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EPA is Requesting Public Comments on Sulfoxaflor:
Don’t let the EPA out-fox(aflor) bees and endangered species
Don’t let the EPA out-fox(aflor) bees and endangered species
Sulfoxaflor’s Dirty Secrets
When Dow/Corteva started selling sulfoxaflor, they saw dollar signs. It’s a relatively new chemical, first approved in 2013. Sulfoxaflor has become popular as a replacement insecticide for widely used neonicotinoids. Neonics have lost some effectiveness because of overuse, leading to neonic-resistant insects.
The trouble is, neonics (banned in the EU and being phased out in Canada) are highly toxic to bees, and sulfoxaflor is no different. In fact, sulfoxaflor is so toxic, it was banned by France in 2019, banned by California in 2021, and banned throughout the entire EU in 2022.
But that’s only half the story. The U.S. EPA was forced to ban sulfoxaflor in 2015. The ban was prompted by a ruling from the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, stating that the agency's original registration of sulfoxaflor in 2013 was "based on flawed and limited data" and demanded that the agency "obtain further studies and data regarding the effects of sulfoxaflor on bees." The lawsuit that inspired the federal court ruling against sulfoxaflor was brought by a coalition of commercial beekeeping trade groups and individual commercial beekeepers.
In 2019, while France was busy banning sulfoxaflor, then-EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler was actually working to reverse the ban that had been in place in the U.S. since 2015. This statement is from the EPA’s website:
"In 2019, EPA registered new uses for the insecticide sulfoxaflor and restored previously registered uses. This decision is backed by substantial data and ensures that when used according to the label, sulfoxaflor poses no significant risk to human health and lower risk to non-target wildlife, including pollinators, than registered alternatives."
The problem is, EPA’s decision was not backed by "substantial data." The EPA clearly did NOT base the re-registration on THE SAME STUDIES used to evaluate toxicity in France, the EU and California.
Clearly, EPA’s decision was based on politics and corruption rather than protections for endangered species, pollinators or environmental health.
In the U.S., sulfoxaflor is currently being used on many millions of acres of crops. Many of these crops, such as strawberries, alfalfa, melon, pumpkin, squash, and cucumber, rely on bees for pollination. It’s also used on citrus groves, which don’t require bees for pollination, but bee pollination does increase yields.
The widespread use of sulfoxaflor is putting not only bees at risk, but by the EPA’s own admission, it’s also a danger to many endangered species. This is not acceptable in the face of today’s biodiversity losses.
To put the pesticide issue into perspective, a new June 2022 PAN global network report revealed that the U.S. is severely out of step with other regulatory bodies around the world. The EU and the UK have banned 464 toxic pesticides. Turkey and Saudi Arabia have banned over 200 pesticides. In the U.S., we’re in the international hall of shame with only 21 toxic pesticides currently banned!
It’s time for EPA management to get their priorities straight and ban sulfoxaflor to protect pollinators, endangered species and biodiversity.
Your comment will go directly to the EPA docket. The public comment period closes at 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, September 17th. So please don’t delay. Make your voice heard.
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