Call to ban nerve agent pesticides after traces found in 75pc of honey
THREE QUARTERS of the honey produced around the world contains nerve agent pesticides that can harm bees and pose a potential health hazard to humans, a study has shown.
Scientists who tested 198 honey samples from every continent except Antarctica discovered that 75 per cent were laced with at least one of the neonicotinoid chemicals.
More than two-fifths contained two or more varieties of the pesticides and 10 per cent held residues from four or five.
Environmental campaigners responded by demanding a “complete and permanent” ban preventing any further use of neonicotinoids on farm crops in Europe.
Experts called the findings “alarming”, “sobering” and a “serious environmental concern” while stressing that the pesticide residue levels found in honey generally fell well below the safe limits for human consumption.
However, one leading British scientist warned that it was impossible to predict what the longterm effects of consuming honey containing tiny amounts of the chemicals might be.
Dave Goulson, Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex, said: “Beyond doubt ... anyone regularly eating honey is likely to be getting a small dose of mixed neurotoxins.
“In terms of acute toxicity, this certainly won’t kill them and is unlikely to do measurable harm. What we don’t know is whether there are long-term, chronic effects from lifetime exposure to a cocktail of these and other pesticides in our honey and most other foods.”
For practical reasons it was “impossible to do a proper experiment to test this”, he added. Neonicotinoids are chemicals similar to nicotine that have proved to be effective at protecting crops.
They can be sprayed on leaves or coated on seeds, in which case they infiltrate every part of the plant. Years of research have shown the chemicals are toxic to honey bees and bumblebees, causing brain damage.