Cotton pesticides caught up in PFAS debate

By Stephen Frost
30 June 2025

As environmental scrutiny intensifies across the cotton sector, a new controversy is ramping up in the US

WASHINGTON DC - The proposed registration of four new pesticides by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and their potential classification as PFAS, is at the heart of a new controversy to hit the cotton industry.

Since April 2025, the EPA has moved to approve cyclobutrifluram, diflufenican, isocycloseram, and trifludimoxazin, all of which contain at least one fully fluorinated methyl or methylene group.