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A fresh formal request from multiple health advocacy and agricultural labor coalitions is urging the EPA to cease authorizing the use of antimicrobial agents on edible plants across the United States, highlighting superbug development and health risks to farm laborers.

Agricultural Industry Applies Millions of Pounds of Antibiotic Crop Treatments

The crop production applies approximately 8m lbs of antibiotic and antifungal pesticides on American produce every year, with several of these substances banned in foreign countries.

“Annually US citizens are at greater risk from toxic microbes and infections because pharmaceutical drugs are applied on plants,” commented a public health advocate.

Superbug Threat Poses Significant Public Health Threats

The overuse of antimicrobial drugs, which are vital for combating human disease, as crop treatments on fruits and vegetables threatens public health because it can cause drug-resistant microbes. In the same way, frequent use of antifungal treatments can create fungal diseases that are harder to treat with currently available pharmaceuticals.

• Drug-resistant diseases sicken about millions of Americans and cause about thousands of mortalities each year.
• Public health organizations have connected “medically important antimicrobials” approved for agricultural spraying to antibiotic resistance, greater chance of staph infections and higher probability of MRSA.

Environmental and Public Health Impacts

Furthermore, eating drug traces on food can disturb the digestive system and raise the likelihood of long-term illnesses. These agents also pollute aquatic systems, and are considered to damage insects. Typically low-income and Latino field workers are most vulnerable.

Common Agricultural Antimicrobials and Agricultural Methods

Agricultural operations apply antibiotics because they destroy bacteria that can harm or destroy produce. One of the popular antibiotic pesticides is streptomycin, which is often used in medical care. Data indicate approximately 125k lbs have been used on US crops in a annual period.

Citrus Industry Lobbying and Regulatory Action

The formal request comes as the Environmental Protection Agency faces urging to widen the use of human antibiotics. The crop infection, carried by the Asian citrus psyllid, is destroying orange groves in southeastern US.

“I recognize their critical situation because they’re in dire straits, but from a public health perspective this is definitely a obvious choice – it should not be allowed,” Donley said. “The fundamental issue is the enormous problems caused by applying human medicine on produce significantly surpass the agricultural problems.”

Alternative Methods and Future Prospects

Specialists recommend simple crop management actions that should be implemented initially, such as planting crops further apart, breeding more hardy strains of produce and identifying sick crops and quickly removing them to prevent the infections from transmitting.

The legal appeal provides the Environmental Protection Agency about half a decade to respond. Several years ago, the regulator banned chloropyrifos in answer to a parallel regulatory appeal, but a judge blocked the regulatory action.

The agency can impose a ban, or has to give a reason why it will not. If the regulator, or a future administration, does not act, then the coalitions can take legal action. The process could take more than a decade.

“We are pursuing the prolonged effort,” the advocate remarked.