The Environmental Protection Agency proposed today to reapprove the cancer-linked fumigant 1,3-Dichloropropene with a less-protective classification that will increase exposure levels considered to be safe by 90-fold.

The pesticide known as 1,3-D is linked to cancer and respiratory problems in farmworkers. It is the nation’s fourth most widely used pesticide, with an estimated 40 million pounds used each year on crops like potatoes, cotton, strawberries and peppers.

The EPA’s decision to assign the pesticide a less-restrictive cancer designation relied largely on modelling done by the maker of 1,3-D, Dow AgroSciences. Those models and an incomplete search strategy for new research ended up discounting numerous peer-reviewed studies by independent scientists and governmental agencies showing that the pesticide causes cancer.

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