"In order to safeguard the bees and the safety of the sector’s operators, I asked the Ministry of Health to confirm the suspension of neonicotinoids and fipronil insecticides used for maize tanning. This request stems from the fact that changes made in the seeding machines have not provided sufficient guarantees for the protection of bees, which have experienced a series of non-lethal effects such as disorientation and loss of olfactory memory, particularly in the areas where there are wide corn fields.
With these words the Minister of agricultural food and forestry policies Giancarlo Galan commented the results of the research project Apenet, funded by the Ministry and implemented by a number of research institutes coordinated by the Council for Research and Experimentation in Agriculture (CRA).
The project Apenet has in fact confirmed a series of experimental evidence emerged already in 2009, whose essential elements can be summarized as follows:
1. the national monitoring network established through Apenet has not found, in spring 2010, anomalous phenomena of bee mortality;
2. dust tests on the tanned seed confirmed the progress made with the most modern tanning techniques;
3. the changes done to the seed machines by installing a "flap" has generated an average reduction of concentrations of active substances of 50% compared to conventional machines;
4. Tests done with machines on the field showed that with an increase of the area sown, there is an increase of the of contamination in the surrounding areas.

Apenet data have thus shown that changes done to reduce the dispersion of dust during the seeding have not provided sufficient guarantees for the protection of bees, which experienced a series of non-lethal effects, particularly in the areas where there are wide corn fields.
"In order to intervene more effectively on the machines, I asked the CRA - Minister Galan concluded - to enhance the engineering research in order to minimize the risk of contamination due to the dispersion of dust during planting”.