EPA issues rare “emergency” suspension of dangerous weed killer

By Benjamin Purper

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday said it was taking the rare step of issuing an “emergency suspension” of a chemical used to kill weeds on farms, golf courses and athletic fields, citing risks to unborn children.

The pesticide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, known as DCPA or Dacthal, has been the subject of regulatory scrutiny for the last several years amid growing evidence of health harms from exposure.

“DCPA is so dangerous that it needs to be removed from the market immediately,” Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a press statement. “It’s EPA’s job to protect people from exposure to dangerous chemicals. In this case, pregnant women who may never even know they were exposed could give birth to babies that experience irreversible lifelong health problems.”

Freedhoff said the suspension marks the first time in almost 40 years that the agency has used its emergency suspension authority to block continued use of a pesticide.

DPCA is primarily used on crops including broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage, but it is also used in some non-agricultural settings including golf courses and athletic fields.

The EPA action comes after years of research and smaller moves by the EPA to limit the impact of DCPA on public health. In April, the agency issued a rare warning that the pesticide posed “serious, permanent and irreversible health risks,” especially to farmworkers involved in tasks such as transplanting, weeding and harvesting after the pesticide has been applied.

The EPA said DCPA poses the highest risk to developing babies of pregnant mothers exposed to the pesticide, leading to conditions including low birth weight, impaired brain development, decreased IQ, and impaired motor skills later in life.

“This is a long time coming,” said  Tracey Woodruff, a professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). “I expect that EPA will apply the same standards to other pesticides and toxic chemicals that also affect the fetus and result in impacts of children’s brains and the growth – like phthalates and organophosphate pesticides, which have not met the same level of action.”

AMVAC Chemical Corporation, the sole manufacturer of DCPA, proposed several mitigations in response to EPA investigations. They included increasing buffer zones, requiring maximum personal protective equipment for handlers, and reducing maximum application rates.

But in its emergency order, the EPA said the proposed changes were inadequate to address the “serious health risks for people” who could be exposed to the chemical.

There are “no practical mitigation measures that can be put in place to allow DCPA’s continued use,” the EPA said.

Mily Treviño Sauceda, executive director of the farmworker advocacy group Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, said in a statement farmworker women “know intimately” the harm that pesticides such as DCPA inflict on “our bodies and communities.”

She applauded the EPA action as a “great first step” toward improved farmworker health.

An analysis by the Environmental Working Group found that up to 200,000 pounds of DCPA has been sprayed in some years in the state of California, the nation’s largest agricultural producer.

(Featured photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.)