{"id":3443,"date":"2025-12-05T08:25:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T13:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earthmoves.vassarspaces.net\/?p=3443"},"modified":"2025-12-05T08:25:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T13:25:31","slug":"new-ways-to-kill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthmoves.vassarspaces.net\/?p=3443","title":{"rendered":"New Ways to Kill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Strap in…..this newsletter will make your blood boil….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image from: https:\/\/engoo.com\/app\/words\/word\/strap-in\/W9_vlS1ZQmOC8HHNqvzSrQ<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Nov. 3, 2025, during<\/em> the recent US Government Shutdown, the US EPA registered a new pesticide, epyrifenacil<\/mark><\/strong>, for use as a “pre-plant burndown herbicide for use in canola, field corn, soybean, wheat and fallow fields,” AND, “for non-agricultural use on non-crop areas such as around industrial or farm buildings.” This includes applications like to train tracks, guardrails on highways, pipelines, power line pathways, parking lots, industrial storage areas, road surfaces and shoulders, etc, etc. The registration<\/a> indicates that there are in fact known hazards for multiple species and habitats, but “no adverse modification for any critical species or habitats.” There’s also a sobering list of required precautions, like spray drift buffers (ie, leaving enough land area, they suggest 80 ft for aerial spraying, between the area of application and the non-farm- fairly difficult to achieve), requiring runoff mitigation (ie, it’s not allowed to run off the land into water sources- something also difficult to prevent). Those applying the new pesticide are not supposed to apply it during the rain or when “soil is saturated.” In the early spring, before fields are planted, often the soil is saturated with snow melt or rain from the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image from: https:\/\/extension.psu.edu\/flexible-burndown-herbicide-programs-for-corn-or-soybean<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Right, sure. Farmers and those applying this pesticide around industrial or farm buildings will absolutely prevent spray drift, runoff and seepage into wet soil, even if that means they have to delay getting their crops put in, or risk weeds growing up along the roads and buildings. Uh-huh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The documentation on the EPA website states, “no human health risk of concern.” As far as I could find on the website, the only “evidence” that there is no health risk was a study of mice who were genetically engineered to grow livers that had human genes. Those mice experienced no greater toxicity than mice with mouse gene livers, when force-fed levels of the pesticide at the stated recommended limits. The documentation for the registration with the EPA includes aerial spraying and ground broadcast spraying. The documentation is two huge documents (over 200 pages for one and over 90 pages for the other) and is exceedingly dense reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epyrifenacil looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is a pyrimidinedione…and has a number of fluorine (F) atoms, one of which is on a ring that also has a chlorine (Cl) atom. There are several other pesticides in this family and all are potent herbicides. They kill lots of plants by inhibiting a plant enzyme. When epyrifenacil is applied to an agricultural field, it gets taken up by plants and gets distributed all throughout the plant<\/em> (roots, stems, leaves).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What pre-plant burndown is is applying the herbicide to the soil before planting the crop, particularly for farmers who are using “no-till” techniques. The burndown is often a mixture of herbicides, including 2,4-D and dicamba and paraquat (all notoriously toxic to wildlife and harmful to humans, but on the US EPA approval list). Now, add epyrifenacil to the mix. The herbicides penetrate into the soil and are absorbed by the weeds just starting to grow. Then, after a week or so the weeds are dead, and you can plant your corn or wheat.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image from: https:\/\/www.nrdc.org\/stories\/forever-chemicals-called-pfas-show-your-food-clothes-and-home<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Epyrifenacil turns out to be a “forever chemical, also called PFAs” and even its major breakdown product is a PFAs. The big agrochemical corporations are excited about epyrifenacil because it doesn’t evaporate into the air as much as some chemicals like glyphosate (Round Up) or paraquat, so they can claim that it’s not as toxic to the surrounding areas. The company did a greenhouse experiment to show that it didn’t drift as far, but it hasn’t been tested under actual farm conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a big deal that PFAs are now part of the growing toxic arsenal of pesticides- they literally are forever<\/mark><\/strong> chemicals that are being added to our food supply. So, if they are still in the soil and slowly leach into the water, they will get into the crop plants. They will get into the surrounding plants and animals. They will bioaccumulate, being even more toxic to hawks and owls. Epyrifenacil is the fifth PFAs pesticide approved by the EPA since January 2025<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Soon to be much more common in food and water….image from: https:\/\/rshydro.co.uk\/news\/impact-of-pfas-on-our-environment-and-health<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In animal studies submitted by the manufacturer for the approval process, epyrifenacil is toxic to the liver and kidneys. In their assessment of the potential toxicity to humans, the applicant acknowleges that “dietary” and “occupational” exposures are “expected;” but<\/em><\/strong> that the exposures would be “short (1-30 days)” or “intermediate-term (1-6 months).” So, in other words, they seem to suggest that an exposure of up to six months is just no big deal. Imagine ingesting lead or mercury or DDT for six months….