[ExI] Bees - Neonicotinoids EU ban likely

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Total ban on bee-harming pesticides likely after major new EU analysis

Analysis from EU’s scientific risk assessors finds neonicotinoids pose
a serious danger to all bees, making total field ban highly likely

Damian Carrington Environment editor
Wed 28 Feb 2018

<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/28/total-ban-on-bee-harming-pesticides-likely-after-major-new-eu-analysis>

Quote:

The conclusion, based on analysis of more than 1,500 studies, makes it
highly likely that the neonicotinoid pesticides will be banned from
all fields across the EU when nations vote on the issue next month.

The report from the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa), published
on Wednesday, found that the risk to bees varied depending on the crop
and exposure route, but that “for all the outdoor uses, there was at
least one aspect of the assessment indicating a high risk.”
Neonicotinoids, which are nerve agents, have been shown to cause a
wide range of harm to bees, such as damaging memory and reducing queen
numbers.

Jose Tarazona, head of Efsa’s pesticides unit, said: “The availability
of such a substantial amount of data has enabled us to produce very
detailed conclusions. There is variability in the conclusions [and]
some low risks have been identified, but overall the risk to the three
types of bees we have assessed is confirmed.”

The Efsa assessment includes bumblebees and solitary bees for the
first time. It also identified that high risk to bees comes not from
neonicotinoid use on non-flowering crops such as wheat, but from wider
contamination of the soil and water which leads to the pesticides
appearing in wildflowers or succeeding crops. A recent study of honey
samples revealed global contamination by neonicotinoids.

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