Assumed safety of widespread pesticide use is false, says top government scientist

Damning assessment by one of the UK's chief scientific advisers says global regulations have ignored the impacts of 'dosing whole landscapes' and must changeThe assumption by regulators around the world that it is safe to use pesticides at industrial scales across landscapes is false, according to a chief scientific adviser to the UK government.The lack of any limit on the total amount of pesticides used and the virtual absence of monitoring of their effects in the environment means it can take years for the impacts to become apparent, say Prof Ian Boyd and his colleague Alice Milner in a new article. Continue reading...