Raleigh, NC. June 2025. North Carolina Physicians for Freedom (NCPFF) and MAHA Institute strongly encourage you to contact members of North Carolina’s General Assembly and request that they do not pass any pesticide manufacturer liability shield language in S401 or S639.
A liability shield would provide the manufacturers of highly toxic chemical pesticides a blank check of protection from standard consumer liability.
On Wednesday, June 24, the House Agriculture and Environment Committee will meet at 11am to discuss ongoing legislation. Representatives will likely debate this vital issue during this meeting.
There are more than 15,000 EPA registered pesticides.They include insecticides sprayed in schools, weedkillers used on golf courses, rat poison in warehouses, as well as products sprayed on food, fiber, and fuel crops. Many of the products are highly carcinogenic, neurotoxic, or harmful in other ways. Many are harmful to the soil, water, aquatic life, pollinating insects and animals.
Previous lawsuits against manufacturers of dangerous pesticides have exposed manufacturer fraud and the need for more vitally important oversight of an industry that continues to harm millions of Americans. Additionally, EPA regulations lack significant safety testing requirements. For instance, manufacturers are not required to perform or submit chronic toxicity studies for full product formulations.
The EPA itself has lost in court several times when their assessments were challenged. In 2022, the Ninth Circuit Court vacated the EPA’s health assessment of glyphosate for failure to adhere to their own scientific standards.
The passage of any liability shield will remove the only incentive manufacturers have to properly test their products and warn of risks on the labels they submit to the EPA.
It is in the discovery process of jury trials that otherwise concealed evidence is revealed. This would include information that a manufacturer knew, or should have known-about their product’s risks, yet they failed to warn the consumer. Not only would a liability shield deny victims their day in court, but it would also prevent every concerned citizen from providing true informed consent and potentially access life saving information.
Liability shields would also protect foreign companies, including Germany-based Bayer and China-based ChemChina. This heightens the concerns for our national security, and is all unfolding only weeks after Chinese nationals were arrested by the FBI for importing pathogens into the United States that are deadly to crops and humans.
North Carolina Physicians for Freedom is a non-profit network of physicians, healthcare leaders and medical providers that exists to support medical freedom and patient choice. We stand for patient rights, the doctor-patient relationship, individualized patient care, informed consent, and medical privacy. We are committed to serving our patients with integrity and compassion and will advocate for the best care available.
MAHA Institute’s mission is to fix America’s broken health system, and to Make America Healthy Again. We focus on reforming the political, regulatory, and legislative environment to end corporate capture of government, and to restore the government’s focus on the health of the American people.
Please contact your North Carolina state representative and tell them to vote against any pesticide liability shield.
North Carolina Physicians for Freedom
Dianna Lightfoot, Policy Director
dlightfoot@ncphysiciansforfreedom.com