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EPA documentation goes further to state that “indirect” exposures from spray drift, “oral” or “dermal” could occur, even in infants and young children. But that, because the registration is not for residential uses, there’s no evidence that there would be such exposures occurring. The registration document requests to “waive” immunotoxicology studies in humans because of “weight of evidence” from other studies, mostly on mice, rats and dogs. The evidence they claim isn’t worrisome shows toxicity, especially in offspring of the animals exposed. It’s actually shocking to read results of these studies and then the conclusion that there is no risk in humans because the amount of chemical will be below the calculated toxicity levels, if applied as directed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The documentation states quite a few times that there is “no evidence” of “toxicity found in the database” for gene mutations (often used to indicate cancer risk) or immune toxicity, and then goes on to note damage in rat studies (including increased death in rat offspring of mothers exposed). They note liver toxicity in rats and mice, developmental damage in offspring whose mothers were exposed and then go on to say that, as long as humans are exposed to levels below what’s been found to be liver toxic, there’s no evidence the active chemical may cause cancer. Honestly, if you read this and think it’s insane gobbledygook, so do I.<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s another interesting statement in their claim that epyrifenacil isn’t of human health concern:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There are no registered or proposed residential uses at this time; therefore, a residential exposure assessment is not required.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What about homes near farms, or train tracks, or parking lots, or roadsides, or power lines? Might the chemicals get inside via the air, or via the water, or via being tracked in on shoes or pets?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok….so because it’s not approved for use in homes, we don’t need to know if it’s likely to be in residences to levels that might be harmful. Then they go on to say that as long as you’re outside the spray drift zone, outside the runoff zone (and time window of not applying in the rain or to saturated soil), you’re unlikely to be exposed so therefore, it’s not of human health concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EPA registration documents say that occupational exposure isn’t likely (to skin) because it’s applied before the weeds emerge, so therefore you won’t be exposed. They use the same argument to say that dietary exposure is unlikely. They use theoretical “assumptions” of spray drift to state that there are “no risks of concern” from drift in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more I read in the documentation, the more concerned I became. Assumptions and theoreticals are NOT scientific evidence at all. Studies on mice with “humanized” livers are not HUMAN STUDIES. The assessment documents also conducted a search of available science databases to determine what studies have been done looking into the human toxicity of epyrifenacil (a new chemical that’s not yet available for studies). Here’s the conclusion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The search strategy returned seven studies from the literature. During the title\/abstract and\/or full text screening of these studies, none of the studies were deemed to contain potentially relevant information (either quantitative or qualitative) for the epyrifenacil human health risk assessment.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over and over, the documents stated that the database of research studies was “complete.” And, that there is no evidence of: immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, cancer (except liver tumors in mice) and more. All<\/mark><\/strong> of the literature they cited were from rat or mice studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s another example from the documents:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Acute Dietary Endpoint for the General Population, Infants, and Children: No hazard or appropriate
acute endpoint attributable to a single exposure was identified from the available oral toxicity
database; therefore, a separate acute dietary risk assessment for the general population, including
infants and children, is not required.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The manufacturers (Valent<\/a>) (and the EPA) claim that the concentrations that might get into people are not high enough to be toxic. With no measurements or real studies whatsoever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me it sounds like the EPA\/Valent are saying that humans shouldn’t be exposed if the application is done right, so therefore, there’s no danger or potential harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of environmental impacts, the manufacturers state that epyrifenacil degrades within a number of days to a month, via breakdown in water, sunlight or microbes in the soil. The breakdown products, they say, have a much longer half-life (time frame that they exist), but they don’t have to report on those for the registration (those metabolites, by the way, are also PFAs and are known to be toxic on their own). Epyrifenacil is metabolized in plants (and forms toxic metabolites) and can also accumulate in plant tissues, to be eaten by animals and possibly people. Does the chemical get into animals that might ingest the plants. Here’s what they said about whether it gets into livestock:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Based on the available metabolism data, the parent epyrifenacil was a minor residue, and metabolites S-3100-CA and 4\u02ba-OH-S-3100-CA account for the major portion of residue in
ruminant (liver and kidney) and poultry (liver and muscle). Livestock feeding studies have not been
submitted and are not required for this petition. Based on the current maximum theoretical dietary
burden (MTDB) and the results of the metabolism studies, residues in ruminants and poultry are
expected to be insignificant (180.6(a)(3)).”<\/mark><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reassuring, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assessment reports are filled with this kind of mumbo-jumbo. It’s a nearly impenetrable thicket that literally spiked my blood pressure. I found I couldn’t dwell in those pages for long periods of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, this health\/environmental assessment only applies to the active<\/em><\/strong> ingredient. It is then mixed with chemicals that may remain secret (trade secrets), along with other approved herbicides, including other PFAs pesticides recently approved, for the actual application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Center for Biological Diversity has issued an alarm<\/a>. I encourage you to read what they say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strap in…..this newsletter will make your blood boil…. On Nov. 3, 2025, during the recent US Government Shutdown, the US EPA registered a new pesticide, epyrifenacil, for use as a “pre-plant burndown herbicide for use in canola, field corn, soybean, wheat and fallow fields,” AND, “for non-agricultural use on non-crop areas such as around industrial…<\/p>\n

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