CONCLUSION ON PESTICIDE PEER REVIEW Conclusion on the peer review of the pesticide risk assessment of post-approval data submitted for the active substance thiamethoxam European Food Safety Authority

Thiamethoxam was included in Annex I to Directive 91/414/EEC on 1 February 2007 by Commission Directive 2007/6/EC3, and has been deemed to be approved under Regulation (EC) No 1107/20094, in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 540/20115, as amended by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 541/20116. The specific provisions of the approval were amended by Commission Directive 2010/21/EU7, to permit use as a seed treatment only where the seed coating is performed in professional seed treatment facilities, which must apply the best available techniques to ensure that the release of dust during application to the seed, storage and transport can be minimised, and where adequate drilling equipment is used to ensure a high degree of incorporation in soil, minimisation of spillage and minimisation of dust emission. In January 2010 the European Commission received new studies on honeybees from the notifier, Syngenta, which were evaluated by the designated rapporteur Member State (RMS), Spain, in the form of an Addendum to the Draft Assessment Report. The European Commission distributed the Addendum to Member States and the EFSA for comments on 1 July 2011. The RMS collated all comments in the format of a Reporting Table, which was submitted to the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCFCAH) in September 2011. Following consideration of the comments received, and the further discussions in the SCFCAH, the Commission requested the EFSA to organise a peer review of the RMS's evaluation of the new data and to deliver its conclusions on the risk assessment for honeybees. The conclusions laid down in this report were reached on the basis of the evaluation of the studies submitted, which were conducted with the use of thiamethoxam applied as a seed treatment on maize seeds. The modification of sowing machines with deflectors was demonstrated to potentially be a useful tool to reduce dust drift and therefore to reduce the exposure of the off-crop areas. However, on the basis of the available data, it was not possible to quantify the effectiveness of the deflectors, or to perform a quantitative risk assessment. Based on the available data, significant exposure of bees (or other pollinators), even if a deflector is used, cannot be excluded.