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For Immediate Release, December 3, 2009

Contact: Rebecca Noblin, (907) 274-1110

Polar Bears Poisoned by Pesticide Pollution:
Lawsuit Filed Against EPA to Protect Arctic From Pesticide Contamination

SEATTLE— Today the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit in Seattle against the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to consider impacts to the polar bear and its Arctic habitat from toxic contamination caused by pesticide use in the United States. The EPA did not respond to the Center’s notification of intent to sue for these failures, sent in June of this year.

Pesticides approved by EPA for use in the United States are known to be transported long-distance via various atmospheric, oceanic, and biotic pathways to the Arctic. Such pesticides are biomagnified with each step higher in the food web, reaching some of their greatest concentrations in polar bears, the apex predators of the Arctic.

Pesticides and related contaminants have been linked to suppressed immune function, endocrine disruption, shrinkage of reproductive organs, hermaphroditism, and increased cub mortality in polar bears. Human subsistence hunters in the Arctic, who share the top spot on the food web with the polar bear, also face increased risks from exposure to these contaminants.

“The pesticide crisis is a silent killer that threatens not only the polar bear but the entire Arctic ecosystem and its communities,” said Rebecca Noblin, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity in Anchorage. “The benefits of protecting the polar bear from pesticide poisoning will reverberate throughout the entire Arctic ecosystem, with positive impacts for Arctic people, who share the top of the food pyramid with polar bears.”

All pesticides in the United States must be registered by the EPA before they can be lawfully used. Courts have held that the agency must examine the impacts of any pesticide it approves on federally protected endangered species. The polar bear was formally listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act on May 15, 2008, following a petition and litigation by the Center for Biological Diversity, but the EPA has yet to examine the impacts of any approved pesticide on the species.

“The United States has lagged far behind the international community in taking action to protect the species and people of the Arctic from pesticides and other contaminants,” said Noblin. “But the listing of the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act gives the EPA both the opportunity and the obligation to meaningfully address the poisoning of the Arctic.”

In addition to pesticide contamination and loss of their sea-ice habitat from global warming, polar bears face threats from increased oil and gas development in their habitat and the proliferation of shipping routes in an increasingly ice-free Arctic. These activities bring heightened risk of oil spills and rising levels of noise pollution and other kinds of human disturbance.

While today’s action marks the first legal challenge to pesticide registrations due to their impacts on the Arctic, the Center has brought several successful lawsuits against the EPA over the impacts of pesticides in the lower 48 states. In 2003 the Center filed suit over use of pesticides in the habitat of an imperiled salamander in Texas; in 2006 the Center reached a settlement with the agency over the use of 66 pesticides in the habitat of an imperiled amphibian in California; and this summer, as a result of a settlement of another Center lawsuit, the EPA proposed restrictions on 74 pesticides due to their impacts on 11 threatened and endangered species in California.

The Center is represented by Center attorneys as well as Chris Winter and Tanya Sanerib of Crag Law Center.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 240,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

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