk to fertility, including chemicals used in plastic water bottles and other common products
Confirmed. Most robust evidence yet that plant-based diets protect both human and planetary health
Anthropocene
People following a diet rich in plants cut their mortality risk by a third, and slash climate impact of food by a similar amount – concludes the largest study ever to analyze the health & environmental impacts of the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet
Some chemical pollutants reducing in humans and the environment, but new ones keep popping up
UN Environment Programme
A UN Environment Programme global study of health-endangering chemicals that stay in the environment over decades & longer – confirms they persist in human milk, air, water, soil, food & various ecosystems:
Chemical Pesticide Causing Antimicrobial Resistance
Environmental Health News
Antimicrobial resistance was already contributing to millions of deaths per year before the pandemic. Now overzealous use of disinfectants, especially with products containing “”quats” — quaternary ammonium compounds, threaten to make antimicrobial resistance worse.
New Study: Organic Farming Lessens Reliance on Pesticides and Promotes Public Health
Food Integrity Now
Organic Farming Reduces Reliance on pesticides and Promotes Public Heath by Lowering Dietary Risks, according to new scientific study
Opinion: Protecting Those Who Feed Us
Maryland Matters
For too long, the essential workers in Maryland’s agricultural sector have labored under substandard conditions, lacking the critical workplace protections and benefits afforded workers in other industries.
If you eat, you should care about farm workers.
New Study Shows the Growing Risks of Pesticide Poisonings
Civil Eats
Researchers have put hard numbers to unintentional pesticide poisonings and fatalities.
“Last December, four researchers from Germany, Malaysia, and the United States published the results of a systematic review estimating the number of unintentional pesticide poisonings and fatalities globally.”
Pesticide Exposure, Agricultural Work Associated with Chronic Lung Disease
Beyond Pesticides
Our farmworkers are relied on for our food, but they work under harsh conditions and are at increased risk for severe respiratory disease from pesticide exposure–worsened in the pandemic.
Farmworkers left behind by broken labor and disaster aid systems
Southerly Mag
Unfair labor laws just got worse
In the 1930s, agriculture was excluded from federal labor laws in a process now known as agricultural exceptionalism. In 2020, the Trump administration pushed for more H-2A farmworker visas during the pandemic claiming it was necessary to ensure ample food supply. But the administration also proposed a decrease in already low farmworker wages.
Abuses in Maryland’s Crab Picking Industry Continue to Threaten Workers during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Centro De Los Derechos Del Migrante
How Maryland’s migrant crab pickers continue to be picked apart.
Current shocking conditions are faced by migrant women crab pickers on the Eastern Shore.
Virus’s unseen hot zone: the American farm
The Washington Post
Across the country, fruit growers blocked testing of seasonal farmworkers and told those who caught the coronavirus to keep it quiet. County and state officials were largely unable to stop them.
At the height of harvest season, growers supplying some of America’s biggest agricultural companies and grocery store chains flouted public health guidelines to limit testing and obscure coronavirus outbreaks, according to thousands of pages of state and local records reviewed by The Washington Post.
GMO Soy Linked to Liver, Pancreas Damage
Sustainable Pulse
A recently uncovered 2008 study shows the most widely grown GMO soy was linked to liver, pancreas, and testes damage in mice.
Levels of brain-damaging pesticide drop 61% after a week on an organic diet
GoOrganic
Two recent peer-reviewed studies provide fresh evidence that we are exposed to pesticides in our daily food, many which are carcinogenic or toxic to our brains and hormone systems and once an organic diet is adopted there is a 61% drop in pesticide levels within our bodies.
5 Ways the Pesticide Industry is Lying to You
Friends of the Earth
Despite strong scientific evidence of its harm to people and the environment, Monsanto continued to keep Glyphosate on the market for years.
