SynthesisProceedings. Biological sciences2022
'Inert' ingredients are understudied, potentially dangerous to bees and deserve more research attention.
Synthesis in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Soil contamination in Europe unveiled: A review of pesticides and metabolites to watch.Open research Europe · 2025Pooled it
- Weak evidence base for bee protective pesticide mitigation measures.Journal of economic entomology · 2023Pooled it
- 'Inert' ingredients are understudied, potentially dangerous to bees and deserve more research attention.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Presence of Emerging Contaminants in UK Honey─Human Pharmaceuticals a Concern for Honeybees?Journal of agricultural and food chemistry · 2026Article
- Effects of the herbicide 2,4 D active ingredient and commercial formulations on the early life stages of the amphibian Physalaemus gracilis.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2026Article
- Common herbicide impairs fertility but not survival in bumblebees, Bombus impatiens.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Bumblebees avoid sucrose solution containing high concentrations of Roundup.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2025Article
- Impacts of a fungicide and an insecticide on pollinator visitation and wildflower fitness.Functional ecology · 2025Article
- Evaluation of herbicide formulations and spreading agents on survival of the bumblebee Bombus impatiens following spray and contact exposure.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2025Article
- Invited Perspective: The Far Reach of PFAS-Inert Ingredients and Adjuvants in Pesticide Formulations.Environmental health perspectives · 2024Article
- 'Inert' co-formulants of a fungicide mediate acute effects on honey bee learning performance.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Review: the risks of spray adjuvants to honey bees.Journal of insect science (Online) · 2023Review
- Article
- Emerging threats and opportunities to managed bee species in European agricultural systems: a horizon scan.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Effects of pesticide-adjuvant combinations used in almond orchards on olfactory responses to social signals in honey bees (Apis mellifera).Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Glyphosate and a glyphosate-based herbicide affect bumblebee gut microbiota.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2023Article
- No impacts of glyphosate or Crithidia bombi, or their combination, on the bumblebee microbiome.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The effects of glyphosate, pure or in herbicide formulation, on bumble bees and their gut microbial communities.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Contrasting effects of fungicide and herbicide active ingredients and their formulations on bumblebee learning and behaviour.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Agrochemical formulations are composed of two broad groups of chemicals: active ingredients, which confer pest control action, and 'inert' ingredients, which facilitate the action of the active ingredient. Most research into the effects of agrochemicals focusses on the effects of active ingredients. This reflects the assumption that 'inert' ingredients are non-toxic. A review of relevant research shows that for bees, this assumption is without empirical foundation. After conducting a systematic literature search, we found just 19 studies that tested the effects of 'inert' ingredients on bee health. In these studies, 'inert' ingredients were found to cause mortality in bees through multiple exposure routes, act synergistically with other stressors and cause colony level effects. This lack of research is compounded by a lack of diversity in study organism used. We argue that 'inert' ingredients have distinct, and poorly understood, ecological persistency profiles and toxicities, making research into their individual effects necessary. We highlight the lack of mitigation in place to protect bees from 'inert' ingredients and argue that research efforts should be redistributed to address the knowledge gap identified here. If so-called 'inert' ingredients are, in fact, detrimental to bee health, their potential role in widespread bee declines needs urgent assessment.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.