Neonicotinoids: Exported poison comes back through fruit

They are highly toxic, probably responsible for the death of insects and therefore largely banned in Europe. But neonicotinoids are still being exported – they could come back via food imports.

If the EU has its way, then these substances should no longer be in use: neonicotinoids are probably among the most dangerous pesticides that have ever been developed by chemical companies. In the EU, their use in the field was banned as early as 2013: A number of studies had shown negative effects on bees and pollinator insects. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization classifies this decline as “a serious threat to global food security”.

And yet the active ingredients Imidacloprid from Bayer, Clothianidin (Bayer, BASF) and Thiametoxam from Syngenta continue to find their way into the environment en masse – just mostly no longer in Europe. This is shown by research by the Swiss non-governmental organization “Public Eye” and the British research group “Unearthed”, which belongs to Greenpeace. To the ARD magazine MonitoThe results are available.

Export papers evaluated

Since September 2020, all exports of these funds must be reported in accordance with international guidelines. So the research team had requested export papers from the authorities. And it shows: The big business with neurotoxins from Europe continues – worldwide. The fabrics are a bestseller and preferentially go to countries such as Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina and Iran.

From September to December 2020 alone, an intended export volume of almost 3900 tons of neonicotinoid products was registered; the European authorities issued 299 permits for this. “That is enough to completely inject the agricultural land in France”, Carla Hoinkes from “Public Eye” explains the dimension of the exports Monitor.

German corporations among leading exporters

Largest exporter from Europe is therefore by far the agrochemicals group Syngenta with 3426 tons of thiametoxam products, followed by Bayer with 137.5 tons of imidacloprid and clothianidin products. According to the NGO research, BASF sold 95.5 tons of a clothianidin preparation. The products were apparently mainly produced in Belgium, France and Germany. Manufacturers wanted the numbers on MonitoDo not comment on r request.

The most important buyer of neonicotinoids is Brazil. The country, of all places, which is home to around 20 percent of the remaining global biodiversity – and which at the same time intends to drastically increase its agricultural exports in the next few years. In general, the most important recipient countries are mainly middle- or low-income countries, in which the legal application provisions for pesticides are often less strict than in Europe, for example.

Toxins are coming back to Europe

The neonicotinoids that are released do not simply disappear, but can be returned to consumers in Europe via agricultural imports – for example in corn, soy, mangoes and avocados. “This cycle has to be broken,” demands Carla Hoinkes from “Public Eye”.

The demands of the NGOs are given weight by new insights from an international group of scientists from Germany, Austria, Sweden and Great Britain. Their result: The Bayer active ingredient imidacloprid forms metabolic products that not only affect the nervous system of insects, but even more so on human nerve cells. “It is not only relevant for bees or ecological effects, but actually also for human security,” says Prof. Marcel Leist from the University of Konstanz. The scientist thinks it is possible that one could ingest amounts through normal diet that show effects in the nervous system – similar to the well-known neurotoxin nicotine.

Possible consequences for brain development

The researchers are particularly critical of the possible consequences in the brain development of unborn or newborn babies: “You know that very small amounts can make the difference. We assume that the side effect is most likely to have an impact on the development of the nervous system,” says Leist opposite Monitor.

Manufacturer Bayer sees no reason for a reassessment in the study and emphasizes that the substances have been used safely for many years. “These active ingredients are still needed,” says Bayer spokesman Alexander Hennig, referring to the emergency approvals granted by the EU for sugar beet cultivation for 2021. Without the use of neonicotinoids, “the result would have been major crop losses,” he says. For the next year, however, the responsible Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has rejected the application for emergency approval for beet cultivation.

Critics, however, demand that the EU states should also apply their strict rules to the export of pesticides. The federal government sees no legal possibility so far, the laws of the recipient countries are decisive. France, on the other hand, does not want to allow exports of banned pesticides from next year.