Foreign chemical companies have launched a coordinated, multi-front campaign to secure unprecedented legal immunity for pesticide products in the United States. This strategic effort spans federal legislation, state laws, EPA rulemaking and Supreme Court litigation – all aimed at shielding manufacturers from accountability when their products cause harm to American farmers, property and communities.
Current Call to Action
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Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have their own versions of an “Appropriation Bill” which is a regular spending bill that the chemical companies are using to sneak in their liability shield. Right now, we need calls to Congress to get them to reject the Appropriations Bill with the liability shield in it when it hits the floor of Congress for a vote.
Congress
The House version of the Bill has the liability shield hidden in it (Section 453) and will go to the House Floor for a vote in the near future. Please call your congressperson and tell them that you do not support section 453, legal protection for pesticide companies, or a freeze on EPA spending to update pesticide safety labels.
Lookup your representatives: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Say something like this:
I am calling regarding Section 453 in the Federal House Appropriation Bill. Under no circumstance should pesticide companies get a free pass to continue poisoning American kids. This provision effectively provides foreign chemical companies like ChemChina a free pass to hide behind the EPA and poison Americans with no recourse. Vote against this appropriations bill.
Background
Section 453 of the Federal House Interior Appropriations Bill has total pesticide immunity language included in it. Buried in this House spending bill is a provision that would let pesticide companies continue to hide behind outdated EPA pesticide assessments, poisoning our kids with no consequences.
What Section 453 does: Blocks the government from taking ANY ACTION if it differs in any way from the agency’s most recent health or cancer assessment. Unless they do a new assessment – which takes “no less than four years, and sometimes over twelve” according to the EPA – agencies would not be allowed to update safety warnings, food safety tolerances or guidance even if new science shows harm, companies ask for updates or the original assessment was based on fraud.
The trap: Pesticide companies need EPA approval to update label warnings. EPA can only act after they perform new health assessments, but the EPA does not do their own scientific tests. Their health assessments rely primarily on unpublished studies paid for by the pesticide company. Pesticide companies have also been known to hide evidence, manipulate science and deny that their products are causing harm. If they don’t like the outcome of a new EPA health assessment, they will sue to delay it even longer.
Meanwhile: People keep getting cancer, Parkinson’s, liver disease, ALS, infertility and more. But the companies claim “you can’t blame us – our product is safe – the EPA hasn’t told us to warn anyone!”
The worst part: Courts will be forced to agree with pesticide companies. Section 453 means that the EPA can’t approve updated warnings, allowing companies to argue it is impossible to comply with FIFRA’s labeling obligations and their duty to warn consumers about risks posed by their products under state product liability law. Because federal law overrides state law when it is impossible to comply with both, people who are seriously injured by pesticide companies wouldn’t be able to hold the company accountable for covering up the risks.
What’s at stake:
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Delayed updates on 57,000+ active products if they have outdated and inadequate warning labels
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Families at risk of losing their right to hold companies accountable when their loved ones get sick from chemical exposure
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Our kids pay the price while chemical giants get richer
