Tag: neonicotinoid

Interesting Information: Study Links Pesticide To Bee Deaths

Interesting Information:  April 23, 2012

Study Links Pesticide to Bee Deaths

David Abel, in “The Boston Globe,” reported on a recent Harvard Public Health study that made a one-to-one link between bee colony collapse disorder and a chemical in the neonicotinoid family, imidacloprid (April 6, 2012, B1).

Before 2006, Abel notes, “the typical bee colony collapse was between 25 and 30 percent”–a figure which has “doubled since then.”  Imidacloprid was first reviewed by EPA in 2008.

One strategy chemical companies use to prevent chemicals from being banned is to claim a study is faulty, that more study is needed.  Bayer, the German chemical company who sells the most imidacloprid, immediately claimed the study flawed in that too much of the chemical was used in the study.  But, Alex Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology at the Harvard School of Public Health, said “it took only low levels to cause hive collapse, less than is typically used in crops or in areas where bees forage.”  Most importantly, this study clearly linked bee death and colony collapse to imidacloprid.  In other words, there is no question that there is a one to one link here and that the result is bee death.

Imidacloprid is used increasingly in crops such as corn and soybeans.  In Maine, it’s used on “wild” blueberry barrens.  Bees are exposed to imidacloprid both through nectar from the sprayed plants AND through the high-fructose corn syrup with which they are fed.  Charles Benbook, chief scientist of the Organic Center in Boulder, Colorado, and former executive director of the National Academy of Sciences on Agriculture, warned that what’s happening to bees doesn’t just stop with bees:  “People, especially children, consume a lot of high-fructose corn syrup.  The presence of any pesticides in high fructose corn syrup should be a concern for the general public.”

Neonicotinoids act on an insect’s central nervous system.  What do you think it will do to human nervous systems?  Especially when we are learning more and more each day that very small amounts of these chemicals can do a ton of damage.

The Harvard study showed that after 23 weeks of exposure to low levels of imidacloprid, 15 of the 16 treated hives were dead.  Those exposed to higher levels died first.

EPA officials, after the release of this Harvard study, have moved up in their registration schedule so that they will begin a review of imidacloprid by the end of this year.

Parts of France and Italy banned imidacloprid in 2009, and colony collapse disorder there has been substantially reduced.

Bees are our canaries in the coal mines.

Do not eat corn unless it is clearly organic.  Do not eat soybeans, period.  (I’ll write more on that later.)  In addition, both corn and soybeans are likely GMO’d, which is a whole other set of problems for human health.

Turkey Tracks: Green Hive Honey Farm

Turkey Tracks:  January 24, 2011

Green Hive Honey Farm

“Raw Honey From A Thousand Flowers”

 Isn’t this the prettiest jar of honey you ever saw?

From the moment I saw it I fell in love!

 

For the past five years or so, I’ve made a right hand turn onto Wiley Road from Barnstown Road and, in doing so, passed a house where the most amazing flower garden begin to appear.  Last year some time, a friend told me that the occupants of this house, Clay and Mary King, had put in hives and were going to sell honey.  I’m always looking for local, NONHEATED honey, and that’s what the King’s have.  They have hives located in other places besides their yard, each site carefully chosen to support bees.  Last year, the honey bottles were plain.  This year, when Clay brought us a case of honey, here’s the jar that emerged from the box.  I’ll never be able to throw away a single one of these bottles.  That’s for sure.

For those of you who are local and who are reading my blog, this honey is amazing!  You can reach Clay and Mary at greenhivenoney@gmail.com.  Or, 207-542-3399.  The web site is www.greenhivehoney.com.  Clay and Mary, by the way, have a therapeutic massage practice.

For those of you who are not local, I urge you to find a local source of unheated raw honey.  It’s full of things that are good for you that come from your own region, and you’d be supporting someone who is trying to make a difference. 

Raw honey, combined with raw butter, has been used traditionally as a healing compound and for immune support.  I try to eat some every day.   

Strangely, in the way that things come together all at once some times, Paul Tukey of Safe Lawns sent out a posting listed on his blog this week that shares the fact that the lead researcher for the USDA has definitely connected the use of the class of insectsicides called neonicotinoids, which are synthetic nicotines, with the colony collapse of bees–and at, writes Tukey, “doses so low they cannot even be detected by normal scientific procedures.”   Apparently, Jeffrey Pettis (the lead USDA researcher), has known for two years about the neonicotinoids, but said that official publication of his findings has been stalled.  What a surprise!  This story is as old as industry use of chemicals.  Some names of these synthetic nicotines are imidacloprid and clothiandin.  Pettis, writes Tukey, broke his story to a documentary filmmaker rather than to a government source.  That’s interesting…   That’s one way to get around the “stalling.”

Neonicotinoids act on the central nervous system of insects and are thought to have a lower toxicity to mammals because they block a specific neural pathway that is, according to Wikipedia, “more abundant in insects than warm-blooded animals.”   More abundant…  My first thought is that, as with BPA, they don’t really know how dangerous to us these chemicals are.  And, no one is looking since we operate within the notion that harm has to be proved before our government even begins to look–which translates into having enough dead or harmed bodies.   Imidacloprid is systemic.  It amazes me that people can watch chemicals drop bugs and not connect the dots that those same chemicals can have an impact on their systems as well.  Again and again, the history of chemical use demonstrates that “they don’t know.”  Or, if they do and it’s dangerous, they hide it.  So, I have no confidence in our government’s ability to protect us any more.     

Imidacloprid is widely used as an insecticide worldwide–except in France and Germany where folks seem to have started questioning impact.  Imidacloprid is used, says Wikipedia, against “soil, seed, timber, and animal pests” and is used as “foliar treatments for crops including:  cereals, cotton, grain, legumes, potatoes, pome fruits, rice, turf and vegetables.”  That’s a LOT of poison.

Feral honey bee populations in America, writes Wikipedia about pollinator decline, have declined by 90 percent.   And, two-thirds of managed honey bee colonies have disappeared.  Two thirds.  The economic and human hardship potential for disaster if this scenario continues is enormous.  About one-third of human nutrition depends on bee pollination.  Think about it.  We’re talking about the majority of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and crops we feed to animals, like alfalfa and clover. 

Most bees right now are moved around the country to service crops, which stresses them.  Often, they only have access to one crop, like, say, almonds, which also stresses them since they need more variety.  Often, they’re fed in winter with high fructose corn syrup because we’ve taken all their honey.  No wonder, often, they die.

So, my hat’s off to Clay and Mary.  The honey is beautiful, the bottle’s beautiful, the label’s beautiful, and I will support you.