2023 was a landmark year for Minnesota’s pollinators. But as the legislature reconvenes this week, there is plenty more to be done lakes to protect people, pollinators, and other wildlife from pesticides. Specifically, two bills—HF2472/SF1718 and HF2805/SF1915—will help to reduce harmful, unnecessary, and wasteful uses of neurotoxic neonicotinoid pesticides, or “neonics.” With the legislature in session for just three months, the time to act is now.
Neonics are among the most ecologically disastrous pesticides since DDT. And they are everywhere in Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has detected these neurotoxins in 94% of white-tailed deer all over the state as of 2021—a sharp increase from just two years earlier.
Water quality surveys underscore the scale of contamination. A 2021 study looked at water samples from rivers, streams, lakes, groundwater, and treated wastewater and found at least one neonic in 86% of samples.
Widespread neonic contamination is an ecological disaster and presents serious threats to human health. Here are three of the key impacts of this needless contamination:
Neurotoxic neonics threaten children’s health. A nationwide study has found neonics in 95% of the bodies of 171 pregnant women tested, and other research shows that these neurotoxins easily pass to a developing fetus. Neonics are linked with a variety of developmental harms. And because they are neurotoxic, like lead or mercury, health experts have cautioned that there may be no safe level of exposure for the developing brains of children.
Neonics are wiping out bees and other key crop pollinators. They are toxic to bees in extraordinarily small amounts and, at even lower amounts, can impact bees’ immune system, navigation, memory, and other functions critical to their survival and reproduction. As neonic use exploded in the mid-2000s, honey bee colony losses similarly skyrocketed. Now, concern is even greater for the hundreds of wild bee species. Honey bees and wild bees alike are critical for the future of our food supply, and neonic use calls that future into question.
Neonics hollow out ecosystems. Because of their extreme toxicity, neonics wipe out the bugs and other creatures that so many species depend on for food—like birds, fish, and amphibians. These include migratory birds, game birds, and fish that prop up Minnesota’s multi-billion-dollar outdoor recreation industry.
The main source of this contamination is clear: neonic-coated crop seeds used on upwards of 14 million acres statewide—an area twice the size of Massachusetts—each year. These treated seeds are incredibly wasteful. Ninety-five percent or more of the neonics applied to crop seeds enter the soil, where they migrate easily to contaminate whole ecosystems.
Click here to read more nrdc.org
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Categories: Minnesota, Crops