Earlier this year the Environmental Protection Agency issued its “preliminary assessment” of imidacloprid, the first commercially available, widely used neonicotinoid pesticide (“neonic,” for short). The EMA concluded that the seed treatment is safe for most plants.
The conclusion was good news for farmers and the agriculture sector, but devastating to many activists.
Three significant conclusions in the EPA’s assessment will be a boon to America’s farmers. First, it exonerated imidacloprid seed treatments from posing a risk to honeybees.
Second, the EPA determined that there was a “No Observable Adverse Effects Level” (NOAEL) for honeybee exposure to imidacloprid of 25 parts per billion (ppb). This finding is significant because neonic residue levels in nectar and pollen for imidacloprid seed-treated crops typically fall in single digits of ppb.
Third, the EPA’s assessment found that neonic residue levels in corn, the largest U.S. crop and biggest neonic user, posed no problem for bees.
However, questions remain over the safety of neonics for citrus.
To read the full blog post on the subject, please click here.
Source: geneticliteracyproject.org
