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A recent legal petition from a dozen health advocacy and agricultural labor coalitions is demanding the Environmental Protection Agency to cease permitting the spraying of antibiotics on produce across the United States, pointing to superbug proliferation and illnesses to agricultural workers.

Farming Industry Uses Large Quantities of Antimicrobial Pesticides

The crop production uses around 8m lbs of antibiotic and antifungal pesticides on US plants each year, with a number of these agents banned in foreign countries.

“Each year the public are at greater risk from harmful bacteria and diseases because medical antibiotics are applied on plants,” stated a public health advocate.

Antibiotic Resistance Poses Major Public Health Threats

The widespread application of antimicrobial drugs, which are critical for addressing medical conditions, as agricultural chemicals on crops jeopardizes population health because it can result in superbug bacteria. Likewise, excessive application of antifungal pesticides can create fungal infections that are more resistant with currently available pharmaceuticals.

• Treatment-resistant infections sicken about 2.8m people and result in about 35,000 deaths annually.
• Regulatory bodies have associated “clinically significant antimicrobials” authorized for agricultural spraying to treatment failure, greater chance of staph infections and higher probability of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Environmental and Public Health Impacts

Furthermore, eating antibiotic residues on food can alter the intestinal flora and increase the risk of chronic diseases. These substances also taint drinking water supplies, and are considered to harm bees. Typically economically disadvantaged and minority field workers are most at risk.

Frequently Used Agricultural Antimicrobials and Agricultural Methods

Growers spray antibiotics because they eliminate bacteria that can damage or kill produce. Among the popular antibiotic pesticides is a medical drug, which is commonly used in medical care. Figures indicate up to 125,000 pounds have been sprayed on American produce in a annual period.

Agricultural Sector Lobbying and Government Action

The formal request coincides with the Environmental Protection Agency encounters urging to expand the utilization of medical antimicrobials. The bacterial citrus greening disease, spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, is devastating citrus orchards in the state of Florida.

“I appreciate their urgent need because they’re in difficult circumstances, but from a societal standpoint this is definitely a no-brainer – it cannot happen,” Donley stated. “The bottom line is the significant issues created by using pharmaceuticals on produce far outweigh the agricultural problems.”

Alternative Methods and Future Outlook

Advocates propose simple farming measures that should be tested before antibiotics, such as increasing plant spacing, cultivating more disease-resistant types of plants and detecting sick crops and quickly removing them to halt the infections from spreading.

The formal request gives the regulator about five years to answer. Several years ago, the organization prohibited chloropyrifos in response to a parallel formal request, but a court blocked the regulatory action.

The regulator can impose a prohibition, or is required to give a reason why it refuses to. If the Environmental Protection Agency, or a subsequent government, fails to respond, then the organizations can sue. The procedure could require more than a decade.

“We are pursuing the extended strategy,” Donley stated.