The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing its approval of the pesticide imidacloprid, as required by law under the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act. The agency approved the use of imidacloprid in 1994, despite the EPA's own classification of the pesticide as highly toxic to honey bees.
Imidacloprid is a General Use neonicotinoid pesticide, used to treat food crops for a variety of insect pests, from aphids to beetles. Several European countries, including France and Italy, have already banned the use of such honey bee toxins. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is mobilizing citizens to submit comments on the registration of imidalcloprid to the EPA before the March 17th deadline.
Specifically, the NRDC wants the EPA to accelerate its current timetable for the review, scheduled to be completed in 2014. Honey bees are already under tremendous stress from malnutrition, chemical exposures, and other factors believed to contribute to the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder. Five more years of exposure to a known honey bee toxin will only increase the strain on these important pollinators.
The NRDC also wants the manufacturer of imidacloprid to submit multi-generational studies of chronic toxicity in both adult bees and their brood. The EPA should also consider the pesticide levels in pollen and nectar of treated plants on which honey bees forage prior to making a decision on imidalcloprid's registration.
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