Center for Biological Diversity

Media Advisory, July 21, 2017

Contact:  Tiffany Finck-Haynes, Friends of the Earth, (202) 222-0715, tfinckhaynes@foe.org
Alejandro Davila, Earthjustice, (202) 745-5229, adavila@earthjustice.org
Lori Ann Burd, Center for Biological Diversity, (971) 717-6405, laburd@biologicaldiversity.org

Food-safety, Environmental Organizations Call on EPA to Ban Bee-killing Pesticides

Groups Will Deliver Hundreds of Thousands of Comments to EPA Headquarters Monday for Neonicotinoid Comment Period

WASHINGTON— Food-safety and environmental groups will deliver hundreds of thousands of public comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday, urging the agency to ban neonicotinoid pesticides — a leading cause of pollinator decline and massive bee die-offs. The agency will close its comment period Monday for its preliminary pollinator risk assessment for three neonicotinoid insecticides: clothianidin, thiamethoxam and dinotefuran, as well as for the updated assessment of another neonicotinoid, called imidacloprid.

Pollinators, including thousands of species of bees, are critical for the growth of fruit, vegetables and flowering plants that humans depend on. A growing body of scientific data implicates neonicotinoid pesticides, or “neonics,” as key contributors to declining pollinator populations. Bayer and Syngenta, the companies that manufacture neonicotinoids, recently commissioned a study that tested fields in Europe for contamination and the effects on both managed and native bee colonies. This landmark study found clear evidence that bee colonies that feed on plants treated with these pesticides suffer terrible losses.

WHAT: Delivery of public comments on harmful neonic pesticides to the EPA

WHO: Friends of the Earth, the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, Environment America and SumOfUs

WHEN: Monday, July 24, at 11 a.m.

WHERE: EPA Headquarters, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C., (a half-block south of the intersection of 12th and Pennsylvania avenues NW)

VISUALS: Boxes of public comments with posters and signs

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.3 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

www.biologicaldiversity.org

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