Ottawa imposes new pesticide rules to protect bees, but is it enough?

With recent declines in honeybee populations being blamed on neonicotinoid pesticides, Health Canada has issued a new plan they hope will protect the honeybees from being exposed to these harmful chemicals. However, that's not enough, says environmental experts and bee keepers. They believe that there should be an outright ban on these pesticides.

Neonicotinoids were developed as a way to benefit from how nicotine kills insects, while keeping it safe for people. However, while they're effective against the insects that try to eat our crops, in recent years there's been growing evidence that bees aren't as safe from them as we first thought. In fact, they're thought to be one of the leading causes of 'colony collapse disorder'.

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Bees suffer directly from neonicotinoids when they're exposed to it from dust that gets into the air when corn and soybean seeds coated with the chemicals get planted. There's also been studies that show high fructose corn syrup being made from this insecticide-infused corn, which is being fed to the bees during the winter months, may be weakening their immune system, making them more susceptible to toxins and diseases.

Earlier this year, the European Food Safety Authority banned the use of three neonicotinoids for the next two years, starting in December, and presumably they'll use that two years to really figure out if they're contributing to bee deaths. The EPA is also being pressured to ban their use, and they are even being sued in federal court for failing to protect these important pollinators from dangerous chemicals.

Health Canada's plan calls upon farmers to change their planting practices to limit how much dust gets into the air, requires the pesticides and seeds to have better warning labels, and they're apparently working with the U.S. EPA to gather more information on effects of neonicotinoids.

There's no ban on the pesticides because, as Scott Kirby, the director of the Environmental Assessment Directorate of Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency, said on Monday morning to CTV's Canada AM, "There are all kinds of things assaulting the bee population. These include climate change, Varroa mites, disease such as Nosema, as well as bee husbandry practices. Pesticides are also in the mix. At this point we're looking at all angles."

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When it comes down to it, though, given how important bees are to us and our food supply, this isn't an issue where we can just tread carefully and hope for the best. In order to figure out what's really affecting the bees, we need to deal with each threat systematically. It's unlikely we're going to be halting climate change anytime soon, and it's difficult to control the mites and nosema, since they exist in the natural environment. The one factor we have 100% control over in this case is the pesticides.

There are other non-neonicotinoid seed options available for corn and soybean farmers, and even from a local, Canadian source. That could benefit both bees and the Canadian economy.

If the measures they propose actually result in fewer bee deaths and fewer incidences of colony collapse, then that's great. However, the EU response to these pesticides is probably the best way to handle it. Ban their use, at least for a limited time, and then see what happens. If the next two years show that bee populations are suffering just as much as before, then we'd have ruled out the pesticides as a cause, but at least we'd know that we weren't still contributing to the problem the whole time.

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

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