A coalition of conservationists, farmworkers and public health groups petitioned the Trump administration to ban the use of drugs as pesticides when they are crucial for humans, citing the dangers of cross-resistance to medically important antibiotics and antifungals. This fall, the World Health Organization warned that antimicrobial resistance threatens families worldwide. The petition requests that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cancel registrations for these drugs under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.
JESSICA CORBETT; [email protected]
Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
Corbett reports that the Trump administration has already spouted pesticide companies’ talking points in its September Make America Healthy Again report, installed an ex-industry lobbyist in a key EPA post in June, and doubled down on using carcinogenic herbicides like atrazine.
Corbett told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “The public should have an awareness of the severity and danger of increasing antimicrobial resistance. Conservation groups and journalists have made a lot of critiques of the Trump administration, but what stands out to me is its failure to live up to some of the Make America Healthy Again language and campaign promises. MAHA’s broad pledges and declarations about health contrast with what we have seen regarding pesticide decision-making. The first MAHA report identified concerns about pesticides and specifically mentioned atrazine, but the second report [released in September] doubled down on industry talking points.”
Combating the use of human medicine as pesticides was not a major priority of the Biden administration. But Corbett notes that “what is especially concerning under the second Trump administration is the blatant corporate capture of policymaking. That is not new to American politics in any regard, but right now we have blatant specific examples––including the appointment of an industry lobbyist at EPA, Kyle Kunkler, who was a lobbyist for organizations like the American Soybean Association. When you install someone like that at EPA, you send a clear message to industry that you’re not going to do anything to crack down on them. The organizations behind the petition and various other campaigners and experts have long been concerned about processes and regulations at EPA. But it is clear that the Trump administration is not interested in making sure that people, animals, crops or farmland are safe. We now await a response from EPA. We might see legal action, but even legal successes don’t always mean that pesticides get banned. It’s an ongoing fight, but the component of antimicrobial resistance elevates the stakes of these particular items that [petitioners] want not used on crops. The stakes for global health are very high.
“It shouldn’t be a partisan issue whether our food is healthy, whether our crops are dangerous, whether we can go into a hospital and be treated and be confident that medication we receive is actually going to work. These issues affect everyone… This is an opportunity for these organizations––and for anyone concerned about pesticide use and the superbugs that are not susceptible to medications––to form a broad coalition of people to pressure the administration to take action.”