As the European Union moves to phase out 22 toxic pesticides, a new study raises the question of what will happen to crops without them. In the United States, growers rely on many pesticides that other countries have banned.
Many farm groups in the U.S. argue that there are no acceptable alternatives to these pesticides – that without them, crop yields would drop. But when it comes to one major crop – soybeans – one controversial pesticide class known as neonicotinoids may actually do nothing to help soy crops, according to a new federal study.
“There are no clear or consistent economic benefits of neonicotinoid seed treatments,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study says. Previous studies have shown that in most cases, there isn’t a difference in yield between soybean seeds treated with these pesticides and soybean seeds that didn’t receive any insect control.
In many cases, Europe is far ahead of the United States when it comes to banning certain pesticides. Here are five pesticides allowed in the U.S. but prohibited elsewhere:
1. Neonicotinoids, or “neonics,” are the main suspect in the mysterious mass disappearance of entire bee colonies and work as nerve agents on the bees. In 2013, the European Union voted to ban three of the most common: imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam. Those pesticides, and others in the neonic class, are still used widely in the United States, to much controversy. Despite a 2013 lawsuit from a coalition of activists and beekeepers, the EPA has said it will continue to review evidence of neonics’ effects on bees until 2018.
2. Paraquat, a pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease, is banned in China and the European Union but not the U.S. It’s highly toxic and kills weeds on contact. A 2009 UCLA study found that a person exposed to paraquat and two other pesticides is three times as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease. Paraquat also can cause kidney damage and difficulty breathing. The EU voted to ban paraquat in 2007, and China approved a ban in 2012. Paraquat is famous for two things: the Drug Enforcement Administration’s spraying of Mexican marijuana fields in the 1970s, and being a leading agent of suicide in Asia and other areas.
3. A volatile and toxic pesticide called 1,3-D (short for 1,3-Dichloropropene) is one of the most heavily used pesticides in California. Also known as Telone, the chemical is actually a gas, or a fumigant in pesticide speak. Growers inject it into the ground to sterilize the soil before planting. But the gas evaporates easily; sometimes, it escapes from beneath its tarp and travels into nearby communities, where it poses a cancer risk to residents. The EU began phasing it out in 2007 because of its risk to humans and animals. There aren’t national numbers for the U.S., but in California, the use of 1,3-D is on the rise.
4. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, will soon to be banned in the Netherlands. Brazil is considering a ban. Ontario, Canada, banned it for home use as a “cosmetic” pesticide (chemicals that keep your yard looking nice). This year, Sri Lanka banned it. Scientists suspect it may be the culprit in widespread kidney disease among agricultural workers in Sri Lanka, India and Central America. It’s the best-selling herbicide in the world, according to the Ag Journal. And it was the most heavily used pesticide in the U.S. in 2007, according to the most recent numbers available from the EPA.
5. A popular herbicide called atrazine is the pesticide most commonly found in American drinking water. The European Union banned it in 2004 but the EPA re-evaluated and OK’d atrazine use in 2009. While it breaks down quickly in soil, it tends to hang around in water. Almost 90 percent of drinking water in the U.S. has atrazine in it, according to an analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture data by the Pesticide Action Network. The weed killer messes with hormones, affects the immune system and is linked to birth defects. A New York Times investigation in 2009 found that levels of atrazine in some communities’ drinking water have spiked, sometimes for longer than a month. Residents were not told, mainly because local water authorities didn’t know about the pesticide. Forty-three water authorities that did know sued atrazine’s manufacturer, Syngenta.
This story was edited Robert Salladay and copy edited by Sheela Kamath.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Republish Our Content
Thanks for your interest in republishing a story from Reveal. As a nonprofit newsroom, we want to share our work with as many people as possible. You are free to embed our audio and video content and republish any written story for free under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license and will indemnify our content as long as you strictly follow these guidelines:
-
Do not change the story. Do not edit our material, except only to reflect changes in time and location. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week,” and “Portland, Ore.” to “Portland” or “here.”)
-
Please credit us early in the coverage. Our reporter(s) must be bylined. We prefer the following format: By Will Evans, Reveal.
-
If republishing our stories, please also include this language at the end of the story: “This story was produced by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at revealnews.org/podcast.”
-
Include all links from the story, and please link to us at https://www.revealnews.org.
PHOTOS
-
You can republish Reveal photos only if you run them in or alongside the stories with which they originally appeared and do not change them.
-
If you want to run a photo apart from that story, please request specific permission to license by contacting Digital Engagement Producer Sarah Mirk, smirk@revealnews.org. Reveal often uses photos we purchase from Getty and The Associated Press; those are not available for republication.
DATA
-
If you want to republish Reveal graphics or data, please contact Data Editor Soo Oh, soh@revealnews.org.
IN GENERAL
-
We do not compensate anyone who republishes our work. You also cannot sell our material separately or syndicate it.
-
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually. To inquire about syndication or licensing opportunities, please contact Sarah Mirk, smirk@revealnews.org.
-
If you plan to republish our content, you must notify us republish@revealnews.org or email Sarah Mirk, smirk@revealnews.org.
-
If we send you a request to remove our content from your website, you must agree to do so immediately.
-
Please note, we will not provide indemnification if you are located or publishing outside the United States, but you may contact us to obtain a license and indemnification on a case-by-case basis.
If you have any other questions, please contact us at republish@revealnews.org.