said George Kimbrell, legal director at Center for Food Safety. “
said Bill Freese, a science policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety (CFS).
According to a Harvard University publication on the subject, more than 34,000 pesticides that are derived from about 600 basic chemicals are registered by the EPA for use in this country. In addition, 85,000 more chemicals are regulated separately under the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA), which is criticized by many NGOs and academic researchers for being too lax. The EPA used FIFRA to ban or severely restrict the use of 64 active pesticide ingredients between 1972 and 2007, while only five chemicals have been banned under the TSCA since its inception in 1976.
The CFS and the Center for Biological Diversity are also upset with EPA’s “approval of the bee-killing pesticide sulfoxaflor.” The two nonprofit groups said they are opposing the request by the EPA and Dow Chemical for approval of sulfoxaflor’s use across a wide range of landscapes.