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Pesticide linked to bee deaths should be suspended, MPs told

wo, 01/26/2011 - 06:29 — Henk Tennekes

A new generation of pesticides is implicated in the widespread deaths of bees and other pollinators and should be suspended in Britain while the Government reviews new scientific evidence about their effects, MPs were told yesterday. Neonicotinoid pesticides are linked by "a growing weight of science" to insect losses, and the assessment regimes for them are inadequate, the Labour MP Martin Caton told the House of Commons.

Source: The Independent, 25.01.2011
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/pesticide-linked-to-bee-...

The online written record is available here:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110125/hall...

The video recording of the debate is here http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=7414

ABSTRACT

FINALLY . . . . . . . I would like to make some points for the Minister to respond to.
If he cannot do what I would really like him to do, which is to suspend the use of all new neonicotinoids from tomorrow, I request that he commit today, or in writing as soon as he can, to reviewing the new research that I have referred to, and to reconsidering the licences that have been granted.

I request that he withdraw the licences that allow neonicotinoids to be used on plants that produce nectar and pollen until the evidence is clear that they have no impact on the environment,

I request that he establish a national monitoring system for pollinators and pollinating rates.

I ask him to produce a formal response to the scientific papers to which I have just drawn attention, stating what concentrations of neonicotinoids are found in UK water bodies and whether the levels are routinely monitored.

I also request that he ask the Environment Agency to work with other agencies to undertake a review of those levels, commissioning research that would be scientifically robust enough to clarify any link between the pesticides and UK populations of wild pollinators.

A Government who aim to be the greenest ever cannot ignore a hugely significant threat to arguably the most important tier of animal life on this planet. They need to act; now is the time to wake up and smell the coffee.

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