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Steven Johnson said national and international changes in the regulation of a fungicide called chlorothalonil could prompt the changes, the Bangor Daily News reported.

Chlorothalonil has been used extensively in the farming of potatoes and other crops since the 1970s.

Johnson said there are “a lot of better and newer chemistries that have better and longer efficacy” than chlorothalonil.

To win approval for the $43 billion deal, the companies agreed to divest ChemChina’s generic production of the herbicide paraquat, the insecticide abamectin used for citrus and tree nuts, and the fungicide chlorothalonil, used for peanut and potato crops.

Gaines-Day cautioned that her team’s study, which involved five bumblebee colonies kept in field enclosures where flowers were sprayed with field-realistic doses of chlorothalonil, a common fungicide, was small.