Globally, an estimated 46 percent of farmers are victims of unintentional, acute pesticide poisoning every year.
That’s according to research conducted by the Pesticide Action Network and published in the Frontiers in Public Health. Here’s how they arrived at that figure: There are 369,632 pesticide poisonings reported each year, including 9,182 fatalities, but since data is not collected on all pesticide poisonings, and some go unreported, the authors created a statistical model to determine that there are as many as 433 million cases annually worldwide and about 11,000 fatalities. With 934 million farmers in the world, this puts the estimated percentage that experience pesticide poisoning each year at 46 percent.
What’s the solution to this problem?
Ban the hazardous pesticides causing unintentional, acute pesticide poisoning.
The World Health Organization classifies hazardous pesticides in four categories: extremely hazardous, highly hazardous, moderately hazardous, and slightly hazardous, separating these from pesticides that are “unlikely to present acute hazard in normal use.”
To put the WHO’s list in perspective, take the example of paraquat, listed by the WHO as “moderately” hazardous. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s paraquat warning is, “One sip can kill.” It has collected many verified instances of death after the accidental ingestion of tiny amounts.
All four grades of hazardous pesticides listed by the WHO can cause unintentional, acute pesticide poisoning.
Which of these are used in agriculture in the U.S.?
There are about 150! The list hasn’t changed since Investigate the Midwest researched this question in 2020. It includes five pesticides listed by the WHO as extremely hazardous that are used on our food in the U.S.:
Aldicarb
Aldicarb is the most deadly pesticide on the market. Banned in 103 countries, aldicarb has the lowest lethal dose (LD50) of any pesticide used in the U.S. Its LD50 is 1 mg/kg, meaning the lethal dose that kills 50 percent of test animals is just 1 milligram per kilogram of body weight.
This carbamate insecticide made from methyl isocyanate and aldicarb oxime is a systemic pesticide; it is applied to the soil, taken up by the roots, and carried into the stem, leaves, and fruit of the plant.
Aldicarb causes nausea, blurred vision, tremors, and other neurotoxic symptoms at extremely low levels.
Aldicarb is responsible for the largest foodborne pesticide poisoning in U.S. history, the incident on the 4th of July in 1985 where more than 2,000 people reported getting sick from eating aldicarb-contaminated watermelons. Seventeen required hospitalization. There were six deaths and two stillbirths among the people who became ill from aldicarb poisoning, but there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that aldicarb was the cause. Union Carbide, the sole manufacturer of aldicarb, insisted that watermelon farmers were using the insecticide illegally (it wasn’t approved for watermelons), but independent experts said that aldicarb used legally on cotton or sugar beets could have gotten into the watermelons, either through residues left on the soil or through contaminated groundwater used for irrigation.
Less than a year earlier, in 1984, Union Carbide’s aldicarb production had caused the world’s worst industrial accident. In Bhopal, India, a Union Carbide aldicarb factory leaked 40 tons of toxic methyl isocyanate gas. Among the 500,000 people injured, 2,250 were killed immediately, as many as 10,000 within days, and eventually more than 25,000.
Less than a year later, another Union Carbide aldicarb factory, this time in West Virginia, leaked aldicarb oxime, causing at least 135 people to be treated for eye, throat, and lung injuries. Bayer bought the West Virginia Union Carbide factory in 2002.
In 2009, after Bayer bought Union Carbide’s West Virginia aldicarb factory, a large explosion and fire there took the lives of two Bayer workers and injured eight other people, including two who were treated at the emergency room.
In 2010, the EPA and Bayer, the only aldicarb manufacturer, entered an agreement to end its production, not because of accidental poisonings or industrial accidents, but because of the unacceptable dietary risks to infants and young children.
In 2011, AgLogic (a subsidiary of the MEY Corporation), the new owner of Union Carbide/Bayer’s aldicarb business, applied for, and received, approval to use it on cotton, peanuts, dry beans, soybeans, and sugar beets in 24 states (see map of aldicarb use). It’s also allowed on sweet potatoes even though the EPA found that preschoolers eating sweet potatoes treated with aldicarb are exposed to more than three times the level that the agency says is safe.
