In an interesting twist, Health Canada just announced
its intention to manage the agricultural uses of the pesticide
imidacloprid to protect aquatic insects; this pesticide, like other
neonicotinoid pesticides, has been under fire for some time for its
effects on pollinators, for which we have
written extensively about.
Health Canada has recently completed a
re-evaluation of imidacloprid and now seeks
public comment on its draft risk assessment, in which it
proposes to phase-out agricultural uses of imidacloprid over a
three to five-year period, depending on the availability of
alternatives. The comment period is open until February 21,
2017.
Key findings showed that in aquatic environments in Canada,
imidacloprid is being measured at levels known to be harmful to
aquatic insects: these levels were measured to be as high as 11.9
parts per billion, with safe levels being 0.041 parts per billion
or lower. The report concludes that the continued high volume
