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A recent formal request from multiple public health and agricultural labor coalitions is calling for the Environmental Protection Agency to stop permitting the spraying of antibiotics on produce across the US, highlighting superbug spread and health risks to agricultural workers.

Farming Industry Uses Large Quantities of Antimicrobial Pesticides

The farming industry uses about 8m lbs of antimicrobial and fungicidal pesticides on US food crops each year, with several of these agents restricted in international markets.

“Annually Americans are at elevated danger from harmful bacteria and infections because pharmaceutical drugs are used on produce,” stated an environmental health director.

Antibiotic Resistance Creates Significant Health Threats

The overuse of antimicrobial drugs, which are critical for treating human disease, as agricultural chemicals on produce threatens public health because it can cause superbug bacteria. In the same way, frequent use of antifungal agent treatments can lead to fungal infections that are harder to treat with currently available medicines.

• Drug-resistant illnesses sicken about millions of people and cause about 35,000 deaths per year.
• Health agencies have connected “medically important antimicrobials” authorized for pesticide use to drug resistance, greater chance of bacterial illnesses and elevated threat of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Environmental and Health Effects

Meanwhile, ingesting drug traces on food can alter the digestive system and raise the chance of persistent conditions. These chemicals also pollute aquatic systems, and are considered to damage insects. Frequently poor and Hispanic agricultural laborers are most at risk.

Common Agricultural Antimicrobials and Industry Methods

Agricultural operations spray antimicrobials because they kill microbes that can harm or destroy plants. One of the popular antimicrobial treatments is a common antibiotic, which is commonly used in medical care. Data indicate approximately 125,000 pounds have been used on domestic plants in a one year.

Citrus Industry Lobbying and Regulatory Response

The legal appeal is filed as the regulator experiences urging to expand the use of pharmaceutical drugs. The crop infection, transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid, is severely affecting orange groves in the state of Florida.

“I appreciate their desperation because they’re in dire straits, but from a public health perspective this is certainly a clear decision – it must not occur,” Donley stated. “The key point is the enormous challenges created by using human medicine on edible plants greatly exceed the farming challenges.”

Other Solutions and Long-term Prospects

Experts propose simple agricultural measures that should be implemented first, such as wider crop placement, developing more hardy varieties of produce and locating sick crops and quickly removing them to stop the infections from transmitting.

The formal request gives the regulator about half a decade to act. Several years ago, the regulator outlawed chloropyrifos in answer to a parallel legal petition, but a legal authority overturned the EPA’s ban.

The organization can enact a ban, or must give a reason why it will not. If the regulator, or a future administration, declines to take action, then the coalitions can file a lawsuit. The legal battle could require more than a decade.

“We are engaged in the long game,” the advocate stated.