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EPA issues rare emergency ban on pesticide that damages fetuses
By MICHAEL PHILLIS
Associated Press,
1 day ago
ST. LOUIS — For the first time in roughly 40 years, the Environmental Protection Agency used its emergency authority to halt the sale of a weed-killing pesticide that harms the development of unborn babies.
Officials took the rare step this week because the pesticide DCPA, or Dacthal, could cause irreversible damage to fetuses, including impaired brain development and low birthweight.
The agency struggled to obtain vital health data from the pesticide's manufacturer on time and decided it was not safe to allow continued sale, the EPA announced Tuesday.
"In this case, pregnant women who may never know they were exposed could give birth to babies that experience irreversible lifelong health problems," said Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
The sign for the Environmental Protection Agency is shown in Washington.
DCPA is mostly used on broccoli, cabbage and certain other crops, with about 84,000 pounds used on average in 2018 and 2020, officials said.
In 2023, the EPA assessed the pesticide's risks and found it was dangerous even if a worker wore personal protective equipment. The manufacturer instructed people to stay off fields where the pesticide was applied for 12 hours, but agency officials said it could linger at dangerous levels for more than 25 days.
The pesticide is made by AMVAC Chemical Corp. The company did not immediately return a request for comment late Wednesday.
In comments to the EPA earlier this year, the company said new protocols could help keep people safe. It proposed longer waiting periods before workers enter fields where the pesticide was applied and limits on how much of the chemical could be handled.
Federal officials said the company's proposed changes weren't enough. The emergency order was necessary because the normal review process would take too long and leave people at risk, according to the agency's statement.
According to data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), over 70% of freshwater lakes, ponds, reservoirs, and wetlands (by acreage) and over 42% of creeks, rivers, and streams (by mileage) are considered too polluted for primary contact recreation, such as swimming. On average, there are nearly 35,000 waterborne illness cases caused by recreational water use in the U.S. every year. In order to determine the states with the worst water quality for swimming, researchers calculated the percentage of total acreage or mileage of assessed, untreated waters that were too polluted for swimming.
The sign for the Environmental Protection Agency is shown in Washington.
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