After years of requests and pressure from PSC and other groups working on pesticide issues, the Environmental Protection Agency took an important step towards transparency by making pesticide incident data available on its website. Previously, this information had only been available through a cumbersome FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request or during the review process for the registration of a pesticide. The EPA defines a pesticide incident as “any exposure or effect from a pesticide's use that is not expected or intended. Pesticide incidents may involve humans, wildlife, plants, domestic animals (e.g., pets) and bees. Pesticide spills can also be a type of incident.” The new availability of this data makes it more critical than ever to report pesticide incidents and bee kills.
For many years, the Pollinator Stewardship Council has provided free support with federal incident report filing to beekeepers experiencing loss due to pesticides. Because there has been no federal mandate requiring states to share pesticide incident report data with the EPA or other federal agencies, PSC will provide assistance by helping ensure that state investigation reports are filed with the EPA. If you experience a pesticide incident and are seeking enforcement action, the first step is to follow the process at the state level and request an investigation. After the investigation is complete, the next step is to contact PSC and share a copy of your state level incident report. PSC will review the information and file directly with the EPA, and this data will now be available for public inspection through their database.
If you are not seeking enforcement action but wish to report an incident, you may also submit directly to the National Pesticide Information Center. These incidents will be shared with the EPA and made available on their online pesticide incident database.
It is more important than ever for beekeepers to report pesticide incidents, as this aggregate data may be used by researchers, litigation efforts, and advocacy groups to help spread the word about the impacts of dangerous pesticides on our pollinators.
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