/health/2015/09/bees-world-safer-as-states-environmental-protection-agencies-world-health-organization-crack-down-on-monsantos-roundup-carcinogenic-2591284.html

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled (pdf) last week in favor of a lawsuit brought by Earthjustice and others, saying the EPA erred when it approved the pesticide in 2013.

“Because the EPA’s decision to unconditionally register sulfoxaflor was based on flawed and limited data, we conclude that the unconditional approval was not supported by substantial evidence,” Judge Mary M. Schroeder wrote for the court.

Sulfoxaflor, marketed as Closer and Transform, is in the family of pesticides called neonicotinoids that affect the central nervous system of insects, resulting in paralysis and death. Honeybees have been dying out in unprecedented numbers since 2006. Land use and other factors are no doubt part of the problem, but pesticides have been one of the suspects from the beginning.​

The EPA admitted that it was aware that sulfoxaflor was “very highly toxic” to bees, but reasoned that rules for its application could be devised that would mitigate any harm. The court said the EPA had no basis for saying that.

Dow Agrosciences, maker of the insecticide, and the EPA argued to the court that although there were studies linking the product to bee deaths, they were not conclusive. That line of reasoning did not impress Schroeder, who wrote: “Neither logic nor precedent can sustain this position. We have previously held that an agency cannot rely on ambiguous studies as evidence of a conclusion that the studies do not support.”

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Federal_Court_Revokes_EPA%E2%80%99s_Approval_of_Insecticide_Linked_to_Collapse_of_Bee_Populations/46199/0/38/38/Y/M.html