The pesticide dicamba drifts through the air for up to three days after it's sprayed -- leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. This chemical destroys crops and may pose risks to human health. We're calling on the EPA to ban it unless and until it's proven safe. TAKE ACTION:
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John,
The toxic pesticide dicamba shrivels almost every plant in its path, wreaking havoc on crops and ecosystems alike. In fact, the only plants it doesn't harm are those grown from seeds specially genetically modified to resist it.[1]
That makes dicamba a powerful weedkiller for farmers growing dicamba-resistant crops -- and a complete disaster for everyone else. Dicamba drifts through the air for up to 72 hours after it's sprayed, so the destruction can spread far and wide.[2]
We can't accept the risk of dangerous, drifting dicamba. Tell the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban dicamba unless and until it's proven safe.
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Dicamba drift has just been getting worse since 2016, when the Trump administration authorized farmers to spray it over the top of growing crops. By 2021, the damage was dire: EPA research reported more than 3,400 incidents of dicamba drift in that year alone, damaging more than a million acres of crops.[3]
To try and control the problem, the EPA has made some small adjustments to when and how dicamba can be sprayed.[4]
But it's not enough. As long as dicamba keeps getting sprayed at all, it's going to keep drifting, uncontrolled.
The only way to truly stop this drifting chemical is to ban it. Take action to support a ban on dicamba today.
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Dicamba damages farms and wild plants -- but it may be hurting our health, too.
As dicamba drifts, it gets into the air we breathe and the food we eat. The EPA's own human health assessment shows that children under the age of 3 are the group most sensitive to health impacts from exposure to dicamba on their food.[5]
The health impacts of dicamba in the human body are still not fully understood -- but that's no reason to continue allowing it to be sprayed. Some research links contact with dicamba to the risk of certain types of cancer.[6]
To protect the crops that feed us, the ecosystems that sustain us, and our own health -- we need a ban on dicamba soon. Take action today.
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Thank you,
Faye Park
President
1. Caitlin Dewey, "This Miracle Weed Killer Was Supposed to Save Farms. Instead, It's Devastating Them," The Washington Post, August 29, 2017.
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2. Caitlin Dewey, "This Miracle Weed Killer Was Supposed to Save Farms. Instead, It's Devastating Them," The Washington Post, August 29, 2017.
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3. Joce Sterman and Emily Featherston, "Growing Concern: Thousands of farms across U.S. damaged by 'dicamba drift' that devastates crops," WBTV, August 1, 2022.
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4. Tom Polansek, "U.S. gives farmers shorter window to spray crop chemical dicamba," Reuters, February 16, 2023.
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5. "Dicamba and Dicamba BAPMA Salt: Human-Health Risk Assessment for Proposed Section 3 New Uses on Dicamba-tolerant Cotton and Soybean," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, March 29, 2016.
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6. Johnathan Hettinger, "Dicamba has killed tens of millions of trees across the Midwest and South," The Counter, June 22, 2020.
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U.S. PIRG
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