Group to sue EPA over pesticides in polar bears

Date:07-10-2009

An environmental group said Wednesday that it plans to sue the federal government to stop approving pesticides that end up in food eaten by polar bears.

The Center for Biological Diversity gave 60-day notice it will sue the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to consider the effects of pesticides on polar bears, a threatened species, and their Arctic habitat.

The lawsuit will take aim at the more than 1 billion pounds of pesticides used in the United States to control weeds, insects and other organisms.

Cummings said chemicals from 14 have been detected in the Arctic. They include Chlorpyifos, the most widely used insecticide. It's been found in sea water, sea ice, marine fog and snow samples in the Bering and Chukchi seas and in snow samples in Alaska national parks, according to the group.

So has Diazinon, now banned from residential use but still used to control soil and foliage insects on selected crops, and Endosulfan, an insecticide registered for use on vegetables, fruits, grains and cotton plus ornamental shrubs and trees.

A spokeswoman for CropLife America, representing more than 80 developers, manufacturers and distributors of crop protection products used by American farmers, said the trade group would have no comment.