Currently, the Trump Administration is trying to expand aldicarb’s use to Florida for citrus greening, even though, according to an exposé by the New Lede, Environmental Protection Agency scientists “worried that levels of the pesticide would be so high in the fruits that orange juice would be unsafe for children to drink.”
Aldicarb was implicated in the 2023-2024 pesticide poisoning scandal in South Africa where 23 children were killed and nearly 900 people were injured.Three children in Ekurhuleni and three children in Soweto died after accidental exposure to aldicarb. Even though aldicarb has been banned for use in South Africa since 2016, it is sold by street vendors to kill rats. People will typically mix the poison with food and put it out for the rats. Locals know it as “galephirimi” which means “you will not see the sunset” in the Sotho-Tswana languages.
Chlorethoxyfos
Chlorethoxyfos/chlorethoxyphos, an insecticide that’s deadly if ingested or inhaled in the family of organo phosphorus compounds which attack the human nervous system in ways similar to military nerve agents.
Chlorethoxyfos was one of several organophosphates found in Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev’s system after he was poisoned in 2015, likely by Russian agents. Gebrev went into a coma but survived.
Banned in 29 countries, chlorethoxyfos is sold in the U.S. by AMVAC Chemical Corporation (American Vanguard Corporation) under the brand-name Fortress for use on corn in Illinois, Minnesota, and Nebraska (see map of chlorethoxyfos use).
AMVAC has made a “booming business” of selling the world’s most toxic pesticides, long after they’ve been abandoned by other companies as too risky. As the Los Angeles Times reported, AMVAC works to “keep those chemicals on the market as long as possible, hiring scientists and lawyers to do battle with regulatory agencies.”
Ethoprophos
Ethoprophos is another neurotoxic organophosphate insecticide sold by AMVAC. Known as MOCAP 10G, it was banned in the EU in 2019 due to links to developmental disorders. It is allowed in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin (see map of ethoprophos use). Residues are allowed on domestic and imported crops, including bananas, beans, cabbage, corn, cucumbers, hops, peppermint, pineapples, potatoes, spearmint, sugarcane, and sweet potatoes. Residues aren’t allowed on cilantro or sweet bell peppers, but they have been found.
Phorate
Phorate, yet another neurotoxic organophosphate insecticide sold by AMVAC, was also found in Emilian Gebrev’s system after he was poisoned. Marketed as Thimet in the U.S., it is banned in 38 countries. It is allowed in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin (see map of phorate use). Residues are allowed on domestic and imported crops, including beans, beets, coffee, corn, cotton, hops, peanuts, potatoes, sorghum, soybeans, sugarcane, and wheat. Phorate is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency as an acute hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. In 2024, AMVAC paid a $400,000 fine for running afoul of this law.
Terbufos
Terbufos is the fourth neurotoxic organophosphate insecticide marketed by AMVAC on this list of the five most deadly pesticides sold in the U.S. It is the third of these that was implicated in Gebrev’s 2015 poisoning.
Brand-named Counter, terbufos is banned in 34 countries, while being allowed on corn, sorghum, and sugar beets in Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming (see map of terbufos use). Residues are allowed on bananas, beets, coffee, corn and sorghum.
Like aldicarb, Terbufos was implicated in the 2023-2024 pesticide poisoning scandal in South Africa where 23 children were killed and nearly 900 people were injured. The deaths of six children in Soweto were directly attributed to terbufos. Terbufos is not allowed to be sold for general household use in South Africa but, like aldicarb, it’s commonly sold at corner stores known as spaza shops as rat poison. That doesn’t necessarily explain how it ended up inside a bag of Cheetos-like snacks called Go-Slo’s that killed a 7-year-old girl.
Take Action
It’s time to end the era of pesticide poisonings and industrial disasters that are an unavoidable part of the production and use of hazardous pesticides.
TAKE ACTION: Ban the Pesticides Classified by WHO as Hazardous, Including These Top Five!
