http://www.naturalnews.com/030921_EPA_pesticides.html
Leaked document: EPA knowingly approved bee-killing pesticide
Wednesday, January 05, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer(NaturalNews) 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.
By now, most people know that honeybees are dying off at an incredibly disturbing rate. Colony collapse disorder (CCD), a condition where bees stray from the hive and never find their way back, is nixing millions of nature's pollinators every year. Previous studies have pinpointed various environmental toxins as the primary culprits, including toxic pesticides like clothianidin (http://www.naturalnews.com/028429_c...).
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.
So if clothianidin poses a significant threat against honey bees, and the EPA has known about this all along, why was it ever approved in the first place? And if Bayer's original safety studies have been shown to be contradictory to actual science, why has the EPA failed to go after Bayer for falsifying safety data? Apparently those who make the final decisions at the EPA have no actual interest in the truth and would rather cater to corporate interests at the expense of public health.
Several European nations have outlawed the use of clothianidin, including Germany, Francy, Italy and Slovenia. U.S. growers of conventional crops, however, continue to use the dangerous chemical thanks to corrupt EPA officials. And when all the honey bees die and there are no pollinators left to grow food, these same EPA officials will be responsible for the mass murder of millions of people.
http://www.greenlivingtips.com/blogs/576/Bees-and-the-Clothianidin-scandal.html
EXCERPT:
By now, most people know that honeybees are dying off at an incredibly disturbing rate. Colony collapse disorder (CCD), a condition where bees stray from the hive and never find their way back, is nixing millions of nature's pollinators every year. Previous studies have pinpointed various environmental toxins as the primary culprits, including toxic pesticides like clothianidin (http://www.naturalnews.com/028429_c...).
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.
So if clothianidin poses a significant threat against honey bees, and the EPA has known about this all along, why was it ever approved in the first place? And if Bayer's original safety studies have been shown to be contradictory to actual science, why has the EPA failed to go after Bayer for falsifying safety data? Apparently those who make the final decisions at the EPA have no actual interest in the truth and would rather cater to corporate interests at the expense of public health.
Several European nations have outlawed the use of clothianidin, including Germany, Francy, Italy and Slovenia. U.S. growers of conventional crops, however, continue to use the dangerous chemical thanks to corrupt EPA officials. And when all the honey bees die and there are no pollinators left to grow food, these same EPA officials will be responsible for the mass murder of millions of people.
http://www.greenlivingtips.com/blogs/576/Bees-and-the-Clothianidin-scandal.html
EXCERPT:
Bees and the Clothianidin scandal
By Green Living Tips | Published 12/11/2010
Beekeepers and environmentalists are demanding the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) remove the pesticide Clothianidin (aka Poncho) from sale. The pesticide has already been banned in Europe and has been linked to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
A leaked EPA memo identifies a core study underpinning the registration of the insecticide clothianidin as unsound - and it's claimed the EPA has known about this since 2003.
The groups calling for the ban believe the initial field study guidelines were insufficiently rigorous to test whether or not clothianidin contributes to CCD. The failings weren't small oversights - the field test evaluated the wrong crops, over an insufficient time period and with inadequate controls according to the claims.
Clothianidin, a Neonicotinoid, has been used extensively on seed. The pesticide is taken up by the plant as it grows and then expressed in pollen, nectar and gutation (water expelled from a plant at night) droplets.
A ban will somewhat be shutting the gate after the horse has bolted as Clothianidin has been widely used on the USA's major crops for eight years already. Unfortunately, the stuff has a half-life of up to 19 years in heavy soils, and over a year in light soils. Given the cumulative effect over 8 years, even if a ban was immediate; the pesticide could wreak havoc for some time to come.
Tom Theobald, beekeeper of 35 years, says the Clothianidin case is by no means isolated and that of 94 pesticide active ingredients released since 1997, 70% have been given conditional registrations, with unanswered questions of unknown magnitude.
I never really understood how important bees were until I started this site. Where once upon a time I would see a bee and think little of it, every bee sighting now is accompanied by a sense of awe and respect.
Bees don't just make honey - they are responsible for pollinating as much as 30% of the U.S. food supply. Colony Collapse Disorder poses a huge threat. Imagine if 1 in 3 pigs started to die under mysterious circumstances - it would be front page headline news. This has been happening with CCD some years, yet it still doesn't appear to be getting the attention it deserves.
The issue of Clothianidin also begs the bigger question - who can we trust to do the right thing by the environment? Why does so much environmental action seem to address issues rather than prevent them?
If we can't trust government to protect us and our planet, if we can't trust corporations to do the right thing - then it's likely game over... the only hope we have is for we, the "unwashed masses", to apply pressure; and that means a massive amount of awareness-raising needs to be done to let people know how bad things are; and not a lot of time to do it in. It makes it harder when so many folks are struggling just to pay the rent and put food on the table - who can blame them for not having the time to dig into environmental issues?
At the risk of sounding paranoid - trust no-one, question everything. Another sad lesson I've learned since starting Green Living Tips is that nothing, and I mean nothing, is as it seems. We're all now caught up in our own web of greed, lies and deceit.
You can read more about the Clothianidin scandal here and Grist also has a very interesting study of the events leading up to the leaked memo.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/honey-bees-dying-scientists-suspect-pesticides-disease-worry/story?id=10191391
The bees have been dying in unusually large numbers, and scientists are trying to figure out why.
"One in every three bites of food you eat comes from a plant, or depends on a plant, that was pollinated by an insect, most likely a bee," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp of Penn State University's College of Agricultural Sciences.
