EPA investigation shows “safe” pesticides now top list of poisonings

Through a FOIA request, The Center for Public Integrity obtained the Environmental Protection Agency’s internal pesticide incident database, called one of the “Ten Most Wanted Government Documents” by a watchdog group. Their analysis of the more than 90,000 “adverse-reaction” reports filed by manufacturers to the EPA found that the supposedly “safe” pesticide compounds now in thousands of consumer products — pyrethrins and pyrethroids — lead the list of poisonings, and that the reports on these compounds have jumped 300 percent in the past decade.