Farmworker, Farmer, and Community Protection Groups Bring EPA to Court to Stop New PFAS Pesticide Approval
08 January 2026, San Francisco: Farmworker Justice, Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network (PAN) North America, and Center for Food Safety challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of four formulations of the new fungicide cyclobutrifluram in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on December 30, 2025. This new PFAS pesticide is approved for use on romaine lettuce, as seed treatment for cotton and soybeans, and on numerous non-food crops like turfgrass (lawns, sports fields, parks) and ornamentals like Christmas trees.
Cyclobutrifluram is a newly created synthetic fungicide which increases the risk of cancer, particularly tumors in the thyroid, which is a crucial part of the endocrine system that regulates everything from metabolism to brain development and fertility. Endocrine system disruptions are linked to birth defects, significant reproductive harm, and certain cancers in people, particularly farmworkers and others who are in direct contact with these toxic chemicals.
EPA approved the four cyclobutrifluram products on November 3, 2025. In violation of its own guidelines, EPA downplayed health risks (including risks of cancer) and refused to assess the cumulative risk of the fungicide and others like it. The groups are asking the court to declare that EPA’s approval is contrary to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and order a reversal of EPA’s approval of this new PFAS pesticide.
“EPA has a duty to protect people from dangerous pesticides and it is disgraceful for the EPA to expose farmworkers and farming communities to a new pesticide without fully assessing the risks to human health,” said Lori Johnson, Legal Director of Farmworker Justice.
Despite detailed comments by these groups and many others warning EPA of the cancer (particularly thyroid) risks to human health, as well as the PFAS nature of cyclobutrifluram, EPA downplayed some risks (like the carcinogenicity of this new fungicide and what it degrades to) and completely ignored others (like the cumulative impact of this new pesticide and others like it).
Amy van Saun, senior attorney with Center for Food Safety and counsel for the Petitioners, said: “Our federal agencies are not above our laws, and federal law does not allow EPA to ignore its own guidelines for assessing the cancer risk for pesticides. Yet here EPA did so again when approving this new PFAS fungicide cyclobutrifluram: EPA cannot abdicate its responsibility to protect people who work around these toxins and our children from cancer-causing or endocrine disrupting pesticides.”
“We need farming communities and kids everywhere to be protected from cancer-causing pesticides,” said Allison Davis, Executive Director of Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network. “EPA should be considering the cumulative risks of exposure to pesticides, especially in frontline communities that face the brunt of pesticide exposures.”
Background:
Cyclobutrifluram is an inhibitor of the succinate dehydrogenase enzyme (SDH); by inhibiting this enzyme it kills both fungi and nematodes. Despite clear evidence of cancer-causing potential, EPA still concluded that cyclobutrifluram is “not likely to be carcinogenic to humans” and used this supposed lack of a cancer hazard to forego assessment of all routes of exposure to people, particularly farmworkers. Because cyclobutrifluram may be used on lawns, parks, and sport fields, the groups are also concerned about the impacts to children playing on these fields and lawns.
The groups are represented by Center for Food Safety.
Also Read: Government Of India Invites Public Comments on Draft Pesticides Management Bill, 2025
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