SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 11 (UPI) — A U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday the Environmental Protection Agency erred in allowing the insecticide sulfoxaflor on the market in 2013, overturning the federal approval of the chemical and providing a major victory for environmentalists.
A three-judge panel said the insecticide could hasten an already “alarming” decline in bees, adding the information the EPA used to approve the Dow AgroSciences insecticide was based on “flawed and limited” data and “not supported by substantial evidence.”
“Bees are essential to pollinate important crops and in recent years have been dying at alarming rates,” Judge Mary M. Schroeder wrote in the ruling.
“Without sufficient data, the EPA has no real idea whether sulfoxaflor will cause unreasonable adverse effects on bees,” the court said.
Beekeepers and related organizations challenged the EPA’s approval of sulfoxaflor, an insect neurotoxin used on crops including citrus, cotton and vegetables. Dow AgroSciences, a division of Dow Chemical, uses the chemical in products that include Transform and Closer insecticides.
“It’s a complete victory for the beekeepers we represent,” said Greg Loarie, a lawyer for the American Honey Producers Association, the American Beekeeping Federation and other plaintiffs in the case. “The EPA has not been very vigilant.”
Dow said it “respectfully disagrees” with the ruling and will “work with EPA to implement the order and to promptly complete additional regulatory work to support the registration of the products.”
Honeybees are vital in the food chain because they pollinate plants that produce roughly a quarter of food consumed in the United States. Environmentalists say insecticides are to blame for the demise of bees.
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