Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog

(Beyond Pesticides, August 4, 2026) LATE BREAKING—With the upcoming vote in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry on August 6, Beyond Pesticides issued an action calling on Democratic U.S. Senators to reject the GOP Farm Bill, while pushing for amendments to highlight the destructive policies. The action also tells Republican Senators that the GOP Farm Bill is shameful in c…

(Beyond Pesticides, August 3, 2026) A regulation proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with a comment period ending September 4, 2026, will allow sewage sludge, also called biodsolids, fertilizer use in agriculture and other land management to contain PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). The rule, if adopted, establishes voluntary, nonbinding guidance that is titled “…

(Beyond Pesticides, July 31, 2026) Three pesticides causing the highest risk in surface waters are the herbicides atrazine and metolachlor and the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid, according to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) review. Atrazine, classified as an endocrine disruptor and carcinogen by international bodies, has the highest number of exceedances. The results come from a USGS wate…

(Beyond Pesticides, July 30, 2026) A study published in Environmental Pollution identifies honey bees (Apis mellifera) as bioindicators for residues of pesticides, heavy metals, and rare earth elements (REEs) that can cause adverse health effects to pollinators and other organisms. In studying honey bees in Calabria (Southern Italy) across two protected montane forests on the slopes of mountains …

(Beyond Pesticides, July 29, 2026) In a literature review published in Chemosphere, researchers at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley identified thousands of studies published since 2012 that unpack how four environmental stressors (heatwaves, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and pathogenic diseases) interact with microplastics in real-world conditions, adversely affecting ecosystems. “Most cu…

(Beyond Pesticides, July 28, 2026) In a study published in Science of The Total Environment, researchers at the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil link pesticide exposure during pregnancy, particularly involving organophosphate and carbamate insecticides, with oxidative stress, which causes cell damage, and adverse health effects in both mothers and their newborns. In analyzing enzyme activit…

(Beyond Pesticides, July 27, 2026) One thing that officials at Monsanto (Bayer) probably did not imagine is that their efforts in Congress and at the U.S. Supreme Court would spur a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers to push back. Members across the political aisle last week introduced the Americans vs. Poisonous Pesticides Act, H.R. 9807, to overturn Monsanto v. Durnell (June 2026) that protects …

(Beyond Pesticides, July 24, 2026) A study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials finds that the cumulative impact of the pyrethroid insecticide flumethrin and the triazole fungicide hexaconazole “induced [an] acute synergistic effect” in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). While extensive independent scientific research has shown the debilitating and deadly effects of neonicotinoid insectic…

(Beyond Pesticides, July 23, 2026) The unintended consequences of pesticide dependency once again emerge as new research out of University of California, Davis finds sublethal adverse effects to sturgeon fish exposed to the widely used insecticide bifenthrin in their natural habitats. A study published in Environmental Research concludes that “sublethal bifenthrin exposure impairs locomotion and …

(Beyond Pesticides, July 22, 2026) A study of aquatic macroinvertebrates, including insects in their nymph and larval stages, snails, worms, crayfish, and clams, finds that pesticide exposure leads to biodiversity declines. Published in Environment International, this research also finds that multiple stressors and chemical mixtures increase ecosystem effects. “The individual and interactive impa…