USGS Study: Dangerous Bee-Killing Neonicotinoids Found in Iowa’s Drinking Water

by Julia Travers

(EnviroNews USA Headline News Desk) — Neonicotinoids, which are powerful insecticides and neurotoxins, have been found in the finished drinking water of two Iowa public water facilities. These chemicals were detected by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) researchers, whose findings were published in a study titled, Occurrence of Neonicotinoid Insecticides in Finished Drinking Water and Fate during Drinking Water Treatment with the American Chemical Society (ACS). USGS specifically looked for clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam and also evaluated the water treatments at the facilities.

These three neonicotinoids were found at a concentration between 0.24 and 57.3 nanograms per liter, which is in the range of parts per trillion. Modern Farmer states even a low concentration of these toxins “should serve as a huge alert that we need to know more, and quickly, about the effects of these pesticides. After all, we’re drinking them.”

The study explains these poisons harm pollinators and that chronic exposure has been linked to adverse neurological and development outcomes as well as liver and central nervous system inflammation in non-target organisms (such as humans). In 2016, after years of pressure from environmentalists and beekeepers, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finished a neonicotinoid risk assessment and concluded the chemicals were harmful to pollinators.

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