Ontario stands firm on neonic regulations
Friday, January 8, 2016
by SUSAN MANN
Ontario’s environment ministry plans to maintain its regulations governing the sale and farmers’ use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds despite a new federal government report saying one type of the pesticide, imidacloprid, poses little risk to bees.
In a preliminary report summary released by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) Jan. 6, the agency says for foliar applications of imidacloprid the potential risk to bees from the pesticide varies with the timing of the application. However, current label restrictions help to minimize that risk.
A potential risk to bees was identified for some soil treatments of imidacloprid. However, “no potential risk to bees was indicated for seed treatment use,” the report’s summary says.
“The residue levels in crop pollen and nectar resulting from seed treatment uses are typically below levels expected to pose a risk to bees at both the individual bee and colony levels,” according to the summary.
The assessment comes with a caveat that only appears in another agency report published the same day: the type is rarely used as a seed treatment on corn or soybeans in Canada. “As of 2013, virtually all field corn planted in Canada was treated with either thiamethoxam or clothianidin and greater than half the soybean seeds planted in Canada were treated with thiamethoxam,” says the report, a value assessment of neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seeds. Thiamethoxam and clothianidin are other types of neonicotinoids.
Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change spokesperson Kate Jordan says by email ministry officials are reviewing the PMRA’s draft report. However, “we are taking precautionary action to protect pollinators and are moving forward with a plan to reduce the use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds.”
The provincial regulations that came into effect on July 1, 2015 ensure “that neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seeds are used only when there is a demonstrated pest problem,” she says. The regulations are being phased in and will be fully in effect next year.
Neonic seed treatments add millions of dollars of benefit to Canada’s corn and soybean industries says national report
by SUSAN MANN
A new Pest Management Regulatory Agency report on the value of neonicotinoid seed treatments on corn and soybean production shows the product provides an economic benefit to farmers.
The assessment focused on clothianidin and thiamethoxam because as of 2013 in Canada, the two neonicotinoid types were used for corn seed treatments and thiamethoxam was used for soybean seed treatments, says the report summary released Jan. 6.
Mark Brock, chair of Grain Farmers of Ontario, says the report vindicates farmers who have “been frustrated with the concept that we just randomly use a product and we don’t think about it and that we’re just pawns of the life sciences companies.”
The report backs up farmers’ comments that they do use products judiciously and always have, Brock notes. “It has got to bring value back to our farm. This report is saying there is economic value (to neonicotinoid seed treatments).”
Brock says he has always said he uses the seed treatment because it protects his yields.
Based on current information, the PMRA analysis for corn seed treatment suggests a national economic benefit for the corn industry of about $74.2 to $83.3 million, or about 3.2 per cent to 3.6 per cent of the national 2013 farm gate value for corn, the summary says.
“The majority of these benefits appeared to be realized in Ontario and vary depending on the type of corn grown,” the summary says.
For soybeans, the economic value of the neonicotinoid seed treatment was pegged at 1.5 per cent to 2.1 per cent of the national 2013 farm gate value, or about $37.3 million to $51 million. The economic benefit primarily appears to be to the Ontario and Manitoba soybean industries.
The assessment included the economic impact from quality loss for Ontario soybeans resulting from downgrading IP/food grade beans to crushing quality, the summary says.
The agency says in its report summary that to fully assess the economic value of clothianidin and thiamethoxam seed treatments, more real world information on typical pest population levels relative to economic thresholds is needed.
The PMRA wants corn and soybean seed treatment users to provide additional information for its final report. Stakeholders and interested parties are invited to provide written comments on the agency’s report or provide the additional information it’s seeking by March 6. BF |
Mark Brock, chair of Grain Farmers of Ontario, isn’t surprised the ministry hasn’t changed its position.
“I’m not sure how much science played in the province’s decision-making process” to introduce regulations, he says. “I’m not sure how much this report will change what has happened.”
Brock says he’s not optimistic the report will lead to the province changing its position “because we were trying to argue based on science the whole time (the regulations were being proposed and discussed) and it didn’t seem to matter then. It seemed to be more of a social, political decision rather than one based on science.”
The agency plans to release the full imidacloprid report with appendices on Jan. 18. Written comments on the report will be accepted until March 18.
PMRA is re-evaluating the risks to pollinators from neonicotinoids in cooperation with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and working closely with the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.
An update of the re-evaluation process, also released Jan. 6, indicates preliminary reports on clothianidin and thiamethoxam will be released in December. That month, the final risk assessment on imidacloprid will also be released; final reports on the other two neonicotinoid types are scheduled for release in December 2017.
The imidacloprid report was released first because the three agencies began the imidacloprid re-evaluation about a year before the other two.
Scott Kirby, PMRA acting director general of the environmental assessment directorate, says neonicotinoids will remain on the market if there is acceptable risk mitigation.
“We’re not trying to remove things from the market if we can avoid it but in the end, based on our legislation, we have to come up with a conclusion that the risks are acceptable with appropriate mitigation,” he says.
“If we are unable to mitigate the risks so that they are acceptable, then certain uses may have to be phased out,” he explains in a telephone interview. “At this stage, it’s way too early to even come anywhere close to that conclusion.”
Imidacloprid is undergoing a full re-evaluation, while the other two neonicotinoids are just being re-evaluated for their risks to pollinators, Kirby says. For imidacloprid, human health and environmental assessments are also being conducted and will be released sometime this year, he explains. “Imidacloprid was registered quite a long time ago so we have a statutory obligation to do a full re-evaluation every 15 years.”
The neonicotinoid reassessment is one of the biggest “assessments we’ve ever conducted,” he notes. Six PMRA scientists are working full-time on the reassessments, and that number doesn’t include the staff people working to investigate incidents of bee deaths.
In Ontario, imidacloprid is used as a seed treatment for vegetable crops and a foliar application for both vegetables and fruit crops, Kirby says.
Reaction to the preliminary findings on imidacloprid’s risks to bees was mixed. Grain Farmers’ chair Brock says even though the product isn’t really used on corn and soybean seeds in Canada they’re confident there will be similar results for the neonicotinoid seed treatments (clothianidin and thiamethoxam) corn and soybean growers do use.
“There isn’t really a risk to pollinators with that product (imidacloprid) so we’re extrapolating we’ll see the same findings on those other products as well,” he says.
CropLife Canada spokesperson Erin O’Hara says in an emailed statement the PMRA’s report confirms, “that concerns about the impact of neonics on bees have been significantly overstated.”
She adds, “over and above this reassurance about safety, it is important to remember why these products were developed in the first place — to protect crops from hungry insects.”
Tibor Szabo, president of the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association, questions how the PMRA could reach the conclusions it did. He notes the preliminary findings are shocking and conflict with common sense.
Szabo says he doesn’t know how PMRA’s report can say there’s no potential risks to bees from imidacloprid-treated seeds “because it’s PMRA officials that come out and look at bees when they’re dying and twitching from neonicotinoid poisoning.” They also test the dead bees and report they contain neonicotinoids.
Neonicotinoids are persistent, systemic and mobile in the environment and go into the whole part of the plant, he says. Through the product’s use, “you are baiting and killing pollinating insects. That’s exactly how they work.” BF