Neonicotinoid pesticides are once again in the news - this time due to some very concerning research showing multiple neonicotinoids can be detected in children's cerebro-spinal fluid, plasma and urine. (Read more about this here: https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-021-00821-z)

The evidence of the harm neonicotinoids do to pollinators and wildlife is well known. Butterfly Conservation highlighted concerns about neonicotinoids as long ago as 2015, following a study by the Universities of Stirling and Sussex in partnership with Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. This study was the first scientific evidence of a possible negative impact of these pesticides on widespread UK butterflies.

Since then the evidence of the negative impacts of neonicotinoids on bees, moths, butterflies, birds and other wildlife has continued to grow. Along with many other organisations, Butterfly Conservation came to conclude that these pesticides must be banned, and in 2017 we welcomed an announcement by Michael Gove that the UK would support a total ban across the European Union.

However, despite this support of a total ban, and acknowledgement of the harm neonicotinoids cause to pollinators and wildlife, the UK Government has once again allowed emergency use of a neonicotinoid in England in 2022 - as it did in 2021 as well.

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and it is simply unacceptable for the Government to allow the demonstrable harm of pollinators and other wildlife at a time when nature is already in crisis.

The time has come for neonicotinoids to be completely banned with no exception. We should be thinking about these pesticides in the same way we think about DDT. They are a group of chemicals which are simply too toxic and too damaging to use in any circumstances.

Julie Williams, CEO, Butterfly Conservation