Scientists question neonicotinoid restrictions
February 4, 2015
From: National Farming Union
‘The dose makes the poison’ – scientists question neonicotinoid restrictions
The scientific basis for EU restrictions on neonicotinoid seed dressings to safeguard the bee population has been questioned by a recent review carried out by the International Bee Research Association.
The EU Commission’s restrictions on the use of neonicotinoids was put in place in December 2013 and was influenced heavily by studies relying on artificial dosing, which demonstrated sub-lethal effects of the insecticides on honey bees and bumble bees. This research was followed by intensive lobbying from pressure groups who claimed that bee populations were being harmed.
This latest review that questions these artificial dosing studies looks closely at the concentration and duration of the exposure to the bee of the neonicotinoid; it shows that these studies used to justify the restrictions do not reflect the dose to which the bee would be exposed to under realistic field conditions.
One of the often quoted and key pieces of research implicating neonicotinoids is the Henry et al. (2012) paper. The review is critical of this work because of the short duration over which bees were fed doses of neonicotinoid, and uses the analogy that this is like saying the effect of drinking a volume of whiskey over the course of 1 hour is the same as drinking the same volume over the course of 24 hours or longer.
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