A vote in the EU has paved the way for the European Commission to restrict the use of pesticides linked to bee deaths in scientific studies.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22335520

BBC News website reports on a proposal from the EU on neonicotinoid insecticides with the European Commissioner for health and consumer policy Tonio Borg saying it was time for “swift and decisive action.”  Read the story here.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), an independent body, released its report into the effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on bee health on Wednesday (16 January).

The report concluded that:

• Exposure from pollen and nectar. Only uses on crops not attractive to honey bees were considered acceptable.
• Exposure from dust. A risk to honeybees was indicated or could not be excluded, with some exceptions, such as use on sugarbeet and crops planted in glasshouses, and for the use of some granules.
• Exposure from guttation. The only risk assessment that could be completed was for maize treated with thiamethoxam. In this case, field studies show an acute effect on honeybees exposed to the substance through guttation fluid.

Read press release on EFSA website.

A separate report released earlier this week warned that up to £630m could be lost from the UK economy each year if neonicotinoids are withdrawn.

The study, independently commissioned by EU’s Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture (HFFA) was financed by Syngenta and Bayer CropScience,

About 30 per cent of British cropland – 3.14 million acres – was being treated with neonicotinoid chemicals in 2010.

Reports published in the journal Science on March 29th from British and French scientists, and extensively reported in the UK press today, confirm that both honey bees and bumble bees are seriously harmed by exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides, even by tiny doses not sufficient to kill them outright.

The British study led by Stirling’s Professor David Goulson looked at the impact on  bumble bees and found that queen production was 85% lower in bees exposed to when exposed to “field-realistic levels” of imidacloprid than control nests not exposed to the chemical.

Mikaël Henry from France’s National Institute for Agronomic Research in Avignon led a study of honey bees exposed to another neonicotinoid product, thiamethoxam. The study found that at sub-lethal doses, “Non-lethal exposure… causes high mortality due to homing failure, at levels that could put a colony at risk of collapse,” by seriously affecting the bees’ homing abilities to the extent that they proved to be two to three times more likely to die while away from their nests than unexposed bees.

The Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, will have to answer a question in the Commons from the former Home Office minister David Hanson about whether the Government will investigate if the effect of neonicotinoids on the grooming behaviour of bees is similar to its effect on termites.  Full report in the Independent