The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) has discovered that two groups of common pesticides, generally considered to be "safer" chemicals, are responsible for one quarter of reported human pesticide poisonings, based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) own data. CPI spent several years demanding the release of the data through repeated Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. A trade association representing the interests of the consumer specialty products industry denounced the report.

Report Findings

The CPI report, Perils of the New Pesticides, analyzes the number of reported human health problems, including severe reactions and deaths, linked to two families of pesticides, pyrethrins and pyrethroids, over the past decade. Pyrethrins are a class of chemicals derived from chrysanthemum plants. Pyrethroids have similar properties but are created synthetically. Pesticides made with these chemicals are found in thousands of common household products such as flea and tick poisons, ant and roach killers, delousing shampoos, lawn-care products, and carpet sprays.

The data reveal that reported incidents of fatal, major, and moderate exposures to the two classes of pesticides increased 300 percent since 1998. There were 1,030 incidents reported to EPA in 2007 alone, up significantly from the 261 reported in 1998. Pyrethrins and pyrethroids accounted for more incidents than any other class of pesticide over the last five years. The EPA's reporting system receives up to 6,000 reports of pesticide exposures annually.

The CPI report concludes that the increase in reported health problems may be a result of increased use and popularity of pyrethrins and pyrethroids following the ban on residential use of another popular group of chemicals, organophosphates, which are thought to be more toxic. However, the EPA data show at least 50 deaths attributed to these supposedly safer classes of pesticides since 1992.

Similar data provided by the American Association of Poison Control Centers were compared to the results. The association's data also show a large increase in reported health problems linked to pyrethroid and pyrethrin exposure over the last decade, with instances increasing 63 percent from 1998 to 2006. Additional data from the association show that the number of hospital visits resulting from pyrethrin and pyrethroid exposures is increasing and approaching the level caused by organophosphate exposures at their peak in the early 1990s, according to the CPI report.

As a result of the investigation, the director of the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs said the agency this year would begin a broad study of the human health effects of these chemicals and examine further any trends. According to CPI, the EPA originally had not planned to review the data until 2010.

Medical studies have suggested that people with ragweed allergies and those with asthma may be especially sensitive to developing skin or respiratory disorders following exposure to pyrethrins and pyrethroids. Children and infants are also more susceptible than adults to health problems, including neurological disorders.

The Food and Drug Administration currently requires warning labels regarding the risks to people with allergies or asthma on anti-lice shampoos containing these chemicals. CPI also reports that researchers are urging more scientific studies of the effects of the use of these chemicals, more specific warning labels, and, in certain situations, allowing only trained professionals to apply them.

Data Access and Improvement

CPI produced its analysis using EPA's Pesticide Incident Data System, an aggregation of more than 90,000 pesticide exposure incidents from 1992 through 2007. The data system has been regarded by right-to-know advocates as one of the most important databases to which public access was restricted. The database made the 1999 Top Ten Most Wanted Government Documents list produced by the Center for Democracy and Technology and OMB Watch. After repeated efforts to obtain information under FOIA, the agency finally released the database in early 2008.

Along with the report, CPI has launched a new interactive online database where the public can search for incidences of pesticide exposures, creating the only online public access to the long-sought EPA data. Searches can be conducted by product name or chemical name, and by city, state, and type of exposure.

Most of the information is reported by pesticide manufacturers, who are only required by law to report all instances that they become aware of — such as through a lawsuit. This means many poisonings may go unreported to EPA. The data also do not include incidents of medical problems caused by long-term exposure to the pesticides, which are much harder to diagnose. Only incidents that were classified in the EPA database as unknown or adverse were included in the analysis.

The Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) responded to the CPI report claiming that the report distorts the truth. According to a CSPA press release, the EPA data system, which CPI relied on, includes all incidents without validation or investigation. Thus, cases resulting from misuse, abuse, and exposures resulting from attempts at self harm such as suicides are included. According to CSPA President Chris Cathcart, "The basic premise behind the report — that incident data in its raw form is signaling a serious health threat from these ingredients — is fundamentally flawed. There was no evaluation by expert clinical and medical toxicologists to sort out incidents that, under further scrutiny by EPA's team of expert toxicologists and medical professionals, would have been excluded from the raw data set to allow for a meaningful analysis."

The Center for Public Integrity reports that in response to its inquiries, the EPA has begun reviewing how incident data are collected and analyzed. The director of the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs announced that an EPA working group will develop short- and long-term goals for improving the system. The EPA pesticide data has been a factor in previous agency decisions to ban, restrict, or negotiate voluntary cancellations of harmful products.