A new book, The Systemic Insecticides: A Disaster in the Making by toxicologist Dr Henk Tennekes warns that dangerous insecticides known as neonicotinoids are seriously affecting bird and insect life across Europe. He says Europe is heading towards ‘environmental catastrophe’. Since their introduction in the 1990s, neonicotinoids have become the most widely used insecticides worldwide.
These dangerous insecticides spread throughout the entire plant and into the nectar and pollen. Bees or butterflies that collect pollen or nectar are poisoned. They also leach and contaminate soils and groundwater. Numerous bird species do not find enough food for their chicks as insects are being exterminated by pesticides.
Dr Henk A. Tennekes (born in 1950 in Zutphen, The Netherlands) graduated from the Agricultural University of Wageningen in 1974 and did his Ph.D at Shell Research Ltd in Sittingbourne, Kent, UK.
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