More Than 100 EPA-Approved Pesticides Linked to Cancer Are Still in Use, Report Finds

A new report reveals that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is failing to adequately warn Americans about significant links between pesticides and cancer, a danger that has far-reaching impacts on food, water, farmers, and more.

This March, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) released a report analyzing EPA records that found more than one-third of the 570 unique pesticide chemicals the agency has evaluated for cancer risk since 1985 — 200 in total — are classified as either possible or likely human carcinogens. Of those 200, 125 are still actively registered for use on home gardens and commercial crops today.

The nonprofit advocacy organization explains in the report that the EPA’s “benchmark level of concern” dictates that levels of cancer risk should stay below one additional occurrence of cancer for every 1 million people exposed to a pesticide. However, in practice, the agency has approved pesticides with impacts exceeding that threshold.