The possibility of pesticides spreading PFAS across Minnesota and permeating soil, water and food has captured the attention of DFLers who control the state Legislature. And it’s behind a new effort to regulate the products.
The potential for tougher action on PFAS in pesticides — and other DFL efforts to restrict pesticide use — drew fierce opposition from agriculture trade groups who said the regulations would hurt farmers and limit products that are closely scrutinized by federal environmental officials.
Steven Lasee, an environmental toxicologist and chemist living in Duluth, made a startling finding last year when studying “forever chemicals” known to many by their acronym: PFAS.
Lasee and the team of researchers from Texas Tech University found concentrations of the perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in six out of the 10 agricultural pesticides they tested in Texas that are commonly used to treat cotton. And PFAS, some forms of which are linked to health risks including certain cancers, was not a listed component in any.
“Regardless of how the PFAS got into the pesticides it will end up on anything they’re applied to, including our food,” Lasee told Minnesota lawmakers during a state House committee hearing in March.
The possibility of pesticides spreading PFAS across Minnesota and permeating soil, water and food has captured the attention of DFLers who control the state Legislature. And it’s behind a new effort to regulate the products.
Democrats are now poised to give the state’s Department of Agriculture the power to ban pesticides with PFAS. That won’t happen until at least 2032. However, by 2026, pesticide companies will need to report whether a product intentionally contains PFAS. Both policies were passed by the House and Senate on Thursday and sent to Gov. Tim Walz for his signature.
The regulations are part of a burgeoning effort to crack down on or research PFAS in agriculture, which has gained some traction in Maine and Maryland. And the limits come as Minnesota lawmakers agreed to ban a swath of other products from non-essential use of PFAS, including carpets and cookware, much sooner than 2032.
The Minnesota restrictions on pesticides still fell short of what at least some Democrats wanted. The House passed a bill earlier this year that would have banned any pesticide with PFAS starting this summer, a decision that could have impacted more than 14% of pesticides on the market, according to Walz’s administration.
By Walker Orenstein |