"We're still managing to pollinate all the orchards," he said. "But we're really cutting it close out there."
It has been going on for four years. In 2009 almost 29 percent of the bee colonies in the United States collapsed, say scientists who surveyed commercial beekeepers and brokers. That's slightly less than the 36 percent loss in 2008 and the 32 percent counted in 2007, but an informal survey just finished suggests that the die-off continues. "Something is wrong out there," said David Mendes, a commercial beekeeper near Fort Myers, Fla., who is also president of the American Beekeeping Federation. "It may be something in the agricultural environment that's making them sicker and more vulnerable to illness.
"It didn't used to be like this," he said. "I'm managing to hold my numbers, but it's hard."
"And it's not without cost," he said.
He said he has been buying commercial nutrients to keep his stock healthy -- an expense he has to pass on to the farmers who hire him to help pollinate their crops. Almonds and apples, soybeans and strawberries -- as well as animals that feed on pollinated crops -- may all be a bit more expensive this year because of a shortage of bees to pollinate the trees or vines.
A leaked EPA memo identifies a core study underpinning the registration of the insecticide clothianidin as unsound - and it's claimed the EPA has known about this since 2003.
The groups calling for the ban believe the initial field study guidelines were insufficiently rigorous to test whether or not clothianidin contributes to CCD. The failings weren't small oversights - the field test evaluated the wrong crops, over an insufficient time period and with inadequate controls according to the claims.
Clothianidin, a Neonicotinoid, has been used extensively on seed. The pesticide is taken up by the plant as it grows and then expressed in pollen, nectar and gutation (water expelled from a plant at night) droplets.
A ban will somewhat be shutting the gate after the horse has bolted as Clothianidin has been widely used on the USA's major crops for eight years already. Unfortunately, the stuff has a half-life of up to 19 years in heavy soils, and over a year in light soils. Given the cumulative effect over 8 years, even if a ban was immediate; the pesticide could wreak havoc for some time to come.
Tom Theobald, beekeeper of 35 years, says the Clothianidin case is by no means isolated and that of 94 pesticide active ingredients released since 1997, 70% have been given conditional registrations, with unanswered questions of unknown magnitude.
I never really understood how important bees were until I started this site. Where once upon a time I would see a bee and think little of it, every bee sighting now is accompanied by a sense of awe and respect.
Bees don't just make honey - they are responsible for pollinating as much as 30% of the U.S. food supply. Colony Collapse Disorder poses a huge threat. Imagine if 1 in 3 pigs started to die under mysterious circumstances - it would be front page headline news. This has been happening with CCD some years, yet it still doesn't appear to be getting the attention it deserves.
The issue of Clothianidin also begs the bigger question - who can we trust to do the right thing by the environment? Why does so much environmental action seem to address issues rather than prevent them?
If we can't trust government to protect us and our planet, if we can't trust corporations to do the right thing - then it's likely game over... the only hope we have is for we, the "unwashed masses", to apply pressure; and that means a massive amount of awareness-raising needs to be done to let people know how bad things are; and not a lot of time to do it in. It makes it harder when so many folks are struggling just to pay the rent and put food on the table - who can blame them for not having the time to dig into environmental issues?
At the risk of sounding paranoid - trust no-one, question everything. Another sad lesson I've learned since starting Green Living Tips is that nothing, and I mean nothing, is as it seems. We're all now caught up in our own web of greed, lies and deceit.
You can read more about the Clothianidin scandal here and Grist also has a very interesting study of the events leading up to the leaked memo.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/honey-bees-dying-scientists-suspect-pesticides-disease-worry/story?id=10191391
Honeybees Dying: Scientists Wonder Why, and Worry About Food Supply
A Third of America's Food Depends on Plants Pollinated by Bees and Other Insects
March 25, 2010
No matter where you live -- in a brick Philadelphia row house, the sprawling suburbs of Dallas or an apartment in Seattle -- you depend, more than most of us know, on honeybees raised in California or Florida.
Even if you live in a central city or a sprawling suburb, you depend for your food on the lowly... 
(Workbook Stock/Getty Images)
"One in every three bites of food you eat comes from a plant, or depends on a plant, that was pollinated by an insect, most likely a bee," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp of Penn State University's College of Agricultural Sciences.
"We're still managing to pollinate all the orchards," he said. "But we're really cutting it close out there."
It has been going on for four years. In 2009 almost 29 percent of the bee colonies in the United States collapsed, say scientists who surveyed commercial beekeepers and brokers. That's slightly less than the 36 percent loss in 2008 and the 32 percent counted in 2007, but an informal survey just finished suggests that the die-off continues. "Something is wrong out there," said David Mendes, a commercial beekeeper near Fort Myers, Fla., who is also president of the American Beekeeping Federation. "It may be something in the agricultural environment that's making them sicker and more vulnerable to illness.
"It didn't used to be like this," he said. "I'm managing to hold my numbers, but it's hard."
Trouble in the Fields; Prices at the Checkout Counter
In spring, as the weather warms, Mendes usually trucks the bees he's raised from Florida to Maine to pollinate plants for blueberry farmers, and then to Massachusetts to start the cranberry season. Instead, he's spending a lot of his time trying to raise more bees to make up for the ones he's lost. The numbers bounce back, but it's a lot of work."And it's not without cost," he said.
He said he has been buying commercial nutrients to keep his stock healthy -- an expense he has to pass on to the farmers who hire him to help pollinate their crops. Almonds and apples, soybeans and strawberries -- as well as animals that feed on pollinated crops -- may all be a bit more expensive this year because of a shortage of bees to pollinate the trees or vines.
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dragondeathlord 6/21/10