Lawsuit alleges EPA not protecting bees

A group of environmentalists and bee keepers don't think the U.S. government is the bee's knees after hitting it with a lawsuit. The lawsuit claims the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency didn't do enough to protect bees from the dangers of certain types of pesticides.

It may seen strange to think that the government needs to protect bees from pesticides, but neonicotinoids pesticides have been linked to far more than just killing bothersome bees in the backyard. The European Union is considering banning the insecticides because its impact on bee populations.

The number of bees has been dropping for several years and many believe the insecticides are causing it. It allegedly has led to a severe decrease in the number of queen bees and a large population of worker bees that left, but never returned to the hive. Life is not sweet for beekeepers who are trying to raise the bees and harvest their honey in an environment they consider toxic.

The EPA said they are looking into the impact neonicotinoids are having on the bee population, but the study won't be concluded until 2018...and that's an accelerated review. In the meantime, the EPA has said they are working to protect the bees via regulatory, voluntary and research programs. The lawsuit alleges the EPA rushed the pesticides to market without proper oversight through a process known as conditional registration.

Several scientific studies over the past few years have linked decreasing bee populations to the use of neonicotinoids, but the EPA has continued to let the products stay on the shelves. There is little doubt that the impact of a continued decrease in bee populations could be devastating as they are the primary pollinators of many plants and flowers.

The lawsuit is a forceful follow-up to an emergency petition submitted to the EPA in March of 2012, but the EPA did not act upon that petition.

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