This page is a part of the corpus (Annexe 1) used to write Stéphane Foucart and neonicotinoids.
Here, I relate what the journalist said in his article “Les experts européens confirment les risques des néonicotinoïdes pour les abeilles”. All quotes, originally in French, were translated by me.
EFSA reported on February 28 that the 3 NNIs subject to the 2013 moratorium (imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, clothianidin) do indeed pose a risk to bees, domestic and wild.
For J-M Bonmatin, it is not a surprise, these risks having already been demonstrated. NNIs are believed to reach bees not only through pollen, but also seedling dust and guttation. The moratorium would not have reduced the use of NNIs. Thus, the UNAF noted an increase of more than 30% in the tonnages sold in 2014 compared to 2013: other NNIs have replaced the 3 banned.
The European Commission is reportedly considering a total ban on the 3 NNIs, which would be discussed on March 22.
This would raise the question of their replacement by other molecules with a comparable neurotoxic effect, such as sulfoxaflor. According to J-M Bonmatin, “It doesn’t make sense any more to evaluate substances in this way, molecule by molecule.”
The October 2017 study published by PloS One(Hallman et al. 2017) observed that, “in Germany, 75% to 80% of the biomass of flying insects have disappeared in less than thirty years. “