Bees: Mountain of Science

Last week the Environmental Audit Committee reported that they too supported the stopping the use of the harmful pesticides blamed for killing bees. They called the environment minister Owen Paterson’s stance “extraordinarily complacent”.

The science is stacking up. Scientists across Europe have released so many studies showing the damage these pesticides cause our bees. In the shadow of this mountain of evidence, DEFRA’s single study pales in comparison.

Last month thousands of 38 Degrees members wrote to their MPs, asking them to talk to Owen and persuade him to vote to stop the pesticides being used.

Some MPs have been repeating DEFRA’s claim that more tests are needed before a decision can be made. However DEFRA themselves have admitted that their study so far “lacks statistical power“.

Below is the list of scientific reports from across the world showing these pesticides are harmful.

Sign the petition to protect our bees, and demand that the government stop these pesticides being used now. Let’s show Owen Paterson that he’s not only going against science, but he’s going against public opinion too.

EFSA – European Food Safety Authority
EFSA scientists have identified a number of risks posed to bees by three neonicotinoid insecticides

PesticideActionNetwork UK-s fact sheet
A series of fact sheets collected by PAN-UK rounding up multiple scientific studies

The Soil Association
The Soil Association submitted evidence to the UK Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry

Bug Life
Bug Life reviewed 33 pieces of research into neonicotinoids and found 31 of them showed worrying environmental impacts.

Journal of Experimental Biology
Exposure to multiple cholinergic pesticides impairs olfactory learning and memory in honeybees

Nature Communications
Cholinergic pesticides cause mushroom body neuronal inactivation in honeybees

Science Mag
A Common Pesticide Decreases Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees

Bulletin of Insectology
In situ replication of honey bee colony collapse disorder

Naturwissenschaften
Pesticide exposure in honey bees results in increased levels of the gut pathogen
Nosema

Japanese Journal of Clinical Ecology
Influence of dinotefuran and clothianidin on a bee colony

PlosOne
Multiple Routes of Pesticide Exposure for Honey Bees Living Near Agricultural
Fields

PlosOne
RFID Tracking of Sublethal Effects of Two Neonicotinoid Insecticides on the

Nature
Combined pesticide exposure severely affects individual- and colony-level traits in
bees