Review of Bee Health

European Studies on Bees are not Compliant with the Data Quality Act

April 10, 2013

The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE) has recently completed a Data Quality Act (DQA) Alert on the European Food and Safety Authority’s (EFSA) report on neonicotinoids which found that neonicotinoids pose a risk to bees.   The DQA Alert outlines the serious deficiencies of the EFSA report and demonstrates why the EFSA report violates the DQA.

In particular, the EFSA report failed to maximize the objectivity of the data by failing to reconcile numerous studies whose conclusions contradicted the findings of the EFSA report.  In particular, the EFSA report failed to address the following studies: (1) the varroa mite studies; (2) Dr. James Creswell’s Report “Comment on a ‘Common Pesticide Decreased Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees”; and (3) the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs recent studies and findings on neonicotinoids.

Moreover, the EFSA report violates the DQA, because there are huge gaps in the data that EFSA relied upon (which is even acknowledged by EFSA).   Further, the EFSA report is “influential information” (as defined by the DQA), and does not nearly meet the much more rigorous standards required by the DQA for “influential information.”

The DQA Alert concludes that U.S. government agencies cannot rely upon the findings or substance of the EFSA report without violating the DQA.

EPA should advise the public that studies sharing the same deficiencies as the EFSA study can not be utilized by the agency, including studies used to support claims for judicial relief.

All of CRE findings are posted for review and comment by the public; accordingly The CRE invites the public to submit comments on the DQA alert as provided below.

The DQA Alert on the EFSA report can be found here.