Federal officials have banned a widely used weedkiller linked to developmental problems in unborn babies.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Tuesday issued an emergency order suspending all uses of the herbicide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, better known as DCPA or Dacthal.
The weedkiller, which is typically used on crops like broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and onions, has been linked to several health effects in fetuses, including low birth weight, decreased IQ, and impaired motor skills, the agency said.
However, it is generally not available for purchase in regular retailers and is used more in industrial settings.
Dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, better known as DCPA or Dacthal, is commonly used on crops like broccoli, brussels sprouts, and onions
More than 90 percent of samples of strawberries, apples, cherries, spinach, nectarines and grapes had at least two pesticides on them, the EWG found in a recent report
And the EPA estimates that pregnant women handling products with traces of DCPA could have been exposed to four to 20 times more of the pesticide than the agency deems safe for fetuses.
The ban comes weeks after a bombshell study claimed that pesticide use was just as dangerous as smoking and linked to up to 150 percent more cancers in areas like the Midwest.
Michal Freedhoff, the EPA’s assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety, said: ‘DCPA is so dangerous that it needs to be removed from the market immediately.’
‘In this case, pregnant women who may never even know they were exposed could give birth to babies that experience irreversible lifelong health problems.’
The agency said its ban comes after several years of ‘unprecedented efforts’ to get DCPA’s manufacturer, California-based AMVAC Chemical Corporation, to provide data on the pesticide’s health risks.
If the manufacturer contests the ban, however, it could still be years before DCPA products are fully removed from shelves.
Mily Treviño Sauceda, executive director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, also known as the National Farmworkers Women’s Alliance, called the decision ‘historic.’
‘We know intimately the harm that pesticides, including dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, can inflict on our bodies and communities,’ she said.
‘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.’
However, other groups criticized the EPA for not acting earlier. Alexis Temkin, senior toxicologist at watchdog Environmental Working Group, told The New York Times: ‘The EPA’s decision to finally suspend DCPA is welcome news, but it’s long overdue.’
‘For years, EWG and other public health advocates have warned about the serious risks the weedkiller poses to farmworkers, pregnant people and other vulnerable populations.’
For example, a 2019 study from the University of California at Berkeley found that more than half of adolescent women from farmworker communities in the Salinas Valley area of California had been exposed to DCPA.
DCPA was banned for use on crops by the European Union in 2009.
