EPA, Follow-Up on Research Showing Crop Fungicides Cause Brain Damage

  • by: Susan V
  • recipient: US Environmental Protection Agency

Research done at UNC on widely used fungicides is raising concerns over brain damaging effects, including autism and Alzheimer's.

This class of pesticides has been used for years on nut, fruit and vegetable crops, and a report by Mother Jones says their use has been “ramped up” recently and now includes spraying corn and soybean fields.

This increased use of fungicides has prompted scientists to wonder about their risks to humans and the environment. Through in vitro research, neuroscientists at UNC found that two newer fungicides (introduced in 2000) triggered changes “that look strikingly similar to changes in the brains of people with autism and Alzheimer’s disease." What’s needed now, research leader Mark Zylka told MJ, are epidemiological studies to see if the two fungicides, pyraclostrobin and trifloxystrobin, harm human brains as they are currently being used. He adds that “conventionally grown leafy green vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, and kale have the highest levels of these fungicides.”

Marketed by Germany’s BASF under the name, Headline, pyraclostrobin has “rapidly become a blockbuster on US farm fields,” says MJ. The other “blockbuster” fungicide is marketed by another Germany company - Bayer. 

Zylka says it's “disturbing" that these chemicals are being so widely used “without us knowing more about their potential effects.” But a BASF spokeswoman is already arguing that Zylka’s lab research is irrelevant, making funding for epidemiological follow-up crucial. Sign this petition to ask EPA for stepped-up research on these potentially dangerous fungicides.

To EPA Pesticide Regulatory Division:


While a grad student at UNC’s School of Public Health, I did extensive research on pesticides registered by the EPA and found most to be neurotoxic. Therefore I am writing with concerns about what Mother Jones reports as “ramped-up” use of these newer fungicides and to urge EPA to support epidemiological follow-up on Zilka’s and previous findings that they could likely be causing brain damage in humans.


[Your Comments]


According to UNC’s webpage on Zilka’s research, the EPA, itself, has “found that pyraclostrobin is found on foods at levels that could potentially affect human biology, and another study linked pyraclostrobin usage to honeybee colony collapse disorder.”


UNC also notes that previous work showed a single dose of trifloxystrobin “reduced motor activity for several hours in female rats and for days in male rats,” which is relevant to brain injury because “Disrupted motor function is a common symptom of Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders." 


Zylka says he wants to know if these chemicals get into our bloodstream by eating foods that contain them, and if so, at what concentration.  He also wants to know if long-term exposure to low levels of these chemicals have a cumulative effect on the brain. But so far, he adds, “that information doesn’t exist.”


This is why stepping up studies on these fungicides is needed and the potential effects on the brain makes further research urgently necessary. Therefore, I the undersigned, ask the EPA for stepped-up research on these suspected brain-damaging fungicides that are so widely used on our foods.


Thanks for your time.

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