On May 20, 2019, “the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the final notices of cancellation on the registration of 12 neonicotinoid pesticides in the Federal Register. The decision to pull the pesticides from the market was required as part of a legal settlement in December 2018 of a successful Center for Food Safety (CFS) case—litigated from 2013-2018 on behalf of a coalition of conservationists and beekeepers—over the agency’s failure to protect pollinators, beekeepers, and endangered species from these dangerous pesticides. The second half of the settlement will play out in coming years: EPA is required, for the first time ever, to analyze and address the impacts of the entire neonicotinoid pesticide class on endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.” (Center for Food Safety)
The twelve are only part of a total of 59 EPA registered products which contain the neonicotinoid ingredients clothianidin and thiamethoxam — systemic chemicals which spread throughout the entire plant and are often toxic to insects using the plants. So there is still more work to be done.
Neonicotinoid pesticides are chemically related to nicotine and they interfere with the nervous system of insects, causing tremors, paralysis, and eventual death even when administered at very low doses.
47 More to Go
Let’s try to not let the EPA forget about deregistering the other 47 products which contain the neonicotinoid ingredients clothianidin and thiamethoxam. Insects need all the help they can get. See Flying Insects in Decline.
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