Three years ago Chris Jones was a highly regarded research engineer at the University of Iowa, where he directed stream pollution monitoring work and published details about the state’s dismal water quality in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Jones also authored a university-sponsored blog, where he regularly identified agriculture as the primary source of the state’s calamitous water pollution.
On the eve of the opening of what would have been a bellwether US trial over allegations that a widely used weed killer causes Parkinson’s disease, paraquat-maker Syngenta reached a settlement with the retired landscaper who blamed the company for his diagnosis with the incurable brain disease.
A trial with nationwide implications is set to open Wednesday in Philadelphia pitting a retired landscaper suffering from Parkinson’s disease against the multinational agrochemical company Syngenta over accusations that the company’s paraquat weed killing products cause the incurable brain disease.
A leading European chemical safety institute has fired the director of its cancer research center after the director led an extensive testing program into the safety of the pesticide glyphosate, sparking concerns about chemical industry influence into what has been an independent research institution.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is pausing a loan program aimed at promoting anaerobic digesters — many of which are issued for large-scale farms that turn animal waste into gas — to investigate high loan delinquency rates and underperformance.
The deep rift between Democrats and Republicans over the future of the nation’s premier chemical safety law was on full display on Thursday in a hearing designed to kickstart legislation that would allow faster federal approvals for new chemicals.
The US Supreme Court said on Friday that it will take up the issue of federal preemption over pesticide warning labels, a move sought by Bayer as a means of blocking costly future litigation over the Roundup weed killer products it inherited from its purchase of Monsanto.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin sparked news stories around the US last week when he tweeted that the agency had made the “proactive decision to freshly reassess” the safety of the weed killer paraquat, a controversial pesticide widely used by farmers that is linked to Parkinson’s disease.
In a widely anticipated move, House Republicans released a draft bill that would roll back several provisions in the nation’s premier chemical safety law with the stated goal of bolstering manufacturing and innovation.
Chronic exposure to small amounts of a pesticide greenlighted for almost a dozen US crops speeds up aging in fish and cuts their lives short, adding to concerns about the chemical’s human health risks, according to a new study.