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-- OriginalOwner_ [tinyurl.com] writes:

from the half-assed-effort dept.

The Center for Biological Diversity reports [commondreams.org] via Common Dreams

The Environmental Protection Agency said [January 6][1] in a "pollinator risk assessment" that imidacloprid, a popular neonicotinoid pesticide, poses a significant risk [epa.gov][2] to honeybees--but it failed to examine risks to nearly 4,000 [species of] North American native bees and all other pollinators, including imperiled butterflies, bats, and birds.

"You can't claim to do a 'pollinator risk assessment' and really only look at one pollinator, the honeybee", said Lori Ann Burd, Environmental Health director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "That's not only cheating on the purpose of this work but also cheating the native bees, birds, butterflies, and other species threatened by this pesticide. In fact, many of these other pollinators are even more vulnerable to neonicotinoids than honeybees."

Today's analysis indicates that for some crop uses, honeybees can be exposed to imidacloprid at concentrations that negatively affect the health of the hive. But a recent Nature study [nih.gov] found that wild bees are more sensitive to the acute toxic effects of neonicotinoids--specifically that neonicotinoid seed coatings reduce wild bee density, solitary bee nesting, and bumblebee colony growth. The EPA did acknowledge that bumblebees are affected by the pesticide at much lower levels than honeybees, but it nonetheless failed to properly assess the risk.

In addition, the EPA in this assessment improperly relied on just a single industry-provided study to assess risk to honeybee colonies, despite an abundance of published studies by independent scientists looking at this issue.

"The EPA's decision to rely on industry-funded research is absolutely unacceptable, particularly when there has been so much research by independent researchers", said Burd.

While the EPA emphasized honeybee colony risks, its risk assessment found effects on individual honeybees, not on colonies, from most crops.

"This risk assessment, while deeply flawed, does expose the substantial effects on individual honeybees from neonicotinoid treated crops", said Burd. "However, the EPA refused to make a determination on colony-level risks for specific crops when it had anything less than conclusive evidence on the risks. This flawed methodology caused the agency to dramatically understate the risks of imidacloprid. Also, the colony-level risk assessment only takes into account exposure via nectar, not pollen. So the EPA is analyzing effects on pollinators without even taking pollen into account."

[1] Content at regulations.gov (the original link in the article) is behind scripts.
[2] Better link IMO; there's a link back to regulations.gov there for those interested.

Previous Neonicotinoids stories at SoylentNews [soylentnews.org]

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