FAQ

Insecticides (bug killers), herbicides (weed killers), and fungicides (fungus killers) all fall under the umbrella term “pesticides;”  so are rodenticides and antimicrobials. Pesticides can be applied in many forms, from aerial spray from crop dusters to irrigation drips to household cleaners and hand soaps.

Insecticides are generally the most acutely (immediately) toxic. Many are designed to attack an insect’s brain and nervous system, which can mean they have neurotoxic effects in humans as well. Herbicides are more widely used (glyphosate and atrazine are two of the most used pesticides in the world), and low-level exposure over time can have chronic effects, such as increased risk of diseases or disorders such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease or infertility and other reproductive harms. Fungicides are also used in large amounts; some are relatively benign, some are not.

Pesticides are also sometimes broken down into chemical classes and modes of action. For example, fumigants are pesticides applied as gases to “sterilize” soil, and systemics work their way through a plant’s tissue after being taken up at the root. Major chemical classes include: carbamates, organochlorines, organophosphates and triazines. Newer classes include pyrethroids and neonicotinoids, synthesized to mimic nature’s pest protection.

Each year, an estimated one billion pounds of pesticides are applied to U.S. farms, forests, lawns and golf courses. More than 17,000 pesticide products are currently on the market — with many of them approved through “conditional registration,” a regulatory loophole that allow products to be sold quickly, without thorough review.

Pesticide applicators, farmers, farmworkers, and rural communities are often most at risk of exposure, but studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control show that all of us carry pesticides in our bodies. Golf courses use pesticides heavily, as do some schools and parks. Consumers also face pesticide exposure through food and water residues. For instance, the herbicide atrazine is found in 94% of U.S. drinking water tested by the USDA.

Pesticides are dangerous by design. They are engineered to cause death. And harms to human health are very well documented, with children especially at risk. Here are just a few recent examples:

• An entire class of pesticides (organophosphates) has been linked to higher rates of ADHD in children.
• The herbicide atrazine, found in 94% of our water supply, has been linked to birth defects, infertility and cancer.
• Prenatal exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos has been linked to neurodevelopmental harms, including learning disabilities and lower IQ.
• The World Health Organization has designated glyphosate, the key ingredient in the widely used herbicide Roundup a “probable human carcinogen.”

A large and growing body of peer-reviewed, scientific studies document that pesticides are harmful to human health. The environmental damage caused by pesticides is also clear; from male frogs becoming females after exposure, to collapsing populations of bats and honeybees.

For more information, visit the “Human Health” and “Environmental Effects” sections of the Resource Library.

The most comprehensive analysis of world agriculture to date tells us that what can feed the world — and what feeds most of the world now, in fact — is small-scale agriculture that does not rely on pesticides.

DowDuPont (now Corteva), Bayer (now merged with Monsanto), Syngenta and other pesticide producers have marketed their products as necessary to feed the world. Yet as insecticide use increased in the U.S. by a factor of 10 in the 50 years following World War II, crop losses almost doubled. Corn is illustrative: in place of crop rotations, most acreage was planted year after year only with corn. Despite more than a 1,000-fold increase in use of organophosphate insecticides, crop losses to insects has risen from 3.5% to 12%.

More to the point, hunger in an age of plenty isn’t a problem of production (or yields, as the pesticide industry claims), efficiency, or even distribution. It is a matter of priorities. If we were serious about feeding people, we wouldn’t grow enough extra grain to feed 1/3 of the world’s hungry — and then use it for fuel.

In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has primary authority to register and regulate pesticides. The agency’s oversight of pesticides is authorized by the following federal laws:

• The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act allows EPA to register pesticides using risk/benefit standards (risk to human health and environment is balanced by how much benefit the pesticide is expected to provide);
• The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act sets tolerances levels for pesticides used in food production (maximum residues on food);
• The Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA) amends previous laws by establishing a single safety standard for tolerances to increase protection of children from aggregate exposures (dietary, water and residential); and
• The Endangered Species Act of 1973 requires that pesticides that will harm these species not be registered.

Some U.S. states have additional, stricter rules restricting pesticide use, and in a handful of states, local cities and counties can put even stricter rules in place. For more details visit the U.S. Pesticide Rules page in the Resource Library.

Internationally, pesticides are regulated through two treaties that PAN played a formative role in creating:

• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs treaty) addresses toxins that persist, move around the world on wind and water, and bioaccumulate (DDT, for example) and
• Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (PIC treaty) gives countries the right to refuse the import of highly hazardous toxins.

The PIC treaty attempts to redress the dumping of obsolete or banned pesticides on the developing world. While only 25 percent of global pesticide use takes place in developing countries, 99 percent of acute pesticide-related fatalities occur there.

Also referred to as the “pesticide trap,” farmers get caught on the treadmill as they are forced to use more and more — and increasingly toxic — chemicals to control insects and weeds that develop resistance to pesticides.

Widespread planting of Roundup Ready crops and the associated application of Roundup prompted dramatic levels of resistance — for example, resistant strains of “pigweed” reportedly now grow with such vigor in southern cotton fields that the weeds can “stop a combine in its tracks.”

Crops genetically engineered for use with herbicides have accelerated thepesticide treadmill. Widespread planting of Roundup Ready crops and the associated application of Roundup prompted dramatic levels of resistance — for example, resistant strains of “pigweed” reportedly now grow with such vigor in southern cotton fields that the weeds can “stop a combine in its tracks.” Farmers are forced to use new crops engineered to resist dicamba — an antiquated, drift-prone chemical that has damaged or destroyed millions of acres of crops over the past several years.

Overall,pesticide resistance is increasing. In the 1940s, U.S. farmers lost seven percent of their crops to pests. Since the 1980s, loss has increased to 13 percent, even though more pesticides are being used. Between 500 and 1,000 insect and weed species have developed pesticide resistance since 1945. Rachel Carson predicted the treadmill phenomenon in her 1962 bookSilent Spring.

Agroecology is the science behind sustainable farming. This powerful approach combines scientific inquiry with place-based knowledge and experimentation, emphasizing approaches that are knowledge-intensive, low cost, ecologically sound and practical.

Biologically-based Integrated Pest Management, or “IPM,” focuses on a knowledge-intensive approach to pest management, with pesticide use considered a true last resort, to be avoided whenever possible.

Home use of pesticides puts families at unnecessary risk.Alternatives are available to manage home, lawn and garden pests without toxic pesticides.