WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity, along with Center for Food Safety and Pesticide Action Network North America sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for failing to adequately protect more than 1,500 species of wildlife and plants from the insecticide malathion — in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Malathion is a neurotoxin and part of a dangerous class of old pesticides called organophosphates that have also been used as nerve agents in chemical warfare.

In 2022 the Service finalized its biological opinion on malathion, concluding that the pesticide does not pose an extinction risk to a single protected species of wildlife or plant in the United States. That blanket "no jeopardy" determination was a sharp contrast to its 2017 findings — from career scientists within the Service — that, on the contrary, malathion jeopardized the continued existence of 1,284 threatened and endangered species.

The 2017 scientific determination was abruptly reversed by then-Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt during the previous administration, which then dramatically weakened the processes used to assess the potential effects of malathion at the request of the pesticide industry and delayed the finalization of the biological opinion by five years.

Critically, the 2022 document failed to include any specific conservation measures to protect more than 1,500 listed species from malathion.

"Species like Karner's blue butterflies, Mitchell's satyr butterflies, and American burying beetles could disappear if we don't ensure they're protected from dangerous pesticides like malathion," said George Kimbrell, legal director for the Center for Food Safety. "Malathion and other pesticides are wiping insects out across the country. And we need these insects as a crucial element of our own life support."

In 2017 scientists within the Service determined that a single exposure to malathion "could be catastrophic" and that repeated use of the insecticide could eliminate entire populations of endangered species in particular areas. The scientists also expressed alarm at the harms to the 500 threatened and endangered plant species that depend on insect pollinators for their propagation.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service submitted to the pesticide industry's demands and hung more than 1,500 endangered species out to dry by failing to rein in malathion use in their habitats," said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Today these animals and plants continue to be harmed by one of the worst neurotoxic pesticides on the market, which can be sprayed in the last few homes of some of our most imperiled species. That includes nearly every endangered butterfly, beetle and dragonfly we have. We just can't let this go on."

The 2022 biological opinion does provide some on-the-ground conservation measures for 64 endangered species, including restrictions on spraying in their most important habitats. Today's lawsuit does not challenge those protections.

However, for the overwhelming majority of species, the Service provided no meaningful restrictions on malathion's use. For example, mosquito spraying with malathion was restricted by the Service to the hours of the day when insects are least active, but only when such limits are "feasible," and it allows pesticide applicators complete discretion in determining what "feasible" means to them.

"Poisons like malathion do tremendous damage to human health and welfare as well as the pollinators that are so vital to our food security," said Margaret Reeves of Pesticide Action Network North America. "Common-sense steps toward less toxicity in the environment are good for everyone."

Background

Around 2.7 million pounds of malathion continue to be used in the United States each year. The neurotoxin is one of a number of pesticides called organophosphates that have been deployed in chemical warfare and linked to Gulf War syndrome, which causes fatigue, headaches, skin problems and breathing disorders in humans.

Today's action comes on the same day as the Service closing a comment period on a draft biological opinion for the insecticide methomyl, which uses the malathion biological opinion as a template and repeats its errors — errors that are resulting in a failure to give wildlife the protection they urgently need and should be receiving under the Endangered Species Act.