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Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) is asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for one thing as it conducts risk assessments of neonicotinoid insecticides: to “proceed with the utmost caution.”
The chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee wrote a letter to Jim Jones, assistant administrator for EPA’s Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention division, expressing “interest and concern” over the risk assessments.
“Given the uncertainty regarding the cause of [colony collapse disaster] CCD and subsequent low bee populations and the influence of these risk assessments on potential regulatory actions by EPA, I ask that you proceed with the utmost caution and continuously evaluate the underlying assumptions of your approach,” Inhofe wrote.
After conducting a preliminary pollinator risk assessment on the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid this year, the EPA announced the insecticide posed a threat to some pollinators when it exceeded a threshold of 25 parts per billion (ppb), which would cause a decrease in pollinators and honey produced.
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Inhofe urged the EPA to “establish a clear casual link” between the practical and realistic use of neonicotinoids and decrease in bee population to avoid making the same mistakes the E.U. made, and added that the findings in the EPA’s preliminary assessment are already causing “misleading and sensationalist headlines from the media” and stirring up environmental activists groups to call for a ban of neonicotinoids.
Read full, original post: Inhofe urges EPA to be ‘mindful of science’ in review of neonicotinoid insecticides
