Aug. 30 EU: Commission will not be rushed into OSR chemical ban

From the Farmers Guardian an article about OSR chemical ban in France that the European Commission believes is derived from little scientific or peer review evidence.

THE European Commission has insisted it will not be rushed into a decision to ban two chemicals used on oilseed rape crops, following France’s decision to outlaw them.

The two products, Ilium OSR and Cruiser OSR, contain Thiametoxan, which belongs to the group of neonicotinoids, which  two studies published in the scientific journal Science claim are linked to the decline in bee populations.

The Commission’s position was backed by the vast majority of member states at Standing Committee of Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH) meeting last month.

“As the commissioner states in his letter decisions on the safety of products must be based on proper and robust science based risk assessments.

He said these seed treatments were ‘much more environmentally friendly’ as they target the pests in the seed bed and that they have been used extensively on over three million hectares of oilseed rape in Europe over the last few years without incident.

For more information and the full article please refer to the link above.