Home Depot to Require Neonicotinoids Labeling

by | Jul 1, 2014

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honeybeeHome Depot and other retailers have said they plan to ban or limit the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which have been linked to honeybee decline.

Home Depot says it will require its suppliers to start labeling any plants treated with neonicotinoids by the fourth quarter of this year, Reuters reports. The world’s largest home improvement retailers is also running tests to see if suppliers can eliminate the chemical in their plant production.

East Coast-based BJ’s Wholesale Club has asked its vendors to provide plants free of neonicotinoids by the end of 2014 or to label them “caution around pollinators,” according to the news agency.

Meanwhile, at least 10 other smaller retailers, with locations in Minnesota, Colorado, Maryland and California, plan to limit or eliminate neonicotinoids.

The moves follow a study to be published in the Journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research that finds neonicotinoids are a key factor in honeybee decline.

The analysis, called the Worldwide Integrated Assessment (WIA), finds that neonicotinoids pose a serious risk of harm to honeybees and other pollinators such as butterflies and to a wide range of other invertebrates such as earthworms and vertebrates such as birds.

Last year two UK hardware retailers, B&Q and Wickes, said they will no longer sell products containing neonicotinoids.

In April 2013 the European Union voted to impose a two-year ban on neonicotinoids. Bayer, along with other agribusiness companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta and BASF, argue the pesticides are not responsible for honeybee decline.

 

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