Environmental groups sue Trump administration over PFAS pesticide trifludimoxazin approval

The Center for Food Safety, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network North America have lodged a suit in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against the Trump administration’s registration of trifludimoxazin, a PFAS-based herbicide. They contend that the EPA’s 2026 approval breaches the Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Endangered Species Act, noting the chemical’s decades-long persistence and classification as a likely human carcinogen.

EPA documents acknowledge thyroid tumors in rodent studies but stopped short of evaluating cancer risk for farmworkers or consumers of contaminated food and water. The groups warn that spray drift can damage crops and native vegetation far from treated fields, and that the herbicide’s toxicity exceeds that of dicamba. They also criticize the agency’s refusal to perform a cumulative risk assessment for PPO-inhibiting herbicides, despite evidence of liver damage and birth defects in animal studies.