‘So safe you could drink it’: Scientists and pesticide victims fear an EU rollback

For most of his life, José Nadan worked as a professional beekeeper in Morbihan, a coastal area in Brittany known for its medieval towns and fresh seafood. At the start of his career, he recalls a golden age of beekeeping, when each year, and “without much effort”, the number of hives would naturally increase. But things took a turn for the worse in the 1980s, when the varroa mite made its way to France. A parasite, the mite weakens bees by suppressing their immune system and spreading deadly viruses that can collapse entire colonies. “We improvised trying to kill them with whatever we had until official products made their way onto the market,” Nadan recalls. Nadan also spent many years keeping an orchard of cider apple trees he treated with a pesticide that, he was told, was organic and had no effect on humans. “The sales reps even said it was so safe you could drink it,” the 69-year-old says. “I never took the slightest precaution, spraying from my tractor as I drove along the rows of trees,” Nadan recalls. “Sometimes, because of the wind, I’d get some on my face. But I wasn’t worried.” “I later found out it was a product like Roundup [a Monsanto weed killer] and contained glyph...