by Bob Yirka
, Phys.org
A small team
of environmentalists with Friends of the Earth, Toxicology Research International
and Pesticide Research Institute has carried out a study of insecticide
toxicity loading of chemical pesticides that are used on agricultural lands in
the U.S. They have concluded that neonicotinoids present a major danger to
pollinating insects and have posted their results on the open-access
site PLOS ONE.
In the study
(funded by Friends of the Earth), the group looked at the impact of the
increased use of neonicotinoids on farming products in the U.S. They note that
use of such insecticides has increased dramatically in the past 20 years.
Neonicotinoids
are a class of insecticides that target the nervous systems of insects—they are
both less expensive to make and less toxic to humans than other products,
making them an appealing option for agriculture applications. The researchers
note that they are far more toxic to insects, including those not targeted
by agricultural
practices than
prior industrial insecticides. They also last a lot longer in the soil and are
water-soluble, which means they travel from the soil to the water table when it
rains.
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