EFSA has recently published the draft of the Revised guidance on the risk assessment of plant protection products on bees.
The document, along with extensive supplementary information, is available for public consultation under this link: Bees and pesticides: draft guidance update for public consultation | EFSA (europa.eu).
Areas that have been revised are for example risk assessment methodologies, requirements for field studies (including official test protocols for solitary bees) and the crop attractiveness list.
The new version contains an extensive introductory chapter on bee ecology and the risk assessment process and parameters.
Several new parameters have been introduced into the risk assessments: Body surface factor (Bsf), Pre-flowering factor (PFF), Landscape factors (LF), Half-life in plant matrixes (DT50pnt) and Number of applications. Accumulative toxicity has been renamed to Time-reinforced toxicity (TRT).
Consultation is open until 3 October 2022. If you have questions on environmental fate or ecotoxicology in the Northern Zone, our Regulatory Affairs Specialist Mandy Rauch, mr@agrolab.se, will be happy to help. For specific project inquiries, contact Director Kenneth Sørensen, ks@agrolab.dk.
Agrolab (honey residue trial in Denmark)