skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Court: EPA Should Not Have Approved Bee-Killing Pesticide

play audio
Play

Monday, September 14, 2015   

MIDLAND, Mich. - A pesticide that kills bees should not have been cleared for agricultural use by the Environmental Protection Agency. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Michigan-based Dow Chemical's sulfoxaflor was not thoroughly researched when it comes to impacts on bees.

Michele Colopy, program director with the Pollinator Stewardship Council, one of the groups that filed the suit, says the chemical is proven to be highly toxic to bees and other pollinators and those impacts need better assessment.

"EPA did not follow through with its own requirement of getting scientific-based evidence to prove that the pesticide was not going to adversely impact pollinators," she says.

Colopy adds that pollination services are worth at least $20 billion a year in the U.S. There is a waiting period before the decision is final, and Dow could ask for a re-hearing. Sulfoxaflor has been available in several name-brand pesticide mixtures for agricultural crops. It's a systemic neurotoxin that insects ingest when they suck, chew or collect nectar and pollen from a plant.

There's another key finding in the ruling that Colopy welcomes. The court stated that sulfoxaflor is a subclass of neonicotinoids which are thought to be a factor in honeybee declines, and there are several "neonics" on the market. She says the pollinator ecosystem needs careful consideration when any pesticide is approved or used.

"It is not looking at the entire organism of a hive," she says. "It's not about just the adult forager bee. Bee colonies are an organism, and if one aspect of the workforce gets damaged, it damages the entire organism of the colony."

The pesticide is marketed as a way to manage aphids, weevils and other sap-sucking crop pests, typically used on crops that don't depend on pollinators.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021