An environmental group sued EPA on Wednesday for failing to respond to a five-year-old request to block the use of certain pesticides on food crops.
The Natural Resources Defense Council said EPA’s delay in responding to the 2020 request is “unreasonable and dangerous” given that the neonicotinoid pesticides in question can cause neurological disorders in children who are exposed.
The NRDC asked EPA to revoke all food tolerances — the amount the law allows as residue — for five neonics: imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, clothianidin, acetamiprid and dinotefuran.
“This failure to respond to unsafe levels of neonics in our food is a danger to our health, especially for our children,” Rebecca Riley, managing director for food and agriculture at the NRDC, said in a news release.
