The European Commission’s decision to not ban a class of insecticides because of their potential threat to bees is prudent, says a University of Guelph entomologist.
Representatives of European Union member states voted March 15 on a proposal to ban three neonicotinoids for two years in all 27 countries.
The three neonicotinoids — thiamethoxam, clothianidin and imidacloprid — are applied primarily as a seed treatment to millions of acres of corn, soybeans, canola and sunflowers around the world.
Opinion polls indicated robust public support for the ban but British and German politicians abstained from voting, which defeated the proposal, the Guardian newspaper reported.
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“Britain and Germany have caved in to the industry lobby and refused to ban bee-killing pesticides,” said Iain Keith of Avaaz, a campaign organization.
“Today’s vote flies in the face of science and public opinion and maintains the disastrous chemical armageddon on bees, which are critical for the future of our food.”
Peter Kevan, a professor of environmental biology at the U of G, said the anti-neonicotinoid rhetoric isn’t accurate.
“At this stage it would be premature to ban them….There (isn’t) sufficient data to say they (neonicotinoids) are as dangerous as has been made out,” said Kevan, who heads Canpolin, a network of scientists studying the decline of bees in agricultural and natural ecosystems in Canada.
“There’s very little evidence to say that neonicotinoids, in a very general sense, in a broad scale sense, have been a major component in the demise of honeybees or any other pollinators, anywhere in the world.”
Kevan said neonicotinoid seed treatments have damaged bee colonies in specific cases around the globe. For example, last spring thousands of bees died in southern Ontario when dust from corn planters containing neonic treated seed blew onto plants and flowers near honeybee hives.
However, he said those cases are incidents rather than a systemic agricultural risk to bees, which has “been purported by some people.”
Kevan agreed the issue has become highly political in Europe as the furor of environmental groups and the media have pushed bees and neonics into the spotlight.
“The rhetoric has gotten ahead of the science.”
Nonetheless, he said certain studies have raised red flags regarding neonicotinoids.
For example, a French study found that bees exposed to thiamethoxam, a Syngenta product better known as Cruiser, were twice or three times as likely to die while foraging because they couldn’t find their way back to the hive.
“I think the concerns that people are expressing are legitimate concerns,” he said.
“At the same time, they’re making the concerns and opinions into facts, which they are not.”
Cynthia Scott-Dupree, Kevan’s colleague at the U of G, conducted a comprehensive field trial last year on canola grown with imidacloprid treated seed and the resulting affect on bee colony health. Preliminary data suggests the neonicotinoid didn’t affect honey production, bee mortality rates or colony weight gain.
