EFSA Statement

[gavin]

..... on a couple of the recent papers, Henry and colleagues, and Whitehorn and colleagues.

http://www.efsa.europa.eu/fr/efsajournal/pub/2752.htm

G.

[chris]

As well as the EFSA report, l’ANSES (l'Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des aliments) submitted a report which stated

« field results indicate that in actual agricultural practice the bees’ exposure to thiamethoxam via the nectar residue in OSR (between 0.1 and0.33 ng/bee according to the results of obtained analyses) is inferior to the dose used in the experiment (1.34 ng/bee).The authors’ interpretation, according to which a dose of thiamethoxam of 1.34 ng/bee would normally be encountered in the field is hence considered as unverified by the available observations.”

The new French minister of agriculture, Stéphane le Foll, confirms that he has no figures of eventual deaths caused this year by the use of *Cruiser* on OSR in spite of the fact that it was used on 650,000 hectares, which represents about half the surface used for OSR.
In spite of this he is going to ban the use of Cuiser on OSR,(using the Henry study as justification) and the farmers are going to revert to the use of leaf spraying with the older pesticides.

L’UNAF, one of the major beekeeping unions in France, which was also behind the banning of Gaucho and Regent for certain applications, asked each candidate for the French presidency what his position was concerning Cruiser. However, at the same time it presented the candidate with the result of a poll it had ordered. The results stated that 88% of the general French public was aware of the massive disappearance of bees in France, and that for 81%, the cause of this massive disappearance was the use of pesticides in agriculture. Of course, the poll had been preceded by a campaign in the media where l’UNAF “guided” what the general public would see and hear about bee losses.
With these figures, it wasn’t difficult for the candidates to say what their position would be concerning the banning of Cruiser- not a lot to do with the science.

I am not in favour of the massive use of poison on wildlife, but I am now waiting for the proclamations by certain people that the French banning proves that thiamethoxam is the latest cause of ccd and that others should follow this courageous French initiative.

[chris]

So, today, our agricultural minister has announced the final, definitive ban on Cruiser OSR. In his prior press statement, based on his*misunderstanding* of the Henry paper, he said that the ban was because the insecticide had a harmful effect on bees.
In today's press conference, he corrected himself,saying "[Cruiser] has an effect on the bees' behaviour".
He is obviously learning politician waffle or perhaps becoming *disorientated* by too close a contact with the neonicotinoid files.