Last year BMC Public Health had decided to retract the article, "The global distribution of acute unintentional pesticide poisoning: estimations based on a systematic review," which appeared in December 2020. The authors listed affiliations with the Pesticide Action Network, a collection of organizations opposed to pesticides. In their review, they declared unintentional pesticide poisoning "a problem that warrants immediate action."

The retraction notice cites a letter to the editor from employees of pesticide manufacturer Bayer, and the trade organization CropLife International, which criticized the analysis. The authors stood by their findings in a response, stating the critics "do not seem to have understood our estimation method."

The authors tried to overturn the journal’s decision. In July 2023, a lawyer representing them sent the editors a letter arguing that the retraction would be "inappropriate." But the article remains retracted.