American Bird Conservancy Report: The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds

Recently, the American Bird Conservancy, a "not-for profit organization whose mission is to conserve native birds and their habitats throughout the Americas" issued a report titled, The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds (Mar. 19, 2013). The 288-page report available here, authored by environmental toxicologist Dr. Pierre Mineau and Cynthia Palmer discusses the following:

[a]s part of a study on impacts from the world’s most widely used class of insecticides, nicotine-like chemicals called neonicotinoids, American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has called for a ban on their use as seed treatments and for the suspension of all applications pending an independent review of the products’ effects on birds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.

“It is clear that these chemicals have the potential to affect entire food chains. The environmental persistence of the neonicotinoids, their propensity for runoff and for groundwater infiltration, and their cumulative and largely irreversible mode of action in invertebrates raise significant environmental concerns,” said Cynthia Palmer, co-author of the report and Pesticides Program Manager for ABC, one of the nation’s leading bird conservation organizations.