Review of Bee Health

EPA Commits to Revising its Analysis of the Economic Benefits from Neonicotinoid-Treated Soybean Seeds

May 13, 2015

In prepared testimony before the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research, EPA’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention stated,

We are currently in the process of reviewing the over 40,000 comments we received on our analysis. The revised analysis will be incorporated into the risk/benefit determination that we will make for these products as part of the ongoing registration review of the neonicotinoids. Additional benefits analyses for the neonicotinoid pesticides may be conducted, as needed, as part of this ongoing re-evaluation.

In responding to questions from the Subcommittee, the Assistant Administrator also stated that the soybean economic analysis would also be informed by his visit with researchers and soybean farmers in the Mississippi Delta.

EPA’s soybean economic analysis triggered a Data Quality Alert from CRE since the study did not comply with agency and OMB data quality requirements.