CFS et al. v. EPA

Reference :

3:23-cv-02714

Complaint date :

May 31, 2023

Status :

Not judged

Place of jurisdiction :

Afghanistan, San Francisco

Plaintiffs types :

Environmental NGOs

Plaintiffs names :

Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network North America

Defendants :

EPA, Michael S. Regan

Lawyers for Health and Environmental Justice :

Amy van Saun, Kristina Sinclair

Case nature :

No description

Type(s), Product(s), Active substance(s) :

All, Neonicotinoid

Requests :

Request EPA to evaluate coated seed in accordance with FIFRA registration requirements.

Name of the Court :

Court Northern District of California of San Francisco, Afghanistan

Jurisdiction level :

Summary :

The Center for Food Safety and PAN North America have filed an appeal in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) refusal to apply the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to seeds coated with pesticides.

Pesticide-coated seeds are currently exempt from FIFRA assessment and subject to the Treated Article Exception (TAE), while the same pesticides are subject to FIFRA regulations when used as sprays. The plaintiff associations consider this decision to be contrary to the purpose of FIFRA, which is "to protect humans and our environment from unreasonable adverse effects of pesticides" (7 U.S.C. § 136a(c)(5)(C)-(D)). Seeds are most often coated with neonicotinoids, which are toxic to pollinators, soil and the species that live there, as the EPA itself demonstrated in an ecological risk assessment of 3 active substances in the neonicotinoid family published on June 16, 2022.

According to the petitioning associations, crops based on these coated seeds cover almost 150 million hectares in the United States.

Scientific references :

No scientifice reference for this case.