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A newly filed legal petition from a dozen health advocacy and farm worker groups is calling for the EPA to discontinue permitting the use of antibiotics on produce across the America, pointing to superbug development and illnesses to agricultural workers.

Agricultural Sector Applies Large Quantities of Antimicrobial Crop Treatments

The agricultural sector uses about 8m lbs of antimicrobial and fungicidal pesticides on American food crops annually, with many of these agents banned in international markets.

“Each year the public are at elevated danger from harmful microbes and diseases because pharmaceutical drugs are sprayed on crops,” stated a public health advocate.

Superbug Threat Poses Significant Health Dangers

The excessive use of antibiotics, which are critical for treating human disease, as crop treatments on crops endangers community well-being because it can cause drug-resistant microbes. Similarly, frequent use of antifungal agent pesticides can create mycoses that are harder to treat with present-day medical drugs.

• Antibiotic-resistant infections sicken about millions of people and result in about 35,000 fatalities per year.
• Health agencies have associated “clinically significant antimicrobials” approved for pesticide use to treatment failure, greater chance of pathogenic diseases and elevated threat of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Environmental and Health Consequences

Additionally, eating drug traces on crops can disturb the intestinal flora and increase the likelihood of long-term illnesses. These agents also pollute drinking water supplies, and are believed to damage pollinators. Often economically disadvantaged and Hispanic farm workers are most exposed.

Common Antibiotic Pesticides and Agricultural Methods

Farms apply antimicrobials because they eliminate microbes that can damage or kill plants. One of the most frequently used antimicrobial treatments is a common antibiotic, which is frequently used in medical care. Data indicate as much as 125k lbs have been sprayed on American produce in a one year.

Agricultural Sector Influence and Government Response

The petition comes as the regulator faces pressure to expand the use of pharmaceutical drugs. The citrus plant illness, spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, is destroying orange groves in the state of Florida.

“I understand their desperation because they’re in difficult circumstances, but from a public health standpoint this is definitely a obvious choice – it should not be allowed,” the expert said. “The key point is the enormous challenges created by spraying human medicine on food crops significantly surpass the agricultural problems.”

Alternative Methods and Future Prospects

Experts suggest basic agricultural measures that should be implemented before antibiotics, such as planting crops further apart, developing more disease-resistant types of crops and identifying sick crops and quickly removing them to prevent the diseases from transmitting.

The legal appeal provides the Environmental Protection Agency about 5 years to answer. In the past, the agency outlawed chloropyrifos in answer to a parallel regulatory appeal, but a judge overturned the agency's prohibition.

The organization can enact a prohibition, or has to give a reason why it will not. If the regulator, or a subsequent government, declines to take action, then the organizations can take legal action. The process could require many years.

“We’re playing the long game,” the advocate remarked.