Europe Warns of Human Risk From Insecticides

By DANNY HAKIM, NYT

LONDON — European food regulators said on Tuesday that a class of pesticides linked to the deaths of large numbers of honey bees might also harm human health, and they recommended that the European Commission further restrict their use.

The commission, which had requested the review, has already taken a tougher stance than regulators in other parts of the world against neonicotinoids, a relatively new nicotine-derived class of pesticide. They were banned this year for use on many flowering crops in Europe that attract honey bees, an action that the pesticides’ makers are opposing in court.

Now European Union regulators say the same class of pesticides “may affect the developing human nervous system” of children. They focused on two specific versions of the pesticide, acetamiprid and imidacloprid, recommending that they were safe to use only in smaller amounts than currently allowed.

The review was prompted by a Japanese study that raised similar concerns last year.

(More here.)