Down Chemical is the major manufacturer along with chlorpyrifos (so bad for children China even banned it…… and one of first acts in Trump Administration was approval) ….also major Trump donor….
“But that was the pre-Trump EPA. As EcoWatch reports, in 2018 the EPA issued what it called “emergency” approvals to spray the substance that is “very highly toxic” to bee, on more than 16 million acres of crops that do attract bees. The EPA’s own inspector general found that the practice didn’t consider either the effect on the environment, or on human health.”
EPA issued ’emergency’ approval to spray 16 million acres with bee-killing pesticide
by Mark Sumner, Daily Kos Staff
Sulfoxaflor is a systemic insecticide that works by destroying the nervous system. Insects exposed go into tremors, then spasms, then death. Unfortunately, insects exposed means essentially all insects, including bees. In fact, sulfoxaflor is particularly hard on pollinators. That’s why in 2016 the Ninth Circuit Court overruled the EPA’s approval of the pesticide. As Reuters reported at the time, the court responded to a suit by associations of beekeepers by finding that “the EPA had made an error” in ever allowing broad use of the chemical. In October of that year, the EPA issued new guidelines that restricted the use of the chemical to crops that do not attract bees, or to post-bloom periods when bees should not be attracted to fields.
But that was the pre-Trump EPA. As EcoWatch reports, in 2018 the EPA issued what it called “emergency” approvals to spray the substance that is “very highly toxic” to bee, on more than 16 million acres of crops that do attract bees. The EPA’s own inspector general found that the practice didn’t consider either the effect on the environment, or on human health.
However, neither of those things applied in this case. The 16.2 million acres sprayed was on sorghum and cotton plants across 19 states. There was no widespread threat. No new insect ravaging these crops. No emergency.
But again, just as with the National Emergency Act, the EPA’s authority in making these rulings includes a lot of leeway, with the expectation that good judgement will be involved. Instead, the EPA under Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler has been searching out reasons to issue these orders.
Center for Biological Diversity Senior Scientist Nathan Donley: The EPA is far too eager to find loopholes to approve harmful pesticides when it should be focusing on keeping people and wildlife safe from those pesticides. The routine abuse of emergency exemptions has to stop.
Multiple studies have implicated sulfoxaflor and related chemicals in the decline of both honeybees and bumblebees. The widespread use of pesticides in general is a major contributing factor to the huge number of extinctions among insects species, which are already seriously disrupting food webs and altering ecosystems.
FULL STORY & COMMENTS
MORE READING:
The Case of the Vanishing Honey Bee: Pesticides and the …
PDF Sulfoxaflor and flupyradifurone: Neonicotinoids or not