Red-tailed Hawk by Greg Lavaty

(Washington, D.C., March 30, 2011)  American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the nation’s leading bird conservation organization, today decried a decision by FMC Corporation to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court over the continued use of their highly toxic pesticide carbofuran (trade name Furadan). ABC has fought for the total cancellation of carbofuran based on its deadly impact to birds and other wildlife. A response from the Supreme Court on whether they will hear the case is expected by April 18.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that carbofuran presents an unacceptable risk to birds, other wildlife, and people, and took the unprecedented step of revoking all food tolerances of the pesticide (banning residues of the chemical in any amount on food) for crops grown both domestically and overseas. This effectively prevented U.S. use of carbofuran as well as use on crops imported into the U.S.

But FMC has fought this decision, and gone to progressively higher ruling authorities to keep their product alive.

A July 2010 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the EPA decision to ban domestic carbofuran food tolerances, but reversed the decision to revoke the import tolerances. ABC had filed a Friend of the Court (amicus) briefing with Defenders of Wildlife and several other groups in favor of banning all tolerances.

“The science on the deadly impacts of carbofuran on birds is overwhelming.  FMC’s decision to fight the lower court ruling and maintain domestic use of carbofuran demonstrates a startling disregard for wildlife and human health,” said Dr. George Fenwick, President of American Bird Conservancy.

Carbofuran, a carbamate insecticide, is among the most highly toxic pesticides known to birds. A single granule is lethal, and more than fifty species have been documented as having died from carbofuran poisoning, including Bald and Golden Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks, and migratory songbirds.

Carbofuran first came under fire in the 1980s after EPA estimated that over a million birds were killed each year by the granular formulation when used in normal agricultural production. Many of these die-offs followed applications of carbofuran that were made with specific attempts to prevent exposure. The granular formation was cancelled in 1994, but the liquid form remained on the market.

In its 2005 ecological risk assessment on carbofuran, EPA stated that all legal uses of the pesticide were likely to kill wild birds and confirmed that carbofuran is also a threat to human health through contaminated food, drinking water, and occupational exposure. Carbofuran has been unavailable for domestic uses on all but two small non-food crops since 2009.

Through efforts by ABC and other members of the ABC-led National Pesticide Reform Coalition, and support from the Wallace Genetic Foundation, Turner Foundation, and New York Community Trust, cancellations and restrictions on pesticide use, including carbofuran, have caused bird deaths to drop dramatically from an estimated 67 million birds per year in 1992 to perhaps fewer than 15 million per year today. Re-instating carbofuran would constitute a significant step back in those efforts.