Environmental Risk Assessment for Bees
Environmental Risk Assessment for Bees
A new EFSA draft guidance document for environmental risk assessment for bees is open now for public consultation until October 3rd 2022.
When accessing the available documents, you will notice that, as for other non-target organisms, the complexity of regulatory guidelines is increasing. The document has more than 100 pages and more than 24 attachments.
The proposed new risk assessment brings significant changes from the last EFSA guidance on bees which was released in 2013. It should be noted that the 2013 guidance was never officially ‘noted’ due to discrepancies and lack of sufficient data for some of the requested studies, such as the scenario for contamination by water. Thus, as it is not officially ‘noted’, its use has not been harmonized across the EU.
One of the changes proposed in the new draft EFSA guidance document is that chronic toxicity test data from adult bees and larvae would need to be addressed by default in addition to a bee risk assessment based on acute toxicity data. Furthermore, where risk is detected, additional (semi-) field studies would be required to clarify the risk.
Kerona Scientific’s team of regulatory experts is available to discuss how these upcoming changes may affect the bee risk assessments of your plant protection products. Please contact our team at info@kerona.ie or +353 (0)1 849 5284