Melissa Waage's Blog
What does the Environmental Protection Agency know about pesticides and colony collapse disorder?
August 18, 2008
Posted by Melissa Waage in Health and the Environment
Listen, I like a good mystery. But not when it comes to my food. Mystery meat? Bad. The continuing colony collapse disorder mystery, threatening the bees that pollinate our crops? Even worse. If government agencies have information that could help unravel the mystery of CCD and point to some solutions, they need to cough it up.
Sadly, the Environmental Protection Agency has been less than forthcoming on this front. NRDC was forced to file suit against the agency today when it failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for information regarding the effects of certain pesticides on bees.
Something is up. In 2003, EPA approved a new pesticide called clothianidin for use in the U.S…on the condition that the manufacturer, Bayer CropScience, submit studies on the chemical’s potentially toxic effects on bees. Five years later, EPA isn’t telling whether the bee studies were ever conducted, let alone what the results were. And clothianidin is still in use.
Coincidentally, Germany suspended the use of clothianidin and its chemical relatives earlier this year after it was implicated in a mass bee die-off. France, meanwhile, banned similar pesticides years ago out of concern for honey bee health.
So what does EPA know? Stay tuned.
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Comments
Earl Killian — Aug 19 2008 02:10 PM
Will the NRDC be commenting on the threat to Salmon from three commercial pesticides:
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/pesticide_biological_opinion_draft.pdf
Melissa Waage — Aug 25 2008 08:47 AM
Hi Earl--
Pesticides have long been documented to cause harm to endangered species (going back at least to the serious damage caused by DDT to the bald eagle and other birds). We previously filed a lawsuit over the harm caused by the weedkiller atrazine to endangered species in the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere. The recent finding of harm to endangered salmon and steelhead from pesticides in the Pacific Northwest is the result of a groundbreaking lawsuit handled by Earthjustice on behalf of the Washington Toxics Coalition and other groups. We're supporting their efforts to restrict the use of pesticides that threaten not just endangered salmon but other endangered species around the country.