Thread by @Nathan_Donley

Our new investigation just out detailing how @EPA is still approving products that contain the worst pesticides

This includes pesticides that EPA has mandated use reductions or incentivized replacement like #chlorpyrifos, methyl bromide and #atrazine

biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/pest…

I went through FOIA records on new pesticide products that were approved by the EPA in 2017-2018 and found that most new pesticide product applications, about 94%, are ultimately approved

*All denials were procedural in nature, not because the product was deemed too dangerous

A review of individual ingredients in the products that were approved from 2017 to 2018 indicated that many contain the most hazardous pesticides still in use, some of which have been banned by multiple other countries and even targeted for phaseout in the United States

Up first we’ve got the pesticide you love to hate: chlorpyrifos, with two products approved in 2017.

In fact there were 15 pesticide products approved with an organophosphate or carbamate in 2017-2018, including chlorpyrifos, malathion, acephate and oxamyl

Keep in mind, for the last 20 years EPA has been incentivizing approval of new pesticides that are supposed to replace organophosphates

So the EPA is publicly saying that it is pushing companies to replace OPs, yet it keeps approving new products as recently as last year

Next we’ve got the endocrine disruptor atrazine with 17 products! approved by EPA in 2017-2018

EPA actually got Syngenta to agree to modestly reduce the use of atrazine by 2020

Just one problem, all 17 new products are from companies other than Syngenta

(sigh)

2 products containing methyl bromide were approved in 2017 and 2018. Methyl bromide? Wasn’t that banned like 10 years ago?

Silly person, there are still exempted uses that it appears will never go away. Why we need more products for the handful of uses still left, I don’t know

Again, keep in mind that for the last 20 years the EPA has been fast-tracking approval of new pesticides that are supposed to replace methyl bromide.

Noticing a pattern yet?

EPA’s public face is to make you believe that the agency is moving in the right direction, replacing older pesticides with newer ones that are supposed to be safer.

But it’s not actually doing anything

Sure, incentives for replacements are great if you follow them up with hard deadlines to phase out a bad pesticide

But this is not being done. Nearly all pesticide cancellations in the U.S. are voluntarily done by industry

ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…

You can’t keep approving pesticide products that contain the worst-of-the-worst pesticides and claim to be doing anything to reign in their use.

Other lowlights from 2017-2018 include:

EPA approved 6 products containing #paraquat

91 products that are "Restricted Use"

69 products that contain a pesticide the EPA has designated as a “known” or “likely” carcinogen

44 products containing a bee-killing #neonicotinoid

38 products containing #glyphosate – yes that’s right, 38 products for a single pesticide approved in 2 years

But watch out glyphosate, your “replacements” are drifting towards you (pun intended)

33 products containing 2,4-D and

32 products containing #dicamba

It just never ends. EPA has been in charge of pesticides 50 years. This is just two years’ worth of product approvals. Over these 2 years the # of pesticide products approved is nearly 600 per year!!

I’m not sure we need 600 pesticide products period, let alone each year

The U.S. is literally a dumping ground for toxic pesticides that many other countries won’t even touch and our regulating authority has seemingly no desire to change that…but it tries really hard to make you think it does

It’s just smoke and mirrors