In 2013, the UK Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) published a study of exposure of bumble bee colonies to neonicotinoids in the field. The scientific author of this study was Helen Thompson, now working for Syngenta and who, surprisingly, always denied the role of neonics in bee decline. This study was never published in a peer reviewed scientific journal. Nevertheless, the UK government strongly relied on it, pretending it proved neonics did not harm bees.

Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at  the university of Sussex, re-analysed the raw data of the study and could show that, despite the weaknesses of the study's design, there is a link between exposure to neonicotinoids and reprotoxicity (failure in bumble bee queens production, thus jeopardising the future of the species). This study was published in a peer-reviewed journal.

This is a good example showing how vested interests make so-called scientists twist science and try to influence the political decision-making...