In 40-Year First, EPA Issues Emergency Suspension

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued its first emergency suspension in more than four decades to ban a common weedkiller that poses "serious risks" to unborn babies. Tuesday's action applies to dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate or DCPA, sold under brand name Dacthal, which is used on grasses, artificial turf, and various crops. Pregnant women who handle DCPA products could be exposed to levels up to 20 times higher than is considered safe for unborn babies, according to a 2023 risk assessment, per USA Today. There are also risks to the unborn children of pregnant women living near where the chemical is used as DCPA levels can remain unsafe more than 25 days after application.

The herbicide "is so dangerous that it needs to be removed from the market immediately," said Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, per CNN, noting "pregnant women who may never even know they were exposed could give birth to babies that experience irreversible lifelong health problems." Exposure to DCPA can alter fetal thyroid hormone levels, potentially resulting in "low birth weight, impaired brain development, decreased IQ, and impaired motor skills later in life, some of which may be irreversible," the EPA said.

The agency, which reevaluates registered pesticides every 15 years, said DCPA producer AMVAC Chemical Corp. had presented insufficient evidence to support the chemical's continued registration for human use. Changes proposed by the company would've failed to adequately address "the serious health risks for people who work with and around DCPA," the EPA said. The emergency action suspends all registrations of the pesticide. The decision "is a great first step that we hope will be in a series of others that are based on listening to farmworkers, protecting our reproductive health, and safeguarding our families," said Mily Treviño Sauceda, executive director of the National Farmworkers Women's Alliance. (More Environmental Protection Agency stories.)