EPA pulls Dacthal pesticide from sale due to health concerns

In a move not seen in almost 40 years, the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday an emergency order was issued suspension of all apply of herbicides that may pose a solemn risk to the health of unborn children.

The herbicide dimethyltetrachloroterephthalate, also known as DCPA or Dacthal, is used on crops such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and onions. Fetuses exposed to it can suffer from low birth weight, impaired brain development, lower IQ and impaired motor skills later in life, the EPA said.

“DCPA is so hazardous that it must be taken off the market immediately,” Michal Freedhoff, EPA’s deputy administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety, said in a statement. “In this case, pregnant women who may never know they were exposed could give birth to babies who will have lifelong health problems that will be irreversible.”

California-based AMVAC Chemical Corporation, the sole producer of the pesticide, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tuesday’s order follows several years of “unprecedented efforts” by the Environmental Protection Agency to force AMVAC to submit its own data on the pesticide and its health risks, the agency said. The agency estimates that pregnant women who handle DCPA products could face exposures four to 20 times greater than what the EPA has determined is sheltered for a fetus.

Mily Treviño Sauceda, executive director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, also known as the National Alliance of Women Agricultural Workers, called the EPA’s decision “historic.”

“We know exactly what pesticides, including dimethyltetrachloroterephthalate, can do to our bodies and communities,” she said in a statement accompanying the EPA news release. “This emergency decision is a great first step that we hope will be one of many others that build on listening to farmworkers, protecting our reproductive health, and keeping our families sheltered.”

The apply of this chemical on crops has been banned in the European Union since 2009.

Some advocacy groups have criticized the agency for not acting sooner. “EPA’s decision to finally suspend DCPA is good news, but it is long overdue,” said Alexis Temkin, a senior toxicologist at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy group.

She pointed to the government’s actions own statements reaching back to the 90’s on the health risks associated with the apply of pesticides, based on research presented by their manufacturer. 2019 study A study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health found that more than half of teenage women in a farmworker community in California’s Salinas Valley had been exposed to DCPA.

Farm workers were most exposed to the chemical. That said, consumers can also be exposed to residue, Dr. Temkin said. And while washing is sanitary and likely helps reduce some pesticides, it won’t remove all traces, she said. For example, DCPA can be absorbed by plants, so it’s in the tissue rather than on the surface.

Some farms have expressed opposition to the ban on the pesticide, which was “necessary to control grasses and broadleaf weeds that reduce yields,” said Griffin Ranches, which grows onions, broccoli and cauliflower in Yuma, Arizona. he wrote in a letter from 2022. opposing any moves towards a ban.

In many cases, “the alternative would be to hand-weed, which would require additional labor,” he wrote. Preserving the product “will maintain the positive economic impact it has had on American vegetable growers and ensure a steady supply of affordable, robust vegetables for American consumers.”

The Environmental Protection Agency said it will soon issue a notice of intent to permanently recall products covered by the DCPA, a process that could take months if a manufacturer does not object, or years if the decision is challenged.

The agency said it had invoked its authority under the federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act in the meantime and suspended the apply of the pesticide as an emergency measure because it determined that continued sale and apply of the pesticide during the time it takes to complete the normal deregistration process posed an imminent threat.