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Bee numbers are declining globally due to colony collapse disaster, and this is putting farmers' livelihoods at risk. Despite the European Union banning the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, the problem of losing bees still looms. Scientists are still not entirely sure of all the workings of how pesticides interact with bees. However, researchers from Poland have developed a method for analyzing 200 pesticides at one time to see what is really going on. With bees being the pollinators for 80% of crops and wildflowers in Europe, it is important to find out the effects of pesticides on the insects. To adequately understand what is going on, we must find out which pesticides are found in bees and at which concentrations. This would help to see what the effects of certain combinations are now and over time. The research team used QuEChERS, which is currently used to detect pesticides in food, to test bees for 200 pesticides at the same time. 57 different pesticides were found to be in the bees. I find this issue of particular importance because bees are incredibly important when it comes to food production. We need to properly understand how our pesticides are affecting them before all the bees are gone, for then we would have to start hand pollinating crops, which would just be costly and annoying. Really this issue needs to receive more attention since it deals directly with our food supply. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160310111849.htm
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AuthorI'm Angel Archives
April 2016
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