Chemophobia is one of the most pervasive and fashionable phobias of the modern era. It treats chemistry itself as contamination while ignoring toxicologyâs most basic principle: the dose makes the poison. Public discourse rewards marketing slogans and emotional reactions over evidence, exposure, and scientific proportionality.
Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen has banned the sale, acquisition, use and disposal of agricultural remedies containing terbufos. Terfuz is a highly toxic pesticide linked to the deaths of six Soweto children in 2024. The incident exposed the widespread use of agricultural pesticides in urban communities battling rat and pest infestations caused by poor municipal waste management. The pesticides are illegally sold in street markets and spaza shops in the poorest communities.
FDA released two documents for its new proactive food chemical safety post-market assessment program. FDA launched reassessments of butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and azodicarbonamide (ADA), âchemical additives commonly used in a variety of food productsâ BHT is used to prevent spoilage of fats and oils and can be found in breakfast cereals, frozen pizza, frozen meals, baking mixes, cookies, chewing gum, and meat products. ADA is used as a whitening agent in cereal flour and as a dough conditioner in breadmaking. FDA published requests for information (RFI) for BHT and ADA on May 13,
Rescue workers were on duty on the premises of a Nuremberg chemical company on Friday afternoon. Toxic substances leaked and one person died in hospital. The building cannot be entered for the time being, as it's still unclear what caused the accident and 30 people were injured.
Hair extensions may pose a risk because they are in constant contact with the skin, present possible hand-to-mouth contact and their volatile components can be potentially inhaled. We live in a complex chemical landscape in which many hazardous chemicals can be identified but risks are notoriously difficult to evaluate.
Dr. Ahna G. Brutlag is Vice President of Veterinary Services and Senior Veterinary Toxicologist at SafetyCall International, LLC and Pet Poison Helpline. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology (ABVT) and of the human Board of Toxicology. She has been involved in toxicology for over two decades.
Three people were hospitalized after eating poisonous wild mushrooms foraged in Napa Valley. California has seen an uptick in mushroom poisonings, with four people dying and 47 becoming seriously ill since November. The illnesses and deaths are associated with amatoxin poisoning from accidentally picking and eating death cap and western destroying angel mushrooms.
The Strait of Hormuz is a lifeline for fuel and agricultural inputs across Asia. A significant share of fertilizers and their raw materials transit through or originate from this route. When supply chains falter, the effects cascade quickly: input costs rise, planting cycles are disrupted, and farmer incomes shrink. Smallholder farmers are adopting regenerative agriculture practices that reduce costs, improve yields and strengthen resilience.
70 percent of American farmers can't afford enough fertilizer to plant all their crops. About a third of the planetâs nitrogen fertilizer must pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which is now closed to most ships. The United Nations estimates that 45 million people could go hungry thanks to the closure of the Strait. 86 American farms have already filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy.
Farm bankruptcies surged nearly 46% in 2025. Southern farmers have been hit especially hard. Only 19% of producers secured their fertilizer purchases before the season began, the lowest share of any region in the country. A historic drought across the South devastated last yearâs corn and soybean yields, and a dangerous stretch of tornadoes and hurricanes inflicted more damage. A trade war last year resulted in China significantly decreasing its purchases of soybeans, and the war in Iran nearly doubled fertilizer prices.