The EPA should “proceed with utmost caution and continuously re-evaluate the underlying assumptions of your approach” in its ongoing review of neonicotinoid insecticides, said chairman Jim Inhofe of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in a letter to the agency. “This will ensure unnecessary regulatory action with potential unintended consequences is not taken.” The so-called neonics are blamed by environmentalists as a leading cause of the steep decline in honeybee numbers for more than a decade.
A preliminary risk assessment of one neonic, imidacloprid, found residues above 25 parts per billion resulted in deaths of bees and reduced honey production. EPA said citrus and cotton may have residues of the pesticide in pollen and nectar above the 25 ppb level while other crops, such as corn and leafy vegetables, do not. A Canadian assessment, also released on Jan. 7, reached the same conclusion as EPA about the impact on hives. The EPA plans to release preliminary pollinator assessments on three other neonics in December.
“Indeed, the limited findings of your imidacloprid risk assessment have already prompted misleading and sensationalist headlines from the media and calls by well-funded environmental activist groups to outright ban neonicotinoid instecticides,” wrote Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican. He said “many scientists” have concluded that neonics are a threat to bees only at unrealistically high dosages.