>Are we talking about the same paper?

So sorry, Christina, I mistakenly assumed that you were familiar with all
of Suchail's work.  The paper that I was referring to, so that you could
answer my question about "irreversibility" was:

In vivo distribution and metabolisation of
14C-imidacloprid in different compartments of
Apis mellifera L
Se´ verine Suchail,1* Georges De Sousa,2 Roger Rahmani2 and Luc P Belzunces1
Pest Manag Sci 60:1056-1062 (online: 2004)
DOI: 10.1002/ps.895

In my opinion, this paper explains a great deal about IMI metabolism.

Christina, please also note that I must address a caveat to all of
Suchail's findings.  The above study found that IMI is very poorly absorbed
through the gut wall, and that most of it makes it to the Malpighian
tubules/rectum to be metabolized to CO2.  But Suchail first dissolved the
IMI in a membrane-penetrating solvent, DMSO, which toxicologists are loathe
to even have in a chemistry lab since it increases the absorption of
toxicants across membranes.  When I asked the EPA risk assessors about
this, they agreed that it puts her studies into question.

The French labs tend us first dissolve IMI in DMSO (which is not used an
any formulations of neonics), whereas other labs simply dissolve it in
water or acetone.  I'm not sure that it makes much of a difference, but you
may wish to keep that fact in mind.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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