permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation
Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 17:54:25 -0400
From: jcummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Pesticides: Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation

  Alison Benjamin  guardian.co.uk, Friday May 23 2008
Germany has banned a family of pesticides that are blamed for the deaths
of millions of honeybees. The German Federal Office of Consumer
Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has suspended the registration for
eight pesticide seed treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweetcorn.

The move follows reports from German beekeepers in the Baden-Württemberg
region that two thirds of their bees died earlier this month following
the application of a pesticide called clothianidin.

"It's a real bee emergency," said Manfred Hederer, president of the
German Professional Beekeepers' Association. "50-60% of the bees have
died on average and some beekeepers have lost all their hives."

Tests on dead bees showed that 99% of those examined had a build-up of
clothianidin. The chemical, produced by Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary
of the German chemical giant Bayer, is sold in Europe under the trade
name Poncho. It was applied to the seeds of sweetcorn planted along the
Rhine this spring. The seeds are treated in advance of being planted or
are sprayed while in the field.

The company says an application error by the seed company which failed
to use the glue-like substance that sticks the pesticide to the seed,
led to the chemical getting into the air.

Bayer spokesman Dr Julian Little told the BBC's Farming Today that
misapplication is highly unusual. "It is an extremely rare event and has
not been seen anywhere else in Europe," he said.

Clothianidin, like the other neonicotinoid pesticides that have been
temporarily suspended in Germany, is a systemic chemical that works its
way through a plant and attacks the nervous system of any insect it
comes into contact with. According to the US Environmental Protection
Agency it is "highly toxic" to honeybees.

This is not the first time that Bayer, one of the world's leading
pesticide manufacturers with sales of €5.8bn (£4.6bn) in 2007, has been
blamed for killing honeybees.

In the United States, a group of beekeepers from North Dakota is taking
the company to court after losing thousands of honeybee colonies in
1995, during a period when oilseed rape in the area was treated with
imidacloprid. A third of honeybees were killed by what has since been
dubbed colony collapse disorder.

Bayer's best selling pesticide, imidacloprid, sold under the name Gaucho
in France, has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers in that
country since 1999, after a third of French honeybees died following its
widespread use. Five years later it was also banned as a sweetcorn
treatment in France. A few months ago, the company's application for
clothianidin was rejected by French authorities.

Bayer has always maintained that imidacloprid is safe for bees if
correctly applied. "Extensive internal and international scientific
studies have confirmed that Gaucho does not present a hazard to bees,"
said Utz Klages, a spokesman for Bayer CropScience.

Last year, Germany's Green MEP, Hiltrud Breyer, tabled an emergency
motion calling for this family of pesticides to be banned across Europe
while their role in killing honeybees were thoroughly investigated. Her
action follows calls for a ban from beekeeping associations and
environmental organisations across Europe.

Philipp Mimkes, spokesman for the German-based Coalition Against Bayer
Dangers, said: "We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids
for almost 10 years now. This proves without a doubt that the chemicals
can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides
shouldn't be on the market."