Tell the EPA: Step up and protect bees!

Bees are dying -- with potentially devastating impacts on our food system. And bee-killing neonic pesticides are largely to blame.

The Environmental Protection Agency has the power to eliminate these pesticides. Now, it’s accepting public input on its assessment of four bee-killing neonicotinoids. We need your help to tell the EPA to take action!

Comments

Dear Scott Pruitt,

I am deeply concerned that EPA has released yet another assessment that shows serious harm by neonicotinoids to non-target organisms, but has yet to remove them from the market. I urge you to listen to your own agency’s growing body of science that increasingly demonstrates unacceptable harm to birds, bees and aquatic organisms.

A new study confirms what EPA’s own neonicotinoid risk assessments found -- that neonicotinoids harm birds and aquatic organisms too. A new study found neonicotinoids in about three-quarters of samples from 10 major Great Lakes tributaries and suggests Great Lakes’ fish, birds, and entire ecosystems might be at risk. The science is clear that these pesticides are toxic and harming our ecosystems. To stop any future decline EPA must ban these pesticides.

California is responding to this science by reducing use of these pesticides. Just weeks after EPA released its new assessments, it announced it will put a freeze on all new uses of neonicotinoid pesticides in the state.

Yet despite its own clear evidence that these pesticides are harming our environment and ecosystems that are critical to food production, I’m concerned that the EPA announced it is considering expanding the use of the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam so that it can be sprayed on more than 165 million acres of farmland in the U.S. The science is clear that this pesticide is toxic to our environment and that EPA should be reducing its use, not expanding it.

I am deeply concerned that EPA is consistently ignoring its own research. For example, the agency reversed course and decided to not move forward with a ban on chlorpyrifos, despite the clear science that this pesticide is harmful for human health and the environment. This failure by EPA threatens all of us, and particularly vulnerable populations like children and workers. Strong science shows it also harms our environment, from our water to our soil, hurting wildlife.

The United States is falling behind. Other countries have recognized the science on neonicotinoids’ harm to pollinators, birds and other invertebrates and have taken protective measures. In November 2016, Health Canada proposed a ban on almost all uses of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid, stating that the pesticides are seeping into Canadian waterways at levels that can harm insects and the ecosystem, and recognizing that the continued high-volume use of imidacloprid in agricultural areas is not sustainable. In 2013, the European Union suspended the use of three neonicotinoids -- clothianidin, thiamethoxam and imidacloprid -- on flowering plants attractive to bees based on their threat to pollinators. Now, the EU is considering a total ban. In November 2017, the United Kingdom’s head scientist expressed support for the ban.

In the U.S., more than 150 businesses, cities, universities and states have restricted use of these insecticides in absence of federal action from the EPA. EPA cannot continue to ignore its own science, the same science that informs these business leaders and policy makers who have determined that the risks are too high to justify the use of neonicotinoids.

In the face of unsustainable losses for beekeepers, families and critical ecosystems, I urge EPA to stop dragging its feet and take action to ban neonicotinoids.

Sincerely,

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