By Matthew Dalton
European authorities have waded back into the hotly contested
debate over whether the world's most widely used insecticides are
harming bees.
The European Union two years ago approved sweeping restrictions
on the insecticides, known as neonicotinoids, because of fears
about their impact on the insects. The EU has now decided to review
the bans, asking researchers from around the globe to contribute
the latest science.
The chemicals have become ground zero in the fight between the
chemical industry and environmental groups over pesticides.
Over the past decade, anecdotal evidence mounted in Europe and
North America that beekeepers were seeing large, unexplained
declines in the populations of their hives, sparking concern that
insects crucial for pollinating crops and the overall ecosystem
were dying off. Environmentalists and some scientists pointed the
finger at neonicotinoids--a relatively new class of pesticides that
target the nervous system of insects.
But the chemical industry questions whether bee populations are
actually declining. And even if the decline is real, the companies
argue that other factors such as parasites, viruses, weather and
loss of natural habitat are to blame.
Two of the main manufacturers of the chemicals, industry giants
Bayer AG and Syngenta AG, are ramping up a lobbying and
public-relations campaign to scrap the European bans. They have
funded a number of studies on the impact of their products on bees,
all of which showed no harm done.
Environmental groups are preparing to fight back to ensure the
restrictions stay in place.
"We think the evidence is overwhelming that neonicotinoids harm
bees," said Sandra Bell, at the environmental group Friends of the
Earth.
In the U.S., the authorities have yet to take action against
neonicotinoids. The White House announced a plan in May to reduce
annual winter losses for U.S. honeybee colonies to 15%, from loss
rates in recent years of 20-25%.
The EU bans covered imidacloprid, the world's top-selling
insecticide, made primarily by Bayer; clothianidin, also made by
Bayer; and thiamethoxam, made by Syngenta. The three chemicals
account for billions of dollars in annual sales globally for the
two chemical giants.
The industry has already sued the commission over the bans. "The
suspension of some uses for the three substances was taken based on
significant public pressure, on scientific guidelines which were
under discussion and not validated," says Jean-Charles Bocquet,
director general of the European Crop Protection Association, which
represents Bayer and Syngenta.
The chemicals were introduced in the 1990s and became widely
used because they were less toxic to mammals. But the insecticides
also spread throughout the leaves, petals, nectar and pollen of a
number of plants, making them a potential threat for pollinating
insects such as bees.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, banned most
uses of the insecticides on corn, cotton, rapeseed, corn and
sunflowers, including seeds treated with the chemicals.
Bayer and Syngenta have argued that studies supporting the bans
don't replicate how bees are actually exposed to the chemicals as
they are used by farmers in the field. The studies usually exposed
bees to the chemicals in laboratories, arguably in higher doses
than a bee would encounter in nature.
"The dose we have used might overestimate the dose on the
field," said Mickaël Henry, a researcher at France's
government-funded agricultural research institute and co-author of
one of the studies cited by the EU in its ban. His study found that
honeybees exposed to thiamethoxam were less able to navigate back
to their colonies, to the point that the colonies were at risk of
collapse.
"We have no real cues of what the proper realistic dose you
should use in such an experiment," he says.
But a recent study by Swedish researchers, one of the first not
funded by the industry to look at the impact of the chemicals in
realistic agricultural settings, has changed perceptions about the
possible impact of the pesticides: clothianidin appeared to have no
impact on honeybees but a significant effect on bumblebees and
other wild bees.
"This is an important study using real field exposure," said Mr.
Henry who wasn't involved with the study.
The study found that bumblebee colonies in fields treated with
clothianidin gained no weight, while colonies in untreated fields
tripled their weight over 25 days. And bumblebees in treated fields
displayed far less reproductive activity than bumblebees in
untreated fields.
"These were large differences," said Maj Rundlöf, one of the
study's co-authors.
Despite the bans, Bayer, Syngenta and farm groups have been
applying for exemptions on behalf of European farmers who say they
are losing crops to pests without access to the chemicals.
"We've heard from hundreds of our growers last year that they've
lost crops because they didn't have neonicotinoids," said Guy
Smith, vice president of the National Farmers' Union of England and
Wales who also farms rapeseed 60 miles east of London. "We're very
conscious of the fact that elsewhere in the world--Canada, the
U.S., Australia--there are no restrictions and they are our
competitors."
Write to Matthew Dalton at Matthew.Dalton@wsj.com
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