The EU has expanded a ban on three neonicotinoid pesticides, now completely barring their use outside. The vote comes after the EU's food safety watchdog found the pesticides pose a risk to bees.
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An expert panel of representatives from the European Union's 28 member states voted on Friday in favor of extending a ban on three neonicotinoid pesticides that researchers warned have negative impacts on bee populations.
"Member states' representatives have endorsed a proposal by the European Commission to further restrict the use of three active substances ... for which a scientific review concluded that their outdoor use harms bees," the European Commission said in a statement.
Have scientists found the key to a bee-friendly pesticide?
Researchers believe a new scientific breakthrough will help to develop pesticides that do not kill bees - but is it really the solution to the problem of toxic pesticides?
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Bees and pesticides
The European Union's food safety watchdog has confirmed that pesticides harm bee populations. Several studies have shown that neonicotinoids affect the brains and bodies of bees and other insects, changing their behavior and reducing their fertility and lifespan.
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Farmers' little helpers
Bees aren't just producers of delicious honey. As pollinators, they play a crucial role in the world's agricultural systems – allowing us to produce all kinds of other foods. But they're threatened by habitat-loss and exposure to toxic pesticides.
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A scientific 'breakthrough'
Use of neonicotinoids, some of the most toxic pesticides to bees and other insects, was restricted by the EU in 2013. But now scientists say they have found a solution that will pave the way to a bee-friendly neonicotinoid pesticide.
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Bee-friendly pesticides
Researchers say they have identified the way that bees fight off harmful toxins. Comparing the effects of two neonicotinoids, they found bees metabolize one of them, thiacloprid, very efficiently. They believe this will help them to develop pesticides that do not harm bee populations.
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Bee nests harmed
But environmentalists are skeptical. Dave Goulson of the school of life sciences at Sussex University, told DW his research, which looked at bee nests next to raspberry crops, found that thiacloprid harmed the nests. "There is evidence that thiacloprid use does harm bumblebee nests under field conditions," he said.
Campaigners like Keith Tyrell, director of Pesticide Action Network UK says we need to move away from a "chemical mindset" altogether.
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Save the butterflies, too
It’s not just bees that are affected by pesticides, Tyrell says. Insecticides are harmful to many different types of insects. For example, butterfly populations have also been affected. Pesticides can also have an impact on human health and harm other wildlife and the environment, according to Pesticide Action Network UK.
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A natural approach
We need to find a way to change our agricultural model, and switch to non-chemical pest control methods that work with nature, environmentalists say.
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The approved proposal calls for a full outdoor ban of three substances: imidacloprid which was developed by Germany's Bayer CropScience, clothianidin created by Bayer CropScience and Japan's Takeda Chemical Industries, as well as thiamethoxam from Switzerland's Syngenta.
"All outdoor uses will be banned and the neonicotinoids in question will only be allowed in permanent greenhouses where exposure of bees is not expected," the statement said.
The three neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides based on the chemical structure of nicotine, have been widely used in agriculture over the past 20 years.
Unlike other pesticides which remain on the surface of plant foliage, neonicotinoids are absorbed into the plants, meaning that they kill off aphids and grubs, but also have an impact on other insects as well.
In February, the European Food Safety Authority released a report stating that "most uses" of the neonicotinoid pesticides posed a serious risk to bees.
Other studies found that the chemicals can lower bees' resistance to disease and causes them to become disoriented, meaning they cannot find their way back to their hives.
