Scientists’ warning: we must change paradigm for a revolution in toxicology and world food supply

<b>We propose a new paradigm</b>, as <b>toxicology</b> currently lacks the proper perspective. From the 1950s to the 1970s, at least one-third of all toxicological testing in the United States, including for chemicals and drugs, was misleading scientists, and this worldwide issue persists today. Moreover, petroleum-based waste and heavy metals have been discovered in pesticide and plasticizer formulations. These contaminations have now reached all forms of life. Widespread exposure to chemical mixtures promotes health and environmental risks. We discovered that pesticides have never undergone long-term testing on mammals in their full commercial formulations by regulatory authorities or the pesticide industry; instead, only their declared active ingredients have been assessed, contrary to environmental law recommendations. The ingredients of these formulations are not fully disclosed, yet the formulations are in general at least 1000 times more toxic at low environmentally relevant doses than the active ingredients alone under conditions of long-term exposure. A similar lack of comprehensive toxicological evaluation applies to plasticizers. Their regulatory authorisations might have been obtained by incomplete, misleading and potentially false input data. This has profound implications not only for scientific knowledge, but also for public and environmental health. We propose pragmatically a paradigm shift in regulation: 1/to lower the ADI of polluting substances by at least a factor of 100 for already authorized products; 2/for new compounds, the obligation to test the full pesticide formulations in vivo chronically at environmentally relevant levels. This is necessary because pesticides are synthesized from petroleum, which can contain heavy metals. Moreover, formulated pesticides can contain plasticizers. The declared active substance, as an isolated compound of this mixture chosen by the company, will not have to be tested by itself alone. Compensation could be organized for pesticide use reduction, this will save health and environmental degradation; 3/the complete toxicological raw data for individual animals should be published on the Internet, including the precise protocols by which they were obtained, and they must be accessible for the scientific community, including students. There is no reason to keep these data secret. Implementing these changes would also support the advancement of agroecological alternatives.

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Publication Details

Journal
Environmental Sciences Europe
Published
2025-11-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-025-01217-3
Primary Topic
Effects and risks of endocrine disrupting chemicals
Type
article
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article

Scientists’ warning: we must change paradigm for a revolution in toxicology and world food supply

Giovanna P. Longo, Nicolas Defarge, Ulrich E. Loening, Claire Robinson et al.
Environmental Sciences Europe
Effects and risks of endocrine disrupting chemicals
article

Scientists’ warning: we must change paradigm for a revolution in toxicology and world food supply

Giovanna P. Longo, Nicolas Defarge, Ulrich E. Loening, Claire Robinson, Louise Vandelac, Thomas Bøhn, Nian‐Feng Wan, Marie-Hélène Bacon, Michael Antoniou, Charles Sultan, Randa djemil, José L. Domingo, Michael Aschner, Amal Zerrad-Saadi, Demetrios Kouretas, Robin Mesnage, Lorenz M. Hilty, Cláudio Ernesto Taveira Parente, Henri Joyeux, Thierry Fournier, Johann G. Zaller, Jérôme Douzelet, Dimitra I. Nikolopoulou, Gérald Jungers, Christoph Scherber, Imran Mahmood Khan, Maria Lúcia Bonfleur, Mélanie Bertrand, Gilles‐Éric Séralini, Frédérick Lemarchand, Xianming Zhang, Brian Wynne, Dudley A. Huber, John Fagan, J. García, A. Harrestrup Andersen, Sophie Gil, Jean-Michel Panoff, Angelika Hilbeck, Aristeidis M. Tsatsakis, Elisabeth Bücking, Perrine Hervé-Gruyer, Diederick Sprangers
article en

Abstract

<b>We propose a new paradigm</b>, as <b>toxicology</b> currently lacks the proper perspective. From the 1950s to the 1970s, at least one-third of all toxicological testing in the United States, including for chemicals and drugs, was misleading scientists, and this worldwide issue persists today. Moreover, petroleum-based waste and heavy metals have been discovered in pesticide and plasticizer formulations. These contaminations have now reached all forms of life. Widespread exposure to chemical mixtures promotes health and environmental risks. We discovered that pesticides have never undergone long-term testing on mammals in their full commercial formulations by regulatory authorities or the pesticide industry; instead, only their declared active ingredients have been assessed, contrary to environmental law recommendations. The ingredients of these formulations are not fully disclosed, yet the formulations are in general at least 1000 times more toxic at low environmentally relevant doses than the active ingredients alone under conditions of long-term exposure. A similar lack of comprehensive toxicological evaluation applies to plasticizers. Their regulatory authorisations might have been obtained by incomplete, misleading and potentially false input data. This has profound implications not only for scientific knowledge, but also for public and environmental health. We propose pragmatically a paradigm shift in regulation: 1/to lower the ADI of polluting substances by at least a factor of 100 for already authorized products; 2/for new compounds, the obligation to test the full pesticide formulations in vivo chronically at environmentally relevant levels. This is necessary because pesticides are synthesized from petroleum, which can contain heavy metals. Moreover, formulated pesticides can contain plasticizers. The declared active substance, as an isolated compound of this mixture chosen by the company, will not have to be tested by itself alone. Compensation could be organized for pesticide use reduction, this will save health and environmental degradation; 3/the complete toxicological raw data for individual animals should be published on the Internet, including the precise protocols by which they were obtained, and they must be accessible for the scientific community, including students. There is no reason to keep these data secret. Implementing these changes would also support the advancement of agroecological alternatives.

Environmental Sciences EuropeVol. 37(1)
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (BR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (US), University of Bonn (DE), University of Crete (GR), University of Thessaly (GR), Radboud University Nijmegen (NL), Inserm (FR), Université du Québec à Montréal (CA), Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (PK), King's College London (GB), Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná (BR), Université de Montpellier (FR), Université Paris Cité (FR), Purdue University West Lafayette (US), ETH Zurich (CH), Sorbonne Paris Cité (FR), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montpellier (FR), Agroécologie (FR), Nutrition 21 (United States) (US), Spark Therapeutics (United States) (US), École Normale Supérieure (BI), Centre hospitalier Bretagne Atlantique (FR), Jefferson County Health Center (US), Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario (AR), East China University of Technology (CN), Centre for Sustainable Energy (GB), SystemsX.ch (CH), Abbès Laghrour University of Khenchela (DZ), Buchinger Wilhelmi (DE), Institut de Recherche en Cancérologie de Montpellier (FR), GDG Environnement (CA), Tromsø research foundation (NO), Laboratoire de Géologie de l’École Normale Supérieure (FR), Universitat Rovira i Virgili (ES), Concordia University (CA), Lancaster University (GB), University of Brighton (GB), University of Castilla-La Mancha (ES), Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (BR), BOKU University (AT), University of Edinburgh (GB), Université de Caen Normandie (FR)
Openalex Percentile: Top 58%
Effects and risks of endocrine disrupting chemicals
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