American agency EPA establishes moratorium on new uses of neonicotinoids
This week, companies producing neonicotinoids in the USA that had applications for registration and authorization of new uses of this class of pesticide, received a letter from the Protection Agency to the US Environment, to EPA , indicating that the agency will not grant new authorizations for the use of these products, until you complete your new registration process.
The letter reiterated that the EPA demanded new studies related to bee health, and that they will be used to determine the new parameters for evaluating pesticides in terms of Risk to Pollinators.
This measure indicates a great concern in that country in evaluating the effects of neonicotinoids on the decline of pollinators, that in the USA has been reaching very high annual mortality rates. It also echoes President Barack Obama's determination, of June of 2014, in establishing a Task Force to Promote the Health of Bees and Other Pollinators.
The EPA has signaled that this moratorium only affects requests for new uses of neonicotinoids, and that products already authorized and in use at the moment are not affected by this measure.
See two reports below, taken from the EPA website and the NBC news agency:
April 2015 Letter to Registrants Announcing New Process for Handling New Registrations of Neonicotinoids
As part of EPA’s ongoing effort to protect pollinators, the Agency has sent letters to registrants of neonicotinoid pesticides with outdoor uses informing them that EPA will likely not be in a position to approve most applications for new uses of these chemicals until new bee data have been submitted and pollinator risk assessments are complete. The letters reiterate that the EPA has required new bee safety studies for its ongoing registration review process for the neonicotinoid pesticides, and that the Agency must complete its new pollinator risk assessments, which are based, in part, on the new data, before it will likely be able to make regulatory decisions on imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam, and dinotefuran that would expand the current uses of these pesticides.
Read the letter that was sent to individual registrants of neonicotinoid pesticides with outdoor uses:
April 2015 Letter to Registrants Announcing New Process for Handling New Registrations of Neonicotinoids (PDF)(3 pp, 523 K)
EPA Restricts Use of Pesticides Suspected of Killing Bees
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/epa-calls-halt-use-pesticides-suspected-killing-bees-n334936
The EPA has issued a moratorium on use of a type of pesticide theorized to be responsible for plummeting bee populations. Neonicotinoids are a class of common pesticides that recent research has pointed to as being harmful to birds, bees and other animals. The EPA previously approved their use, but outcry over the damage being done has caused the agency to reverse course while more studies are done. On Thursday, the EPA sent letters to people and companies that have applied for outdoor use of the pesticide, saying that new use permits won’t be issued.
New uses of neonicotinoids will no long be approved “until the data on pollinator health have been received and appropriate risk assessments completed,” the EPA letter reads. Existing permits to use them, however, will not be rescinded — something wildlife and environmental advocacy groups are unhappy with.
“If EPA is unable to assess the safety of new uses, the agency similarly is not able to assess the safety of the close to 100 outdoor uses already approved,” said the Center for Food Safety’s Peter Jenkins in a statement criticizing the EPA’s actions. Other organizations of beekeepers, environmentalists, and farmers echoed the sentiment.
Though it isn’t calling an end to all uses of neonicotinoids, the EPA says in its letter that it is taking the problem seriously: “EPA considers the completion of the new pollinator risk assessments for these chemicals to be an agency priority.”
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