![]() Josie Cohen,of Pesticide Action Network UK, said: “Some neonicotinoid insecticides are 10,000 times more toxic than DDT, the most notorious insecticide in history. We are committed to continuing to work with the Environmental Protection Agency to apply the best science, which balances the risks and benefits of pesticide use.” “It is then obviously a political and societal debate about what kind of effects we want pesticides to have or not have.”Ĭhris Novak, the president of CropLife America, which represents pesticide companies, said: “Our members continue to innovate solutions that have less impact on human health and the environment, but our innovations must meet the needs of a dynamic farming system. “The more we know about the problems the better, so therefore I would call our study good news,” said Schulz. They also said the lack of public pesticide data in many places “potentially masks a crucial driver of the global biodiversity decline”. The scientists said the impact on insects could have knock-on effects on other animals such as birds that rely on them for food, as indicated in a study in the Netherlands in 2014. The harm to bees has led the EU to ban some neonicotinoids from outdoor use. This was because pyrethroid and neonicotinoid replacements are more toxic to pollinators and aquatic invertebrates. “In sharp contrast, the total applied toxicity to invertebrates has markedly increased since approximately 2005,” they said, despite the amount of insecticide applied decreasing by 40%. They found that the replacement of organophosphorus and carbamate insecticides reduced the total toxicity to mammals and birds by a factor of nine. Looking solely at the amount of pesticide applied gives a false picture, the scientists said, because some are several orders of magnitude more toxic than others. ![]() This enabled changes over time to be assessed. The study, published in the journal Science, used US government data on pesticide use and the level of the toxicity of each chemical to give a measure of the “total applied toxicity”. This is obviously not true if you look at toxicity levels.” Schulz said: “GM crops were introduced using the argument that they would reduce the dependency of agriculture on chemical pesticides. “But at the same time, pesticides became more specific, and therefore, unfortunately, also more toxic to ‘non-target organisms’, like pollinators and aquatic invertebrates.” “Compounds that are particularly toxic to vertebrates have been replaced by compounds with less vertebrate toxicity and that is indeed a success,” said Prof Ralf Schulz, of the University Koblenz and Landau in Germany, who led the research.
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