Catching Up with Popular Pesticides: More Human Health Studies Are Needed on Neonicotinoids

Prior to 2000, neonicotinoid chemicals were virtually unknown, by farmers or anyone else. They have since become the most widely used class of agricultural insecticides on the planet. With their rise has come evidence they are contributing to devastating losses of honeybees, yet despite widespread human exposure through fruits and vegetables, however, little research has been conducted on potential effects on human health, according to a review in EHP. “Over 15 years we went from nonuse to widespread use,” says senior author Melissa Perry, who is chairman of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Milken Institute