POLITICS: New Science Undercuts the Case for Pesticide Immunity – USSA News

New microbiome research reveals that pesticides and other “approved” chemicals may be quietly undermining human health—exposing the dangerous flaw in Bayer’s push for legal immunity. Action Alert!

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THE TOPLINE

• A major new study shows that nearly one in six common environmental chemicals—including pesticides—kills or inhibits beneficial gut bacteria, a risk completely ignored in current EPA safety assessments.
• Researchers also found that chemical exposure can drive antibiotic resistance, meaning pesticides and industrial compounds may be fueling a public health crisis.
• As evidence of harm mounts, Bayer’s bid for blanket immunity would lock outdated science into law, shielding thousands of chemicals from accountability and leaving public health unprotected.

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A new study adds a troubling dimension to the debate over pesticide safety—one that directly undercuts Bayer/Monsanto’s aggressive campaign to secure immunity from liability lawsuits.

While chemical manufacturers insist that products like glyphosate are “safe” based on outdated (or retracted) science, emerging science shows that these chemicals may be causing harm in ways regulators don’t even measure.

The study examined how more than 1,000 commonly used environmental chemicals—including pesticides, plastics, and industrial compounds—affect the human gut microbiome, the rich ecosystem of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms that reside in the human digestive tract. The results were striking: nearly one in six of the chemicals tested inhibited the growth of beneficial gut bacteria. Fungicides and industrial chemicals were especially damaging, with roughly 30% showing antibacterial effects.

This matters because our gut microbiome is central to our health. Beneficial gut bacteria help regulate immunity, metabolism, inflammation, and even cardiovascular health, as well as determining how well we are able to extract nutrients from our food. Yet current pesticide safety assessments ignore microbiome impacts, focusing narrowly on acute toxicity or cancer risk in humans while overlooking how chemicals behave as unintentional antibiotics inside the body.

That’s right: chemicals stamped as “safe” by the EPA are silently eroding the very biological systems we need to keep us healthy.

The Hidden Cost: Antibiotic Resistance and Chronic Disease

Even more alarming is the study’s finding that exposure to environmental chemicals can drive antibiotic resistance. Researchers found that gut bacteria use the same defense mechanisms—called efflux pumps—to survive both pollutants and medical antibiotics. Bacteria that became resistant to chemicals like flame retardants or livestock drugs also became resistant to ciprofloxacin, a commonly used antibiotic.

This phenomenon, known as “collateral resistance,” suggests that widespread chemical exposure may be contributing to the antibiotic resistance crisis.

Against this backdrop, Bayer’s insistence that glyphosate poses no meaningful health risk looks increasingly indefensible.

Why Bayer Is Desperate for Legal Immunity

ANH has been documenting Bayer/Monsanto’s multi-front effort to escape accountability for the health harms linked to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Having paid out billions in jury verdicts and settlements, the company is now seeking what Big Pharma enjoys with vaccines: blanket legal immunity.

If Bayer succeeds—whether through the Supreme Court, state “Cancer Gag” laws, or immunity provisions buried in the Farm Bill—it would effectively freeze pesticide regulation in time. New science like this microbiome study would be legally irrelevant. Failure-to-warn claims would vanish, even if evidence mounts that these chemicals contribute to cancer, immune dysfunction, or antibiotic resistance.

This is precisely why Bayer wants immunity now. The science is moving faster than the regulatory system—and much faster than the EPA’s pesticide assessments, many of which rely on assumptions that predate modern microbiome research.

This issue is about more than just Bayer and glyphosate. It is also about the 57,000+ pesticides approved by the EPA that would also benefit from legal immunity.

The Bottom Line

This study underscores why legal accountability matters. When corporations know they can be sued, they are forced—however reluctantly—to respond to emerging science. When immunity shields them from consequences, public health becomes collateral damage.

Lawmakers must reject Bayer-backed immunity schemes, defend state-level failure-to-warn laws, and ensure that chemical safety standards evolve with the science. At the same time, consumers should demand food systems that minimize chemical exposure in the first place.

Protecting the microbiome means protecting our right to know, our right to choose clean food, and our right to hold powerful corporations accountable when their products cause harm.

Action Alert!

The post New Science Undercuts the Case for Pesticide Immunity first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA – Protecting Natural Health.