LONDON, U.K. (Reuters) — The government must suspend the use of dangerous pesticides linked to the death of bees, says a committee of British MPs.
The Environmental Audit Committee said in a report that the government was relying on fundamentally flawed studies on the issue and that two-thirds of honeybees have suffered population declines in Britain.
The country is blocking attempts to introduce a Europe-wide ban on a widely used insecticide, neonicotinoids, arguing that their impact on bees is unclear.
But the MPs say the government is acting complacently.
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“We believe that the weight of scientific evidence now warrants precautionary action, so we are calling for a moratorium on pesticides linked to bee decline to be introduced by Jan. 1 next year,” said committee chair Joan Walley.
France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia have already suspended the use of certain neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid, clothianidin and TMX, which are attractive to bees.
European Union governments failed last month to agree to a ban on three widely used pesticides linked to the decline of honeybees, but the European Commission is threatening to force such a ban unless member states agree on a compromise.
“Decisions on neonicotinoids must be based on sound scientific evidence,” said an environment, food and rural affairs department spokesperson. “That’s why we want the European Commission to agree to our suggestion for a major new field study to get the best, most up-to-date evidence,” he added.
Syngenta and Bayer, the top producers of the pesticides, recently proposed a plan to support bee health to try to forestall an EU ban.
Their plan includes the planting of more flowering margins around fields to provide bee habitats as well as monitoring to detect the neonicotinoid pesticides blamed for their decline.
