Group Sues U.S. Government For Data on Pesticide-Bee Collapse Link

A conservation group has filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeking the release of data that could demonstrate a link between a pesticide and the widespread die-off of bees in so-called “colony collapse disorder.” In the suit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said it is convinced that the EPA is withholding critical information that implicates a commonly used pesticide, Clothianidin, in colony collapse disorder, which has devastated many bee colonies in the United States. Clothianidin and a related pesticide have been banned in Germany and France. Despite these overseas bans, the EPA has refused to take Clothianidin off the market. The NRDC filed its suit after the EPA failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking data on the link between pesticides and colony collapse disorder. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated that bees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops in the U.S. every year and that a third of the food Americans eat has a connection to bee pollination.