process

The process of planting can release large amounts of pesticides coated on seeds - as dust. Corn/maize is widely treated with a coating laced with toxins: neonicotinoid pesticides, fungicides and a host of other substances are physically stuck to the grains of corn. This is a brittle substance that breaks off and creates a large dust problem - a toxic dust.

The team of researchers at the University of Padua, Italy, led by Andrea Tapparo has found significant mortality to honeybees as a result of this exposure. This was closely related to the spring-planting die-off blamed in Germany for a honeybee catastrophe several years ago.

This article is accepted - and will be published in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) journal "Environmental Science and Technology."

We have read a pre-print - look for this one to be downloadable soon.