EPA Weighs Guidance To Help States Assess Pesticides' Role In Bee Kills

摘要

EPA is reviewing draft guidance intended to help state regulators determine whether pesticides are responsible for specific incidents of bee kills, recommendations which could increase state investigations of bee deaths and provide EPA with needed data on the role of pesticides in bee deaths for use in future pesticide risk analyses. The draft guidance, crafted by officials in EPA Region V and its states, does not investigate colony collapse disorder (CCD) and the rapid decline in bee populations seen nationwide since 2006, according to Brian Rowe, a Michigan official involved in the effort. That decline is believed to be the result of a variety of factors including bee stress from habitat loss and increased commercial beekeeping as well as pesticides - including the controversial neonicotinoid class - some of which are currently getting a second look from EPA risk assessors and European regulators.