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House Republicans and their industrial agrochemical allies are trying to hijack concern about saving bees to promote a bill that would needlessly weaken pesticide regulation.  The bill (H.R. 5447), introduced by Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA), would allow highly toxic pesticides to get shorter reviews if manufacturers claim they would protect bees.  The legislation would direct the EPA to expedite the approval of pesticide products  – using a process meant for low-hazard (EPA calls them ‘reduced risk’) pesticides – even if the products are highly hazardous, just by claiming that they can be used to treat Varroa mites and other parasitic pests that kill bees. H.R. 5447 directs EPA  to “expedite approvals of new products to control parasitic pests of managed pollinator bees, including products to mitigate resistance to products currently available.”

Commercializing treatments for parasitic pests of honeybees should be a priority, but EPA already has established approval processes for these treatments. If the treatment products legitimately qualify for expedited review, then that’s where they should go. But, if the products are not reduced-risk, then they should go through the normal review process, which takes about 6-12 months longer (although the data requirements are the same for both programs). Otherwise they will strain the staff time and resources of an important program and ultimately delay truly reduced-risk pesticide products from getting on the market and in the hands of farmers and beekeepers.

This is especially concerning since any pesticide products used to treat bees are also likely to end up in the honey that people eat.

Bayer’s Bee Care center – open to the public, so take a tour if you are ever in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina – is focused on developing chemical treatments for the deadly bee-killing mites. What Bayer won’t admit is that part of the problem – many experts say the main problem – is that modern industrial agriculture, with all its insecticides and wildflower-killing herbicides, has made our farmlands and fields toxic to bees.

For example, Bayer and Syngenta don’t mention a recent report pointing to the harm pesticides themselves pose to bees and other key elements of our ecosystem.  That report, by an international committee of 29 scientists – the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides –  reviewed over 800 peer reviewed papers published in the past five years, including industry-sponsored ones. Its assessment, called the Worldwide Integrated Assessment of the Impact of Systemic Pesticides on Biodiversity and Ecosystems (WIA), concluded that pesticides are contaminating land, soil, and water, leading to toxic threats to earthworms, snails, butterflies, birds, and bees (see detailed findings of the Task Force here and my blog here).