Neonicotinoids aren’t just in plants, they are in our food and water
According to the Xerces Society homeowners use neonicotinoid pesticides in concentrations as much as 120 times what farmers can legally use. In January the journal Environmental Health published a study showing that these chemicals are found in our food and water. In fact we have known since 2015 that they are present in at least 63 percent of streams in a nationwide study. But a study published this January in Environmental Science and Technology shows that chlorination and alkaline hydrolysis during water treatment chlorinates the pesticide and its metabolites. This forms chemicals such as desnitro-imacloprid, which is much more toxic to people that the original neonicotinoid pesticide.
In a review published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, chronic exposure to neonicotinoids was associated with autism, tremors, and developmental disorders.
So not using neonicotinoids in your garden and not buying plants that have been treating with these pesticides which stay in the plant and continue to be toxic, not only protects the bees and other pollinators, but our families, too.