US court rejects EPA’s sulfoxaflor approval

摘要

A US federal court has reversed the EPA’s approval of Dow AgroSciences’ insecticide, sulfoxaflor, concluding that the Agency relied on “flawed and limited” data when it issued its unconditional registration. A US federal court has reversed the EPA’s approval of Dow AgroSciences’ insecticide, sulfoxaflor, concluding that the Agency relied on “flawed and limited” data when it issued its unconditional registration. The three-judge panel of the US District Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed with beekeepers and honey producers that the EPA violated federal law and its own regulations when it registered sulfoxaflor in May 2013. The Court ordered the EPA to obtain further studies and data regarding the effects of the insecticide on bees, criticising the Agency for trying to evade its own regulatory standards. “In this case, given the precariousness of bee populations, leaving the EPA’s registration of sulfoxaflor in place risks more potential environmental harm than vacating it,” Judge Mary Schroeder wrote for the Court.