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A fresh legal petition from twelve health advocacy and farm worker groups is urging the EPA to cease permitting the use of antimicrobial agents on edible plants across the United States, highlighting superbug development and health risks to farm laborers.

Farming Sector Sprays Substantial Amounts of Antimicrobial Pesticides

The farming industry sprays around 8m lbs of antibiotic and antifungal pesticides on US produce annually, with a number of these chemicals banned in international markets.

“Annually the public are at elevated danger from dangerous microbes and infections because human medicines are applied on plants,” said Nathan Donley.

Superbug Threat Presents Significant Health Dangers

The widespread application of antibiotics, which are vital for addressing medical conditions, as crop treatments on crops jeopardizes community well-being because it can cause drug-resistant microbes. In the same way, excessive application of antifungal treatments can lead to fungal infections that are more resistant with currently available pharmaceuticals.

• Treatment-resistant diseases sicken about 2.8m individuals and cause about 35,000 fatalities each year.
• Public health organizations have linked “medically important antibiotics” authorized for crop application to drug resistance, greater chance of staph infections and increased risk of MRSA.

Ecological and Health Consequences

Furthermore, ingesting antibiotic residues on produce can disturb the intestinal flora and increase the likelihood of long-term illnesses. These chemicals also taint drinking water supplies, and are considered to harm bees. Typically poor and minority field workers are most at risk.

Frequently Used Antibiotic Pesticides and Agricultural Methods

Growers use antibiotics because they eliminate pathogens that can damage or kill crops. One of the popular antibiotic pesticides is streptomycin, which is frequently used in healthcare. Estimates indicate as much as 125,000 pounds have been sprayed on American produce in a single year.

Agricultural Sector Influence and Government Response

The petition is filed as the EPA encounters demands to increase the application of medical antimicrobials. The bacterial citrus greening disease, spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, is devastating citrus orchards in Florida.

“I understand their urgent need because they’re in dire straits, but from a societal point of view this is certainly a obvious choice – it must not occur,” the advocate said. “The key point is the significant problems caused by spraying human medicine on food crops far outweigh the agricultural problems.”

Other Approaches and Long-term Outlook

Advocates suggest simple farming measures that should be tried initially, such as increasing plant spacing, cultivating more disease-resistant varieties of produce and identifying diseased trees and quickly removing them to stop the infections from propagating.

The formal request provides the regulator about 5 years to respond. Previously, the organization prohibited chloropyrifos in reaction to a comparable formal request, but a court overturned the agency's prohibition.

The agency can enact a prohibition, or has to give a reason why it refuses to. If the EPA, or a future administration, declines to take action, then the groups can take legal action. The process could require many years.

“We’re playing the long game,” the advocate concluded.