E.P.A. Imposes an Emergency Ban on a Weedkiller Harmful to Fetuses

E.P.A. Pulls From the Market a Weedkiller Harmful to Fetuses - The New York Times

Supported by
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

E.P.A. Pulls From the Market a Weedkiller Harmful to Fetuses

The herbicide, used widely on crops including broccoli and onions, can cause low birth weight and impaired brain development, regulators said.

In a move not seen for almost 40 years, the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday issued an emergency order suspending all uses of a weedkiller linked to serious health risks for unborn babies.

The pesticide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, also known as DCPA or Dacthal, is used on crops such as broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage and onions. Babies whose pregnant mothers are exposed to it could suffer from low birth weight, impaired brain development, decreased I.Q., and impaired motor skills later in life, the E.P.A. said.

“DCPA is so dangerous that it needs to be removed from the market immediately,” Michal Freedhoff, the E.P.A. assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety, said in statement. “In this case, pregnant women who may never even know they were exposed could give birth to babies that experience irreversible lifelong health problems.”

California-based AMVAC Chemical Corporation, the sole manufacturer of the pesticide, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tuesday’s order followed several years of “unprecedented efforts” by the Environmental Protection Agency to get AMVAC to submit its own data on the pesticide and its health risks, the agency said. The agency estimates that pregnant women handling DCPA products could be subjected to exposures four to 20 times greater than what E.P.A. has estimated is safe for unborn babies.

Mily Treviño Sauceda, executive director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, also known as the National Farmworkers Women’s Alliance, called E.P.A.’s decision “historic.”

“We know intimately the harm that pesticides, including dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, can inflict on our bodies and communities,” she said in a statement accompanying the E.P.A. news release. “This emergency decision is a great first step that we hope will be in a series of others that are based on listening to farmworkers, protecting our reproductive health, and safeguarding our families.”

Some advocacy groups criticized the agency for not acting earlier. “The E.P.A.’s decision to finally suspend DCPA is welcome news, but it’s long overdue,” said Alexis Temkin, senior toxicologist at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

“For years, E.W.G. and other public health advocates have warned about the serious risks the weedkiller poses to farmworkers, pregnant people and other vulnerable populations,” she said.

She pointed to the Environmental Protection Agency’s own statements reaching back to the 1990s on the pesticide’s health risks, based on studies submitted by its manufacturer. A 2019 study led by scientists at the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health found that more than half of adolescent women from farmworker communities in the Salinas Valley of California had been exposed to DCPA.

Some farms have voiced opposition to banning the pesticide. It was “an essential tool for controlling yield-robbing grasses and broadleaf weeds,” a representative of Griffin Ranches, which grows onions, broccoli and cauliflower in Yuma, Ariz., wrote in a 2022 letter opposing any move toward a ban.

In many cases, “the alternative would be hand-weeding, which would entail bringing on additional labor,” he wrote. Preserving the use of the product “will maintain the positive economic impact it has had on America’s vegetable growers and will ensure the continued supply of affordable and healthy vegetables for American consumers.”

The Environmental Protection Agency said it would soon issue a notice of intent to cancel DCPA products permanently, a process that could take several months if uncontested by the manufacturer, or years if the move is contested.

In the interim, the agency invoked its authority under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act to simultaneously suspend the pesticide as an emergency measure, it said, because it had determined that the continued sale and use during the time it would take to follow a normal cancellation process posed an imminent hazard.

Hiroko Tabuchi covers pollution and the environment for The Times. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years in Tokyo and New York. More about Hiroko Tabuchi
Environmental Protection Agency

Our Coverage of Climate and the Environment

-
Climate F.A.Q.: Have questions about climate change?
We’ve got answers.
-
How Your State Makes Electricity: There’s been a big shift in how America produces power.
Each state has its own story.
-
COP29 Host: In Azerbaijan, the petrostate that is hosting this year’s global climate summit, the
causes and effects of climate change are on vivid display.
-
Risky Plan to Cool Earth: A scientist has an idea to slow global warming.
Opponents fear it could result in unpredictable calamities.
-
Preaching for the Planet: As part of a crusade against consumerism, an unorthodox New York church is
urging action to preserve the Earth.
-
Ask NYT Climate: Are electric cars worth the money? They can be,
but it depends on your driving habits.