A US-based advocacy group recently conducted a study that produced startling results regarding Americans’ exposure to a little-known chemical included in foods containing oats. Eighty percent of Americans tested positive for the dangerous pesticide chlormequat, according to a research published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, according to the New York Post.
Cheerios and Quaker Oats Contain a Chemical That May Cause Infertility for Americans
As a “highly toxic agricultural chemical,” chlormequat is allowed to be applied to cereals that are imported into the United States, including oats, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The chemical changes a plant’s growth pattern so that it doesn’t bend over, making harvesting easier.
Chlormequat was found in 92% of oat-based meals, including well-known brands like Quaker Oats and Cheerios, that were bought in May 2023, according to an EWG investigation.
The manufacturers of these items, General Mills and PepsiCo, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Post in spite of these alarming findings. The EWG tested urine from 2017 to 2023 and found that samples from 2023 had higher levels and more frequent detections of chlormequat, indicating increased consumer exposure to the herbicide.
Remarkably, 69 percent of research subjects had chlormequat in 2017, that number increased to 74 percent in 2022–2023 and then to 90 percent in 2023. Although investigations into the effects of chlormequat are still underway, studies on animals have raised concerns about the drug’s possible effects on human reproductive systems and foetal growth. Notwithstanding these dangers, the US Environmental Protection Agency suggested permitting barley, oat, triticale, and wheat cultivated in the US to be treated with chlormequat for the first time.
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Taminco, the manufacturer of chlormequat, requested that this choice be made, and the EWG found it to be “dangerous.”
The Environmental Working Group has demanded that the federal government take action, including possible orders from the Food and Drug Administration to test US foods for the presence of chlormequat. For oat goods, the EWG advises customers to choose organic varieties that aren’t treated with harmful herbicides like glyphosate and chlormequat until regulations are put in place.