EPA to approve plan for four types of neonicotinoid chemical to be used on US farmland – despite being banned in Europe
Highlights
- Environmental Protection Agency poised to allow use of four of the most devastating chemicals to bees, butterflies and other insects to continue in America for the next 15 years.
- The chemicals assault receptors in an insect’s nerve synapse, causing uncontrollable shaking, paralysis and death.
- The use of neonicotinoids has contributed to the land becoming 48 times more toxic than it was a quarter of a century ago.
- The European Union has banned the outdoor deployment of clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam.
- But the US federal government is set to bend to pressure from farming groups and pesticide makers to perpetuate their use nationally.