(Beyond Pesticides, October 11, 2012) A new report highlights the growing body of research that links pesticides to the rampant rise of learning disabilities, childhood cancer and asthma in the United States, and calls for swift policy change to protect future generations. In particular, the report points out that children are more sick today than [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, September 20, 2012) Raising questions about the adequacy of pesticide regulation, historically and ongoing, Consumer Reports published a new study yesterday that finds “worrisome” levels of inorganic arsenic in rice products. Arsenic is a known human carcinogen. This new report follows its earlier one that finds high levels of arsenic in apple and [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, September 18, 2012) Take Action! On September 25, EPA will close its public comment period for the petition requesting the agency to suspend the bee-killing pesticide clothianidin. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to recognize that pollinators face unique hazards from clothianidin, a neonicotinoid pesticide which is linked to disruptions in [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, September 11, 2012) Lawn company giant, Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., pleaded guilty to numerous charges of misleading consumers with unapproved labels and falsifying insecticide registrations, including using toxic chemicals in wild bird food. Scotts was ordered to pay $12.5 million in criminal fines, the largest penalty ever set under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, September 7, 2012) Yesterday, Beyond Pesticides joined with the Center for Food Safety and the Sierra Club, along with beekeepers from around the country, to file a 60-Day Notice letter with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcing the intent to jointly sue the agency for Endangered Species Act (ESA) violations. The potential lawsuit [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, September 4, 2012) After considering comments from growers and other stakeholders, including over 2,000 emails generated from Beyond Pesticides’ supporters on the recent proposal to reverse a decision to end the use of the organophosphate insecticide azinphos-methyl (AZM), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has once again come to the conclusion that the [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 24, 2012) U.S. Representative Edward Markey, (D-MA) has sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urging it to investigate a possible link between the use of common pesticides and reductions in honey bee populations. The letter comes as EPA is accepting public comments on a legal petition filed by [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 21, 2012) A proposed ordinance that eschews chemical fertilizers and pesticides in favor of an organically maintained system on public land in Durango, CO will be up for debate tonight, and, if denied, will wind up on the city’s November ballot. The ordinance was put together by a group of local advocates, [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 9, 2012) On Monday, Beyond Pesticides joined with 23 public health and environmental advocacy groups to send a letter to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), urging it to follow through with its original plan to cancel the sale of most toxic rat poisons to residential consumers. In 2008, after over a [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 2, 2012) Following the phase-out announcement two years ago, and after many years of pressure from environmental and international groups concerned about the chemical’s health effects, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finally begun the process of phasing out the use of the highly toxic endosulfan –an organochlorine insecticide in the [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 31, 2012) Last week, Richmond, California’s City Council unanimously approved a pesticide reform ordinance targeting the use of toxic chemical pesticides within city boundaries. Barring a public health emergency or immediate threat to city property, the regulation bans city departments from using any pesticide considered a known carcinogen (Toxicity Category I and [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 30, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has opened a 60-day public comment period on the agency’s decision to deny the request by beekeepers to immediately suspend the use of clothianidin, a pesticide that poses harm to pollinators. The legal petition was filed earlier this year by 25 beekeepers and environmental [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 20, 2012) On Thursday, July 19, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it had formally refused to recognize that honey bees face an “imminent hazard” and denied a request by beekeepers to immediately suspend the use of pesticides that pose harm to pollinators. The decision comes in response to a legal [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 19, 2012) The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), along with Alaska Governor Sean Parnell, has proposed drastic changes to state pesticide regulations that will eliminate public participation for pesticide use, undermining the democratic process and affecting public and environmental health. Earlier this week, Representative Les Gara (D-Anchorage) expressed concern about the [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 12, 2012) The Council of the District of Columbia passed a pesticide reform act Tuesday strengthening pesticide restrictions in our nation’s capital. To ensure the rules are enacted, Beyond Pesticides is calling on supporters to take action and urge D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray to sign the legislation into law. The Pesticide [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 5, 2012) After a 2006 cancellation of uses due to unreasonable risks to farmworker health and the environment, and a 6-year phase out scheduled to conclude this September, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conducting a risk-benefit analysis to make a determination whether to keep in place or amend the cancellation [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 25, 2012) The Canadian governmental authority responsible for pesticide registration has expanded its re-evaluation of neonicotinoid pesticides to include two additional compounds linked to honey bee deaths and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) announced on June 12 that it has added clothianidin and thiamethoxam and their [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 19, 2012) A senior U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official stated recently that the agency is prepared to exercise is long-neglected authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to ban or restrict hazardous chemicals. In reference to TSCA, EPA Acting Assistant Administrator for Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Jim Jones was [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 12, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Monday that it has rejected a petition to ban the widely used herbicide 2,4-D, dismissing epidemiologic studies that link the pesticide to cancer, endocrine disruption, and other human health effects. In its announcement, EPA also responded to comments that Beyond Pesticides submitted in [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 28, 2012) The Canadian government is set to declare the bacteria killer found in many toothpastes, mouthwashes and anti-bacterial soaps as toxic to the environment, a move which could see the use of the chemical curtailed sharply in Canada. Triclosan, the chemical in question, has been linked to numerous human and environmental [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 1, 2012) A legislative proposal to strengthen the District of Columbia’s pesticide restrictons, with a specific focus on protecting children’s health, is moving forward after a hearing that brought together supporters of the effort –physicians, a toxicologist, environmental advocates, a pest management practitioner, and the head of District’s Department of the Environment. [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 27, 2012) For the first time since its initial evaluation almost 30 years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revised, despite objections from the chemical industry, its dioxin exposure assessment for acute human health risks –setting an “acceptable” level of 0.7 picograms per kilogram per day. Environmentalists said EPA’s estimated [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 17, 2011) Beyond Pesticides is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), during a public comment period (closing February 23) on its review of the neonicotinoid pesticide, clothianidin, to take swift action to cancel the chemical’s registration. Groups are joining together with comments to EPA, citing the extensive science that shows clothianidin’s [...]