Pesticide overuse: Bad news for the environment and people

More than 60 years ago, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring warned the world of the dangers of widespread pesticide use. Her book contributed to a ban on DDT, helped fuel the environmental movement and led to the development of pesticide regulation.

Despite the hopeful start to people’s understanding of the harms caused by pesticides, they continue to be used at the expense of human health and the environment.

Exposure to pesticides has been linked to a range of health impacts such as cancer, reproductive harm, and impacts to child development. The rapid decline of essential pollinators such as bees, and the death of aquatic life, have been linked to pesticide use.

Yet despite the mounting evidence as to the risk of these chemicals, Canada is now using more pesticides than ever before.

The dangers of pesticide overuse

Pesticides pose a serious risk to the health of people and the environment. But many of these toxic chemicals are being unnecessarily overused across Canada. These include pesticides that have been banned in other jurisdictions such as the European Union due to the dangers that they pose to people and the environment — yet are still available to purchase and spray in Canada. There is also rampant overuse of pesticides in agriculture, forestry, and for cosmetic uses such as lawns.

While the proliferation of pesticides has been normalized by industry and governments, the human health impacts of pesticides should not be seen as an “acceptable” risk of food production. They are a very real problem with lasting consequences for us all, and especially for those most often exposed to these substances.

Exposure to pest control products can cause short-term acute health effects, as well as chronic adverse effects that occur months or years after exposure. Examples of acute health effects include stinging eyes, blisters, blindness, nausea, and death. The chronic long-term impacts include cancers, birth defects and reproductive harm.

Certain communities are especially at risk from the overuse of pesticides in Canada, including farmers and their families, agricultural workers who are often migrants, and Indigenous Peoples whose traditional sources of food and medicines are contaminated by these toxic chemicals.

Given what we know about the lasting impacts of pesticides, if we continue down this path, we will be putting future generations at even greater risk from this toxic legacy.

Are a lot of pesticides needed for food production?

Pesticide use in agricultural is widespread in Canada. In fact, farmers often have little choice but to use a large number of pesticides, because our food production systems have become so dependent on chemicals. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

UN food experts have noted that the heavy use of pesticides is not required to feed the world. [1] Studies have shown that pesticide use can be reduced significantly while still supporting food security and farmers’ livelihoods. Reducing pesticides use and increasing support for alternative agricultural models can help reduce the harms these chemicals reap.

Pesticide overuse often provides no tangible benefits for farmers or for the agricultural economy. It can harm soil and soil processes, and the beneficial species needed for agriculture. The rampant increase in pesticide use has created superpests that have become resistant to pesticides. To address the resistance, pesticide companies encourage farmers to apply more complex mixtures of pesticides to their crops, increasing potential risks to human health and the environment, often with little or no benefit.

Canada’s food system is now dependent on imported pesticides. In a time of global tensions, and uncertain and interrupted supply chains, we should not be depending on pesticides for food security or to support farming livelihoods.

How did we get here?

Health Canada is responsible for regulating pesticide use in Canada. But the regulator has long been increasingly cozy with industry. This has left us with a broken regulatory system that has been captured by industry, resulting in unacceptable and unnecessary harm.

Canada also takes a market-based approach that allows multinational agrichemical companies to wield control over the agricultural sector. Health Canada should be using the best available independent scientific research to inform decision-making about what we allow to be put in the air, water, and land, but the regulator often accepts industry-provided data that at times contradicts independent science. Industry lobbyists meet frequently with Health Canada and exert influence on decision-making. These companies reap huge profits while the wellbeing of farmers, workers, Indigenous Peoples, and our environment is at risk.

The Pest Control Products Act (PCPA) — the legislation that regulates pesticide use in Canada — directs decision-makers to take preventative measures to protect human health and the environment. Yet, the federal government permits pesticides to be used without a full understanding of their potential risks, including legacy pesticides and pesticides that are approved and re-approved without a review of current science. Health Canada hasn’t fully implemented many safeguards in the PCPA, including for cumulative health risks and ecological risks.

Canadians have a right to participate in decision-making about risky pesticides that impact their health and that of the environment. However, a chronic lack of transparency in Health Canada’s management of pesticides makes it difficult for the public to know how decisions are being made and what risks they are being exposed to.

What should change?

In 2022, Canada signed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This commits Canada to reducing the risks from pesticides by 50 per cent by 2023. The only way to address the risks from pesticides is to reduce pesticide use. There are clear steps the government can take to do this:

The public deserves to know about the risks from pesticides, and we need significantly better transparency through expanded monitoring, removing confidentiality, and improving access to data.

The federal government must provide farm families with the support and tools to transition to more sustainable pest management while maintaining their economic activities.

Canada can and should invest in strategies that move beyond pesticides. The survival of agriculture for future generations depends on choices that political leaders make now on how to protect one of our most valuable resources, the ecosystem that grows our food.

Health Canada must take preventative measures to ensure the health and well-being of everyone in Canada by erring on the side of caution and refusing to renew registrations for pesticide products unless it can determine that no harm will occur for their use.

Long term, the federal government must eliminate the use of toxic pesticides, and that starts with cancelling high-risk, high-volume, and low-benefit practices.

A better future with less pesticides is possible

Canadian regulators should acknowledge that pesticides can have a serious impact on human health. It’s time for Canada to set pesticide use reduction as a clear policy goal — and center it in health, agricultural and environmental policy. The federal government should align itself with international best practice to better protect people and the environment. Industry profits are not the government’s problem. It’s time for Canada to put people and planet at the heart of decision making and invest in sustainable alternatives.