EU wants partial ban on bee-killing pesticides

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The drop in bee populations in Europe prompted the European Commission on 31 January 2013 to propose a two-year partial ban on three neonicotinoid insecticides.

“We want to suspend for two years the use of these pesticides on crops such as sunflower, oil rapeseed, maize and cotton,” Federic Vincent, EU spokesperson for health, told journalists in Brussels.

The EU’s food watchdog European Food Safety Authority issued a report in January linking the pesticides to bee decline across Europe. The chemicals are a class of insecticides that affects the central nervous system of insects, causing paralysis and death.

The report is now under review by experts from each member state with a final decision to be made before March for any proposal on a EU-wide regulation.

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This article was taken from EUobserver.com – see the original article here