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Scientists say this pesticide needs a warning label for pollinators · U.S. Right to Know articles

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  Scientists say this pesticide needs a warning label for pollinators. Of
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  the many chemicals humans have invented to control agricultural pests, some of
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  the most devious are called insect growth regulators. As the name suggests,
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  these compounds don’t kill insects directly; they alter their development so they
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  can’t grow into healthy, reproducing adults. This makes insect growth regulators a
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  remarkably useful tool for taming populations of insects like whiteflies and mealybugs,
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  which can spread diseases and sap nutrients out of food crops.
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  There’s just one problem: Farmers don’t want to regulate all insects in
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  this way. Beneficial insects like honey bees risk getting caught in the
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  crosshairs of these chemicals, to the detriment of farmers who need their
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  pollination services to produce crops like pears and cherries
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  One insect growth regulator in particular has emerged as a potential issue
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  for pollinators: buprofezin. Ongoing research out of Washington State University, or WSU,
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  suggests that buprofezin may be hazardous to honey bees even at concentrations
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  10 times below those commonly found in pollen. A study published in
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  2024 connected the compound to severe brood mortality.
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  At a meeting of the Washington State Beekeeping Association last month, WSU
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  entomology professor Brandon Hopkins said buprofezin products should be sold with a
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  pollinator warning a break from current requirements of the U.S. Environmental Protection
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  Agency, or EPA
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  Buprofezin should carry the same bee-caution label that some of these more
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  direct pesticides carry, Hopkins told U.S. Right to Know. What we want
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  to do is help increase some of the communication and education around
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  the use of this to just reduce exposure
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  Buprofezin use has increased rapidly since 2000
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  Buprofezin was developed in the 1980s by a Japanese agrichemical company called
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  Nihon Nohyaku. It was officially registered in the U.S. In 2000 and
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  sold by one of the company’s subsidiaries, Nichino America, initially under the
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  trade name Applaud.
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  Farmers at first adopted the pesticide to address booming populations of whiteflies
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  in California and Arizona. Use spread quickly through the aughts and 2010s,
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  and more than 350,000 pounds of the chemical were sprayed on U.S.
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  Crops annually by 2018, according to the Pesticide National Synthesis Project. That
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  year, the heaviest applications were concentrated along the West Coast, in several
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  mid-Atlantic states, and in Florida and Texas largely on tree fruits and
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  cotton.
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  For most of this history, farmers could assume that buprofezin targeted only
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  the insects killing their crops. EPA guidance said there were no restrictions
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  that would prevent application to the crops during bloom, while buprofezin products
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  were labeled with a message saying they were not harmful to beneficial
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  insects
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  But the evidence against that idea has slowly mounted. In 2019, the
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  EPA told companies to remove the not harmful language from their product
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  labels, as effects to nontarget insects like pollinators cannot be precluded. The
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  agency’s preliminary ecological risk assessment identified three papers published between 2000
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  and 2006 suggesting the chemical could kill developing bumblebees and ladybugs, though
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  it didn’t find any studies looking at chronic effects on insect larvae
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  to provide a stronger basis for regulation.
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  The EPA received at least one study from Nichino of these chronic
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  impacts. That study, however, isn’t publicly available, and the EPA didn’t respond
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  to U.S. Right to Know’s request to view it or discuss its
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  findings. A comment from Nichino didn’t acknowledge questions about the larval bee
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  study but expressed the company’s commitment to pursuing initiatives that harmonize agricultural
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  progress with ecological well-being, in line with EPA regulations
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  Researchers link extreme brood mortality to buprofezin
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  Hopkins didn’t set out to study buprofezin specifically; his 2022-2023
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  research project looked at a range of pesticides affecting honey bees as
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  they moved from crop to crop over two pollination seasons. He and
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  his research partners only turned their attention to the insect growth regulator
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  once they started observing extreme levels of dead brood both inside and
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  in front of bee hives.
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  We saw hundreds of thousands of dead bees, said Ge Zhang, a
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  former assistant professor at WSU and lead author on the paper describing
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  their findings. Zhang is now a professor of entomology at Shandong Agricultural
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  University in China. Zhang said he found high concentrations of buprofezin in
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  honey bee pollen across hives, and that larval mortality was particularly high
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  right after pollination of fruit trees.
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  High levels of buprofezin caused long-term effect on honey bee health, the
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  paper said. Bee colony populations could not be sustained, and they lacked
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  the ability to reproduce sufficient new generation of adult bees, leading to
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  colony mortality late in the season.
