Wikimedia Commons
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded in a new assessment that "most uses" of three widely used neonicotinoids—imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam—pose a risk to wild bees and honeybees, which play a crucial role in pollination across the globe.
The conclusion, based on analysis of more than 1,500 studies, will likely prompt a total ban on the pesticides from all fields across the European Union when the issue comes to a vote next month, the Guardian reported.
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The EU already banned the pesticides on flowering crops in 2013. But the new report suggests the existing ban is insufficient, as using the chemicals in any outdoor setting can pose a risk to bees.
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<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/neonicotinoids-bees-epa-2534882372.html">Thousands of studies</a> have identified neonicotinoids as key contributors to declining pollinator populations. The chemicals have even been found to harm birds and aquatic invertebrates.
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</p><div id="60be9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3T1U1N1576683844"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="942790591661985793" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">EPA: Neonicotinoid Pesticides Pose Serious Risks to Birds, Aquatic Life https://t.co/3p06Sc5VDD #neonics… https://t.co/MPr2EZL7cF</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/942790591661985793">1513613767.0</a></blockquote></div>
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"The availability of such a substantial amount of data as well as the guidance has enabled us to produce very detailed conclusions," said Jose Tarazona, head of EFSA's pesticides unit.</p><p style="">
"There is variability in the conclusions, due to factors such as the bee species, the intended use of the pesticide and the route of exposure. Some low risks have been identified, but overall the risk to the three types of bees we have assessed is confirmed."
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German chemical giant
<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bayer" target="_blank">Bayer</a> makes imidacloprid and clothianidin, and Swiss agribusiness <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/syngenta">Syngenta</a> makes thiamethoxam. The companies are challenging the restrictions in EU courts.
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Bayer
<a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-02-eu-food-agency-pesticides-bees.html" target="_blank">said</a> it "fundamentally disagrees" with EFSA's analysis. And a Syngenta spokesman told the Guardian, "EFSA sadly continues to rely on a [bee risk guidance] document that is overly conservative, extremely impractical and would lead to a ban of most if not all insecticides, including organic products."
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But environmental groups celebrated the new EFSA report.
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"The evidence is overwhelming that bees, and the crops and plants they pollinate, are at dire risk from neonicotinoid pesticides," Franziska Achterberg,
<a href="http://www.greenpeace.org" target="_blank">Greenpeace</a> EU food policy adviser, said. "National governments must stop dithering and back the proposed EU neonicotinoid ban as the first step to prevent the catastrophic collapse of bee populations."
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</p><div id="da0e2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="952CV91576683844"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="964266857241997312" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Conservation Groups, House Reps Call for EPA to Respect Science, Take Action on Pollinator-Killing Pesticides… https://t.co/IrLcR1qlxJ</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/964266857241997312">1518734108.0</a></blockquote></div>
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EPA Considers Allowing Bee-Killing Pesticide to Be Sprayed on 165 Million Acres of U.S. Farmland
19 December 2017
GMO
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will consider allowing the bee-killing pesticide thiamethoxam to be sprayed on the most widely grown crops in the U.S. The application, if approved, would allow the highly toxic pesticide to be sprayed directly on 165 million acres of wheat, barley, corn, sorghum, alfalfa, rice and potato.
<p style="">The proposal by the agrochemical giant Syngenta to dramatically escalate use of the harmful neonicotinoid pesticide came last Friday, on the same day the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/neonicotinoid-pesticides-birds-2518407784.html">EPA released new assessments</a> of the extensive dangers posed by <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/neonicotinoids">neonicotinoids</a>, including thiamethoxam.</p><p style="">"If the EPA grants Syngenta's wish, it will spur catastrophic declines of aquatic invertebrates and pollinator populations that are already in serious trouble," said Lori Ann Burd, director of the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity's</a> environmental health program. "You know the pesticide-approval process is broken when the EPA announces it will consider expanding the use of this dangerous pesticide on the same day its own scientists reveal that the chemical kills birds and aquatic invertebrates."</p><p style="">Neonicotinoids have long been known to pose serious harm to bee populations. But the new EPA assessments found the commonly used <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pesticides">pesticides</a> can kill and harm birds of all sizes and pose significant dangers to aquatic invertebrates.</p><p>Thiamethoxam is currently widely used as a seed coating for these crops. This application would allow it to be sprayed directly on the crops, greatly increasing the amount of pesticide that could be used.</p><p style="">The just-released <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0581-0093" target="_blank">aquatic and non-pollinator risk assessment</a> found that the majority of uses of the neonicotinoid on currently registered crops resulted in risks to freshwater invertebrates that exceeded levels of concern—the threshold at which harm is known to occur.</p><p style="">The EPA did not assess risks associated with spraying the pesticides on the crops it announced it was considering expanding use to on Friday. But it is likely that increasing the number of crops approved for spraying would dramatically increase that risk.</p><p style="">In January the EPA released a <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0581-0034" target="_blank">preliminary assessment</a> of on-field exposures to thiamethoxam that found all uses of the pesticide—on foliar, soil and seeds—result in exposures that exceed the level of concern for acute and chronic risk to adult bees. But the agency has taken no steps to restrict use of these products and is now considering expanding their use.</p><p style="">Despite growing scientific and public concern about neonicotinoids, the application for expanded use of thiamethoxam was not announced by the EPA but quietly posted in the Federal Register.</p><p style="">"For years the EPA and pesticide companies bragged that by using treated seeds they were avoiding spraying insecticides, and despite the science showing that these treated seeds were deadly to birds, claimed that they were environmentally beneficial," said Burd. "But we can expect the Trump EPA to now ignore the risks to birds and bees and approve these ultra-toxic pesticides to be sprayed across hundreds of millions of U.S. acres."</p><p style="">Neonicotinoids are a class of <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/pesticides_reduction/index.html" target="_blank">pesticides</a> known to have both acute and chronic effects on aquatic invertebrates, honeybees, birds, butterflies and other pollinator species; they are a major factor in overall pollinator declines. These systemic insecticides cause entire plants, including pollen and fruit, to become toxic to pollinators; they are also slow to break down and therefore <a href="http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3941#.VPTcRy4RRpj" target="_blank">build up in the environment</a>.</p><p style="">A large and growing body of independent science links neonicotinoids to catastrophic bee declines. Twenty-nine independent scientists who conducted a global review of more than 1,000 independent studies on neonicotinoids found overwhelming evidence linking the pesticides to declines in populations of bees, birds, earthworms, butterflies and other wildlife.</p>
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