How to Help
PUBLIC HEARING FOR HB 6916
An Act Concerning the Use of Neonicotinoids
February 19th at noon
PLEASE SIGN UP TO ATTEND OR
SUBMIT WRITTEN TESTIMONY HERE!
Try to submit testimony by February 18th
Talking points for testimony are HERE
CPR with partner Sierra Club of CT
is holding a press conference and a lobby day to support HB 6916
Wednesday, February 19th at 9AM at the
Legislative Office Building in Hartford
Please join us and spread the word!
email us at CTPesticideReform@gmail.com for details
The CT legislature has raised a bill, HB 6916, that would limit neonicotinoids (neonics).
The Raised Bill would Restrict High Harm, Low Benefit Uses of Neonics Including
1) Cosmetic uses on lawns, golf courses, and ornamental landscape planting, and
2) Seed treatments for corn, soybeans and wheat--shown to not increase yields or provide economic benefit to farmers.
Please contact your state representatives and senators urging co-sponsor HB 6916 and to make passing the bill a priority during this legislative session.
Find your legislators HERE
A University of Connecticut report titled “Neonicotinoids in Connecticut Waters” combining two decades of data with recent tests reveals widespread contamination of the state’s surface and groundwater by neonic insecticide linked to falling populations of bees and birds. The report recommends that Connecticut enact stronger regulations to further restrict the use of neonics in the state. The Connecticut Audubon’s recent State of the Birds report outlines “The Next Conservation Frontier: Protecting Birds from Insecticides,” a hard look at how neonicotinoid pesticides are killing birds.
Find Your Connecticut State Legislators
https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/cgafindleg.asp
High Harm, No Benefit
All About Neonicotinoid Insecticides
- Used on lawns and golf courses
- Used as a seed treatment in agriculture
- Highly toxic, 7,000 times more toxic than DDT
- Widely used in CT
- Pervasive in CT waters
- Have been around since the 1990s
- Cause of catastrophic crash in bee populations (some bumblebee species down as much as 96%) in CT since 1989
- One grain-of-salt-sized amount of neonics can kill 150,000 bees
- Showing up in CT rivers consistently at levels beyond the EPA benchmark for aquatic life — i.e. beyond what the EPA says is safe for insect life
- Because insects are at the bottom of the food chain, fish, birds and amphibians are affected
- Neonics are hollowing out entire ecosystems
- Fly fishermen in CT are concerned about fewer bugs than there used to be
- Norwalk River shows 1/4 of mayflies than were observed in 1989
- A 2024 study shows neonics are a key factor in the declines of monarch butterflies
- One coated seed is enough to kill a songbird
- Sublethal effects on birds include interference with metabolism, migration and reproduction
- Neonics are systemic pesticides, taken up from the soil into the plant, so the entire plant becomes toxic
- A caterpillar would be poisoned eating a leaf of a plant with these systemic pesticides in them
- Neonics are the most common pesticide to show up in pollen in CT
- Found in CT ground water, posing potential health implications for so many people relying on well water
- Now that neonics have been around for 30 years we’re seeing more studies linking them to harms to the human neurological system
- Studies show harms to heart and brain development in prenatally exposed children, decrease in sperm and testosterone quality and quantity, altering insulin regulation
- NJ, NY, ME and VT have passed laws like one proposed in CT. Europe has banned neonics for outside use. They have been banned in parts of Canada.