Caroline Cox is a retired pesticide scientist. She was a staff scientist at the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides from 1990 to 2006 and a research director and senior scientist at the Center for Environmental Health from 2006 to 2020.
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Known by its brand name Roundup, glyphosate is a clear and present danger to human health.
Regulatory loopholes allow more than 30 million pounds of a cancer-causing pesticide to be sprayed on U.S. crops.
Switching to organic products is an easy way to eat healthier and support the environment.
Caroline Cox is a retired pesticide scientist. She was a staff scientist at the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides from 1990 to 2006 and a research director and senior scientist at the Center for Environmental Health from 2006 to 2020. She has been writing about glyphosate hazards since the 1990s.
Publications by this author
January | 2021
Chloropicrin is a widely used soil fumigant in California agriculture. According to the University of California, Davis, use in 2019 was over 8 million pounds. A breakdown of this use by zip code allowed comparisons with ethnic origin and income. Almost 70 percent of chloropicrin use occurred in zip codes with populations of Latinx (Hispanic) origin that exceeded the statewide average. Almost 75 percent occurred in zip codes with median household incomes less that the statewide average. These statistics show that chloropicrin use occurs in areas with disproportionately low income and Latinx populations.
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Objectives: We use APNOHO as a case study to demonstrate that the use of adjuvants and inert ingredients is difficult to track because relevant information is not publicly available. We synthesize information that suggests widespread agricultural use of alkylphenol ethoxylates, such as APNOHO, may pose significant human and environmental health risks. We then make recommendations for future research and policy.
Methods: We used information from California's pesticide use reporting system and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to estimate use of APNOHO. We used U.S. EPA and European databases, as well as published research, to identify human and environmental health hazards of APNOHO. We focused on research showing that APNOHO is an endocrine-disrupting chemical.
Discussion: Within California, APNOHO is applied in more than 150 adjuvant products. Nationwide, it is used as an inert ingredient in at least 650 pesticide products. Exposure to APNOHO is associated with endocrine disruption, birth defects, and aquatic toxicity. We suggest that the case of APNOHO illustrates the larger problem of a lack of publicly available data on use and toxicity of many adjuvants and pesticide inert ingredients. We recommend that researchers and regulators include adjuvants and inert ingredients when evaluating pesticide hazards, including endocrine disruption. We also recommend regulatory requirements to identify all ingredients on product labels.