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  This instance of brood poisoning by buprofezin presents an alarming scenario that
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  highlights a need to monitor pesticide exposures in honey bees under natural
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  conditions in the field as well as a need to implement regulatory
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  policy changes surrounding pesticide safety, the paper added.
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  Reed Johnson, an entomology professor at the University of Ohio who was
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  not involved in the research, said the paper was well-done. Even though
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  the connection between bee mortality and buprofezin is not yet definitive, it’s
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  entirely plausible that an insect growth regulator would harm honey bee larvae.
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  This is exactly the sort of effect you would expect to see,
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  he told U.S. Right to Know. I think it goes a long
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  way toward explaining the colony problems that beekeepers are seeing.
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  Since then, Hopkins lab has been conducting further research into buprofezin thanks
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  to funding from the research nonprofit Project Apis m. This is the
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  work that Hopkins talked about at that Washington bee conference. In one
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  experiment, he exposed colonies to different concentrations of buprofezin, including one that was
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  10 times lower than the field-relevant dose of 10 parts per million.
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  Again, he saw huge amounts of mortality. Sixty-four to 79 percent of
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  bees died when fed the pesticide, compared to just 5 percent dying
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  in a control group.
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  Those findings haven’t yet been written up or peer-reviewed, and Hopkins wants
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  to do further lab work
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  He said buprofezin products, including those marketed by Nichino, should carry a pollinator
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  warning. These messages are required for other compounds like imidacloprid, one of
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  the neonicotinoid pesticides connected to bee die-offs. They warn that the product
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  can kill bees and other insect pollinators, and provide some specific application
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  instructions to help minimize the risk of exposure. Hopkins said an appropriate
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  label for buprofezin should tell farmers not to spray while their crops
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  are in bloom and attracting honey bees.
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  In response to U.S. Right to Know’s request for comment, a Nichino
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  spokesperson said EPA-approved labels are legally enforceable documents that manufacturers cannot
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  change without required authorization.
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  The EU is already restricting buprofezin on human health grounds
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  Barbara Berardi Tadié, a senior policy officer for the nonprofit Pesticide Action
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  Network Europe, agreed with the idea of a warning label for buprofezin,
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  or even a complete ban on spraying during the blooming season.
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  The EU is already taking more aggressive steps, although its actions are
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  based on concerns about human health rather than pollinators. Way back in
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  2017, the European Commission banned buprofezin on edible food crops like tomatoes
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  and lettuce after researchers had shown that buprofezin residues could break down
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  into aniline, a probable human carcinogen. The Commission went further last month
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  and approved a total ban, citing evidence that the compound is an
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  endocrine disruptor for humans Studies in rats and dogs have linked buprofezin
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  to increased thyroid weight, which can lead to breathing problems and is
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  often a sign of an underlying hormonal disorder
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  A report from the European Food Safety Authority couldn’t find any conclusive
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  data on endocrine disruption in insects. Tadié said the agency is now
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  unlikely to seek more pollinator data, as there are enough reasons to
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  ban buprofezin.
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  In the U.S, the EPA has yet to finalize its re-registration of
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  buprofezin; it still needs to complete a formal endocrine disruptor evaluation and
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  determine whether the pesticide affects any plants and animals listed under the
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  Endangered Species Act. The agency missed a deadline to finish re-registration for
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  buprofezin and hundreds of other pesticides earlier this month and is now
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  expected to receive a five-year extension under a proposal in the 2026
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  Farm Bill.
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  Short of official restrictions or an EPA-mandated label, Hopkins said tree-fruit organizations
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  and other agricultural industry groups could mount an education campaign telling farmers
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  not to apply buprofezin at certain times. They could also voluntarily develop
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  a set of best practices for orchard management, taking into account different
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  bloom times for pears, apples, cherries, and other crops that are often
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  planted right next to each other
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  Neither the Washington State Tree Fruit Association nor the International Fresh Produce
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  Association responded to U.S. Right to Know’s request for comment. A spokesperson
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  for the U.S. Apple Association said they hadn’t had an opportunity to
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  review the buprofezin research, but they told U.S. Right to Know that
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  honey bees and other pollinators are absolutely essential to apple production, and
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  protecting their health is a priority for our growers
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  Indeed, farmers pay hundreds of millions of dollars for bees pollination services
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  each year and have a material interest in protecting their health. The
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  U.S. Apple representative pointed to pollinator protection guidelines their organization co-developed with
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  the Honey Bee Health Coalition and called for continued research, education and
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  collaboration among growers, researchers, beekeepers and regulators.