(NewsNation) — Warning of serious health risks to unborn children, the Environmental Protection Agency has issued an emergency order removing a product from the market: pesticide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate (DCPA or Dacthal).
DCPA products help control weeds in agricultural and non-agricultural environments and are often used around crops like broccoli, cabbage, onions and Brussels sprouts.
DCPA health risks
According to the agency, fetuses exposed to the pesticide could go on to have sometimes irreversible complications, like low birth weight, decreased I.Q., impaired motor skills and impaired brain development.
It’s the first time the agency has taken this kind of action in nearly 40 years, with the dangers discovered after “several years of unprecedented efforts by the Biden-Harris Administration to require the submission of long-overdue data” about the pesticide, the EPA said.
The EPA estimates that a pregnant woman who handles the pesticide could face exposures four to 20 times greater than what is deemed healthy for a fetus.
“I applaud the emergency action by the EPA which prioritizes farmworker health and safety, especially for pregnant women, by suspending this harmful chemical from our agricultural systems,” Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., said in a statement.
Mily Treviño Sauceda, the executive director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas. also known as the National Farmworkers Women’s Alliance, called the EPA’s decision a “historic” step in the right direction.
“This emergency 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,” Sauceda added.
History of DCPA pesticides
DCPA was first introduced in 1958. Women in farm work have, for decades, been subjected to the pesticide’s potential complications, with women frequently unaware they’d ever been exposed, according to Michal Freedhoff, the assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
The EPA first identified DCPA products as potentially dangerous in the 1990s, releasing subsequent reports that revealed pregnant women were at risk, even if they were wearing protective gear.
Though manufacturer AMVAC proposed changes to DCPA products, the EPA deemed them inadequate, adding that there are “no practical mitigation measures that can be put in place to allow DCPA’s continued use.”