EPA Allowed Bayer to Select Own Dicamba Restrictions

Internal documents reveal that the United States Environmental Protection Agency allowed the pesticide company Bayer to select its own regulatory restrictions for dicamba, a weedkiller linked to Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and liver cancer. The agency provided Bayer with a menu of mitigation options concerning runoff and volatility, ranging from highly protective to minimally protective. Bayer selected the least restrictive options, which the agency then incorporated into proposed federal rules.

This arrangement occurred despite a history of dicamba drift damaging millions of acres of farmland and previous court orders to remove the product from the market. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety, both currently litigating the issue, argue that the agency permitted the company to regulate itself.

An EPA spokesperson defended the process, stating that registrants do not dictate terms and that the current approach is the regulatory system working as intended.