Researchers who carried out a four-year review of the science on neonicotinoids, a fairly new but widely used family of pesticide, and fipronil have concluded that there is now undeniable evidence that the pesticides are having negative impacts on a wide range of species.

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Systemic insecticides were first marketed in the early 1990s; they are absorbed by all parts of the plant, and poison crop pests by affecting their nervous system.

Neonicotinoids have gained notoriety in recent years, as a political struggle to introduce restrictions culminated last year in the EU Commission overriding a blocking minority of member states to introduce a two year 'partial ban'. The Commission aims to measure the effect this has on Europe's ailing insect pollinators. Across the northern hemisphere populations of key pollinating insects are declining rapidly.

The scientists behind the recent review compared the threat posed by systemic pesticides, amongst which neonicotinoids are the most widely used, to the now infamous chemical DDT.     

The researchers were part of an IUCN convened task-force; they identified that these chemicals are already causing significant damage to a wide range of beneficial invertebrate species, and that their use poses threats to animals higher up the food chain, including birds. They found evidence that the products also risk harming species of bird and fish at levels found in the environment.

The assessment's authors warned that the group of species at the highest risk from use of fipronil and neonicotinoids were ground-dwelling invertebrates, including earthworms. Researchers said these creatures are "vulnerable to the levels of neonics associated with agricultural use." Bees, butterflies and other insect pollinators were the next highest risk category, followed by aquatic invertebrates.

The pesticides' manufacturers deny that their products are causing harm. Bayer and Syngenta, who produce the three neonicotinoids made subject to restrictions last year have taken the EU to court over its partial ban. BASF has also challenged the ban on Fipronil.

In Britain, environment groups have been highly critical of the government's decision to defer to pesticide manufacturers to lead research on their own controversial products in its draft pollinator strategy, released in March and designed to address declines in populations of beneficial insects.  

The Environmental Audit Committee, which assesses the UK government's environmental policies, has begun an inquiry into the pollinator strategy, which is scheduled for formal release this autumn. At the Committee's first evidence gathering session last week, Sussex University Professor Dave Goulson warned that "Evidence suggests neonicotinoids present in soil from seed treatments may be taken up by other plants, such as wildflower margins, meaning bees feeding in the real world are exposed to the pesticides year-round."  

Professor Goulson warned that this increased exposure would not be reflected in "three-week" long tests conducted to assess the safety of the pesticides. In January last year, EU health watchdog EFSA acknowledged that its risk assessment strategies are seriously flawed and declared that certain neonicotinoids pose an "unacceptable" threat to bees and other pollinators.  

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On Tuesday, Dr Jean-Marc Bonmatin of The National Centre for Scientific Research in France, who authored the study, commented, "The evidence is very clear. We are witnessing a threat to the productivity of our natural and farmed environment equivalent to that posed by organophosphates or DDT. Far from protecting food production the use of neonics is threatening the very infrastructure which enables it, imperilling the pollinators, habitat engineers and natural pest controllers at the heart of a functioning ecosystem."

Dr David Gibbons, Chief Scientist at the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, and another of the assessment's authors, agreed that the report shows there is a pressing need to adopt less damaging farming practices. Dr Gibbons said on Tuesday, "For decades the populations of some of our most-loved countryside birds have declined precipitously as successive technologies harnessed to farming have increased agricultural production. Our assessment clearly highlights the current risks to bees and other insects from systemic pesticides.  

"Although the effects on birds and other vertebrates remain unclear, the analysis suggests they are at risk, both from the direct toxicity of these chemicals, and by depleting the numbers of other insects on which they depend for food. For the sake of nature, farming has to find ways of producing food without putting the environment and its own future under unsustainable stress."

The full report on systemic insecticides, known as the Worldwide Integrated Assessment, will be published next month. The authors urged governments to pay close attention to their findings.

Derogation sought

The Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP) meeting in May of this year discussed the Emergency authorisation of Cruiser OSR on Oilseed Rape and Mustard Seeds. The Committee noted that the ACP had previously advised on the continued authorisation of thiamethoxam for use as a seed treatment for oilseed rape and if Ministers granted this authorisation, they would encourage the applicant to take the opportunity provided by practical use of the product to gather further data on risks to bees.