“Do your job” – EPA petitioned to add warnings to pesticides linked to cancer
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should require cancer warnings on all pesticide products containing ingredients the agency has found show evidence of carcinogenicity, according to an emergency petition filed Wednesday by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental health advocacy group.
The petition comes after the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety earlier this year released analyzes of federal data revealing that the EPA has only required cancer warnings on less than 2% of thousands of pesticide products that contain an active ingredient the agency has found are linked to cancer.
“It’s more important than ever for the EPA to finally start requiring pesticide companies to put cancer warnings on products the agency itself has linked to cancer,” Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement. “We’re asking for something ridiculously easy. Just warn the public of the serious health risks the EPA already knows about. In other words, do your job.”
The petition, addressed to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and three other top EPA officials, requests that the agency initiate rulemaking actions to require cancer warnings on labels for all pesticide products that contain an active ingredient that is determined to be a probable, likely or possible carcinogen, or has suggestive evidence of carcinogenicity for humans.
The petition notes that many studies over several decades have linked pesticide exposure to cancers, including a 2024 study demonstrating an association between pesticide use and increased incidence of leukemia; non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; bladder, colon, lung, and pancreatic cancer.
The petition states that as of 2024, the EPA has concluded that 199 pesticide active ingredients have at least some evidence of carcinogenicity and 124 of these active ingredients are still registered for use in over 4,000 end-use products. Despite the links to cancer, the EPA-approved labels has required cancer warnings for only six active ingredients, the petition states.
When asked about the petition, the EPA said only that it would evaluate the petition as it does all others.
The EPA has long been accused of lax regulation of pesticides, which are commonly used in agriculture to produce food as well as in household and commercial settings to control bugs, weeds and other pests. But under the Trump administration, the pesticide industry has found particular favor, critics say.
The administration earlier this year issued an executive order protecting the production of glyphosate, a weedkiller classified as a probable human carcinogen by cancer experts of the World Health Organization. The administration urged the US Supreme Court to rule that pesticide companies are protected from “failure-to-warn” consumer lawsuits, which the court did last month. And last week, the agency approved multiple new pesticides that come with an array of health concerns.
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