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Study: US pesticide use falls but harms pollinators more
(AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)American farmers are using smaller amounts of better targeted pesticides, but these are harming pollinators, aquatic insects and some plants far more than decades ago, a new study finds. But dangerous chemical levels in birds and mammals have plummeted at the same time, according to a paper in Thursday’s journal Science. “It’s sometimes true, but not always,"Industry keeps developing new pesticides and “very often these new compounds are more toxic,” Schulz said. AdThe newer pesticides are aimed more toward animals without backbones to spare birds and mammals, but this means insects such as pollinators get poisoned, Schulz said. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education.