Hazardous Pesticide Breakdown Chemicals Found in Streams Nationwide, Raising Health Concerns
Beyond Pesticides
Pesticide breakdown products are just as pervasive as their parent compounds in urban streams in the US, says the U.S. Geological Survey. Recent findings spotlight long-term impacts of pesticides on health and the environment.
Suspect Screening, Prioritization, and Confirmation of Environmental Chemicals in Maternal-Newborn Pairs from San Francisco
ACS Publications | Ecotoxicology and Public Health
A new study by Wang et. al. (2021) finds over 100 chemicals present in U.S. pregnant women’s blood and umbilical cord samples, igniting concerns over prenatal exposure to chemicals widely used in consumer and industrial products.
Residential proximity to pesticide application as a risk factor for childhood central nervous system tumors
Science Direct | Environmental Research
Study (Lomardi et. al. 2021) shows pregnant women living within 2.5 miles of agricultural pesticide applications have an increased risk that their child will develop central nervous system tumors.
Falling sperm counts ‘threaten human survival’, expert warns
The Guardian
Falling sperm counts and changes to sexual development caused by exposure to endocrine disrupting substances, including some pesticides are threatening human survival, a leading epidemiologist has warned.
Another Roundup study finds links to potential human health problems
U.S. Right to Know
New research examining the potential health impacts of this cancer-causing pesticide found links between exposure and an increase in a type of amino acid known to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Toxic Chemicals Threaten Humanity’s Ability To Reproduce
The Intercept
In their new book, epidemiologist Shanna Swan looks at the impact of environmental chemicals and the changes they’re causing on human sexuality and reproductive systems.
Glyphosate Causes Genetic Changes Leading to Increased Disease in Future Generations
Sustainable Pulse
Glyphosate exposed laboratory rats could be used as biomarkers for determining propensity in subsequent generations for prostate and kidney diseases, obesity, and incurring multiple diseases at once as a result of glyphosate exposure.
Op-ed: A push for answers about the environmental causes of child cancer
Environmental Health News
A first-of-its kind study aims to tease out the link between exposure to toxic chemicals (including pesticides) and cancer in children in the places they live, learn & play.
Pesticides and Pesticide Degradates in Groundwater Used for Public Supply across the United States: Occurrence and Human-Health Context
ACS Publications | Environmental Science & Technology
A USGS study (Bexfield et. al., 2021) of groundwater that feeds public drinking water supply finds pesticides in 41% of supply wells.
Common fungicide causes a decrease in antioxidant responsible for defense against diseases like COVID-19
Beyond Pesticides
Common fungicide causes decreases in human body’s ability to defend itself against illnesses such as COVID, and promoted disease permanency.
Pesticide poisoning booms globally with 385 million cases a year
Sustainable Pulse
Scientists report that pesticide poisonings on farms around the world have risen dramatically in 30 years. Based on an evaluation of poisoning data from countries all over the world, the researchers conclude that there are about 385 million cases of acute poisonings each year.
Glyphosate exposure could disrupt human gut microbiome
Forbes
“Exposure to glyphosate, the main ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup, could adversely affect the microbes in our gut, which could lead to poor health.”
Firms making billions from ‘highly hazardous’ pesticides, analysis finds
The Guardian
“Use of harmful chemicals is higher in poorer nations, according to data analysed by Unearthed”
Chemicals on our food: When “safe” may not really be safe
Environmental Health News
Toxicologist Linda Birnbaum, who directs the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), has called for “an overall reduction in the use of agricultural pesticides” due to multiple concerns for human health, stating that “existing US regulations have not kept pace with scientific advances showing that widely used chemicals cause serious health problems at levels previously assumed to be safe.
You can cut your cancer risk by eating organic, a new study says
CNN
Those who frequently eat organic foods lowered their overall risk of developing cancer, a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine finds. Specifically, those who primarily eat organic foods were more likely to ward off non-Hodgkin lymphoma and postmenopausal breast cancer compared to those who rarely or never ate organic foods.