(AFP) The EU warned Tuesday that two widely used insecticides, one of which has been implicated in catastrophic bee population decline, may pose a risk to human health by harming brain development.
The neonicotinoid insecticides acetamiprid and imidacloprid "may affect the developing human nervous system," the European Food Safety Authority said.
This marked the first time such a link has been made with the neonicotinoid family of pesticides, three of which the European Union restricted earlier this year on concerns they were causing a dramatic fall in bee numbers and so threatened food crop pollination.
EFSA experts wanted "some guidance levels for acceptable exposure ... to be lowered while further research is carried out to provide more reliable data on developmental neurotoxicity (DNT)," it said.
The findings were based on recent research and existing data on "the potential of acetamiprid and imidacloprid to damage the developing human nervous system -- in particular the brain."
The research suggested the two insecticides "may adversely affect the development of neurons and brain structures associated with functions such as learning and memory," EFSA said in a statement.
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