Syngenta, one of the world’s top three manufacturers of bee-killing pesticides, wants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to let it spray higher amounts of its neonicotinoid pesticide ingredient, thiamethoxam, on alfalfa, corn and wheat crops in the U.S. Tell the EPA: Neonics should be banned. Don’t give Syngenta permission to spray even more of its bee-killing poisons on crops! In a petition filed in August, but not published on the Federal Register until September 5, the pesticide-maker asks the EPA to pass an increase of 4.9 parts-per-million (ppm) of thiamethoxan. The current legal allowable level is 0.1ppm—Syngenta wants it increased to 5.0ppm. Syngenta’s thiamethoxan is currently used primarily as a seed treatment. The company wants the EPA to raise the allowed limits so the toxin can be sprayed widely on crop leaves. Of Syngenta’s 2013 annual sales of $14.688 billion, around 10 percent came from the sale of neonicotinoids, a known cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). A 2014 study by the Harvard School of Public Health says that neonics impair bees’ neurological functions. In the study’s trial, 50 percent of hives exposed to sub-lethal levels of neonics disappeared over the course of the winter, while all but one (out of twelve) of the control hives survived. Syngenta, along with Bayer and Monsanto, has launched an aggressive public relations campaign that paints the pesticide-makers as “concerned” about the health of bees, and actively working to protect them. The campaign aims to divert attention from neonics and other poisons, to possible other causes of bee population declines, including varro mites and climate change. In 2013, the European Union declared a two-year moratorium on the use of three neonics while further studies are conducted. This month (September 2014), Canadian beekeepers sued Syngenta and Bayer for more than $400 million in damages, alleging that their use is causing the deaths of bee colonies. In the U.S., the EPA has consistently refused to ban neonics, despite the scientific evidence that it is the key cause of CCD. - See more at: http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50865/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=14873&track=FB&tag=FB#sthash.fW8no3sR.dpuf
