HEALTH CANADA SLOWLY COMING AROUND TO BANNING NEONICOTONOIDS

Today's Waterloo Region Record carries the following story titled "Pesticides do harm to bees and should be phased out, Health Canada says". Health Canada has done a number of different studies on nicotine based pesticides and made a recommendation in 2016 that one of them, imidacloprid, was building up in surface and ground water as well as killing aquatic insects and thus should be banned. This followed an earlier study suggesting that this group of pesticides only negatively affected bees under certain specific conditions. They therefore concluded that if neonicotonoids were banned on the main crops attractive to bees then the risk of using them elsewhere was "acceptable".

Health Canada have generally been much less aggressive in regards to them than either the European Union countries or other scientists in general. Nonetheless any direction by Health Canada to reduce the use of this class of pesticides is welcomed.

Environmental groups as well as the Ontario Beekeepers' Association have strongly demanded a ban on neonicotonoids for several years now and overall scientists have strongly endorsed their opinions and views.

Health Canada did recommend limiting the use of two other neonicotonoids, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, suggesting they eventually be phased out for direct application on certain crops and municipal and residential lawns.