22 Jan 13 A new study by the European Union's food safety
watchdog has found three widely used pesticides guilty of
putting the health of honeybee colonies under serious threat.
Scientists from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) warn
that the risks posed to bees by the pesticides mean that these
chemicals should only be used on crops that are not attractive
to bees. “Given the importance of bees in the ecosystem and the
food chain and given the multiple services they provide to
humans, their protection is essential,” EFSA states. The
researchers said there needed to be “a much more comprehensive
risk assessment for bees” and “a higher level of scrutiny for
interpretation of field studies” before the pesticides are used
on crops that are generally buzzing with pollinators. EFSA
studied the impact on bees of clothianidin, imidacloprid and
thiamethoxam – all neonicotinoid insecticides, the most widely
used family of pesticides, made by Switzerland's Syngenta and
Germany's Bayer. In turn, the chemical gian