Leaked document: EPA knowingly approved bee-killing pesticide (Purdue University study)

[lovuian]

http://www.naturalnews.com/030921_EPA_pesticides.html
A Colorado beekeeper recently obtained a leaked document revealing that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) knows a popular crop pesticide is killing off honey bees, but has allowed its continued approval anyway. Despite opposition from its own scientists, EPA officials first gave the a-okay to Bayer CropScience's toxic pesticide clothianidin in 1993 based on the company's own flawed safety studies. But now it has been revealed that the EPA knew all along about the dangers of clothianidin and decided to just ignore them.

And the leaked document, which was written by the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, explains clearly that "[c]lothianidin's major risk concern is to nontarget insects (honey bees)" and that "[a]cute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis." The letter was in response to a request from Bayer to have clothianidin approval expanded for use on cotton and mustard in addition to its other approved uses.

Several European nations have outlawed the use of clothianidin, including Germany, Francy, Italy and Slovenia.

Another source
http://www.fastcompany.com/1708896/wiki-bee-leaks-epa-document-reveals-agency-knowingly-allowed-use-of-bee-toxic-pesticide
Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Document Shows It Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees
Purdue University study
Multiple Routes of Pesticide Exposure for Honey Bees Living Near Agricultural Fields
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3250423/?tool=pubmed

this study is definitely the clincher
Populations of honey bees and other pollinators have declined worldwide in recent years. A variety of stressors have been implicated as potential causes, including agricultural pesticides. Neonicotinoid insecticides, which are widely used and highly toxic to honey bees, have been found in previous analyses of honey bee pollen and comb material. However, the routes of exposure have remained largely undefined. We used LC/MS-MS to analyze samples of honey bees, pollen stored in the hive and several potential exposure routes associated with plantings of neonicotinoid treated maize. Our results demonstrate that bees are exposed to these compounds and several other agricultural pesticides in several ways throughout the foraging period. During spring, extremely high levels of clothianidin and thiamethoxam were found in planter exhaust material produced during the planting of treated maize seed. We also found neonicotinoids in the soil of each field we sampled, including unplanted fields. Plants visited by foraging bees (dandelions) growing near these fields were found to contain neonicotinoids as well. This indicates deposition of neonicotinoids on the flowers, uptake by the root system, or both. Dead bees collected near hive entrances during the spring sampling period were found to contain clothianidin as well, although whether exposure was oral (consuming pollen) or by contact (soil/planter dust) is unclear. We also detected the insecticide clothianidin in pollen collected by bees and stored in the hive. When maize plants in our field reached anthesis, maize pollen from treated seed was found to contain clothianidin and other pesticides; and honey bees in our study readily collected maize pollen. These findings clarify some of the mechanisms by which honey bees may be exposed to agricultural pesticides throughout the growing season. These results have implications for a wide range of large-scale annual cropping systems that utilize neonicotinoid seed treatments.

[benld74]

1. Just BAN the crap like Europe did. They dont have the bee issues US does,,,,,,

[kenny blankenship]

2. As good Democrats we must hope this "Colorado beekeeper" is caught, and soon!

He'll have the Espionage Act thrown at him and a good 50 years in jail to think about what he did.

Secrets are supposed to stay secret. Divulging truth to the world is terrorism.

[lovuian]

3. I agree EPA get off your ass and ban this crap

Purdue University study is damning

[lovuian]

4. kick

:kick:

[tiny elvis]

5. worse than that

the epa has been pretending the die off is a mystery with complex natural causes
as if bees have always been a mite away from extinction

The German bee monitoring has been misused in this discussion again in an attempt to divert attention away from Clothianidin as a suspect. Actually, the whole point of this research project was to perform scientific theatre in order to create the public impression that pesticides are not to blame for colony losses. See my article from a few years ago:

http://www.beekeeping.com/arti...

Over the years, press release after press release went out, claiming, that the scientific data showed, that the varroa mite was the key culprit. The actual data produced by the project were so poor, that the French regulatory body AFFSA dismissed them, when Bayer tried to use them in the approval process.

Just a few months ago, it was discovered, that a significant portion of the varroa data had been misallocated in the database for years. Until very recently, nobody had looked at the data closely enough to discover this glaring error. This is not surprising, since the PR spin for the project was predetermined and the actual data did not matter that much.

The industry goal of regulatory inaction was accomplished and the products stayed on the market until the major disaster in 2008, where the connection became too obvious to deny.

Walter Haefeker
President
European Professional Beekeepers Association
Member of the Board of Directors
German Professional Beekeepers Association
Deutscher Berufs und Erwerbsimkerbund e.V

consider the honey bees and their monetary value
how much less do your governly fathers care for your plight?

[Mimosa]

6. Sad. They don't care if they kill the biosphere. n/t