Giving Compass' Take:

• Harvest Public Media reports on how concerns over health risks from wind-blown pesticides are spurring lawsuits around the country as rural communities feel the effects.

• Those in the agriculture sector should pay close attention to how these courtroom battles play out, while policymakers examine exactly what regulations are being enforced when it comes to pesticide use.

• Read about the lack of pesticide buffer zones in the Midwest.

Pesticides are all over, from backyard gardens to cornfields. While their use doesn’t appear to be slowing, concern over drift and the resulting effects on health is driving research — and more worries.

Those concerns are bringing pesticides to a different venue: courtrooms.

There are the several lawsuits over dicamba, a pesticide that for a couple of years has been drifting into unwanted territory, killing crops like soybeans and pitting neighbor against neighbor. Another case in California alleges the pesticide Roundup (or glyphosate) causes cancer.

And a pesticide called chlorpyrifos is at the center of yet another major legal battle. The Environmental Protection Agency was set to ban it because some evidence shows it could hurt children’s mental development, but that stalled under former Administrator Scott Pruitt. The EPA’s arguments in the 9th District Court of Appeals, which include newly public claims that the EPA will act in as little as a year, seemingly frustrated one of the judges.

“How long can EPA sit on this?” federal Judge Jacqueline Nguyen asked at a July hearing.

Nine states including California mandate buffer zones for certain pesticides near schools and waterways. In much of the Midwest, state-mandated buffer zones don’t exist. But pesticide labels, which are regulated by federal agencies, often do have certain setbacks.

Read the full article about the problem of wind-blown pesticides by Madelyn Beck at Harvest Public Media.