Prosecutor Charges Bayer+Syngenta Over Honey Bee Die-Off
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| SETAC Pellston executivesummarypollinators_20sep2011.pdf | 898.78 KB |
| R Mason article on SETAC problems.pdf | 177.8 KB |
Three related events have recently heightened the honeybee issue:
First: Prosecutors in Italy have charged Bayer CropScience and Syngenta - both manufacturers of clothianidin - in honeybee deaths:
- English Translation: Italian magistrate charges Managing Directors of Bayer and Syngenta with bee-killing over clothianidin
- http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12890
- Original in LaStampa, in Italian:
- http://www3.lastampa.it/torino/sezioni/cronaca/articolo/lstp/412940/
Second: Bee Culture Magazine has published a letter from Dr. Rosemary Mason, an independent researcher in the UK and bumblebee expert (who has created a private bumblebee reserve in Wales), that has raised serious questions about USEPA credibility in allowing systemic pesticides to be registered when these products clearly received insufficient testing. She was critical of the report jointly authored by USEPA and Bayer CropScience that emerged from the February 2011 SETAC Pellston conference on systemic pesticides. Please download and read the important article (see linked review above). [Note: I incorrectly attributed this article to Kim Flottum of Bee Culture Magazine in the first post of this entry - sorry Kim!].
Third: The SETAC Pellston conference report, from the 2011 conference on systemic pesticides' risks, in my view, mocks the hard work of scientists around the world.
We have known systemic pesticides were a big risk for many years - yet the SETAC Pellston report (see linked report above) makes "more research" seem prudent. Especially in Europe, lead by the work of researchers in France, The Netherlands and Italy, the problems with systemic pesticides like imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam have been thoroughly researched and better alternatives carefully developed.
It is very insulting that these researchers' efforts are now dismissed, and we somehow need to start over with '...OK, now we need to do more research...' Certainly more research is needed. But more likely, the patent protections on some of these systemic pesticides have ended, and they are less profitable - therefore now industry is willing to compromise on new controls.
I am disgusted with this SETAC Pellston effort. The credibility of this SETAC Pellston conference is very low. Furthermore, the SETAC Pellston process - normally considered credible - must be thoroughly re-considered when it can be manipulated in this bald-faced way.
Conspicuously funded by the pesticides manufacturing industry, in my view the SETAC Pellston process is being used as 'cover' for their huge, obvious and growing responsibility for a large part of the honey bee die-off - and crop losses all over the world. Unfortunately, many governments view SETAC Pellston reports as authoritative, and may not question its findings. Those interested may want to inform their governments - and ask them to reconsider their approvals for the damaging systemic pesticides.
