17
Feb
Take Action: Tell EPA To Ban Bee-Killing Pesticide
(Beyond Pesticides, February 17, 2011) Beyond Pesticides is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), during a public comment period (closing February 23) on its review of the neonicotinoid pesticide, clothianidin, to take swift action to cancel the chemical’s registration. Groups are joining together with comments to EPA, citing the extensive science that shows clothianidin’s toxic effects on honey bees.
Beyond Pesticides has drafted comments that it will submit to EPA outlining serious concerns regarding clothianidin. The agency is accepting public comments through February 21, 2012. Tell EPA that because this pesticide is toxic to honey bees and wild pollinators, and has not been properly evaluated in field studies as required it should be banned. Submit comments directly to the EPA docket or sign-on to Beyond Pesticides’ comments.
Clothianidin is in the neonicotinoid family of systemic pesticides, which are taken up by a plant’s vascular system and expressed through pollen, nectar and gutation droplets from which bees forage and drink. Scientists are concerned about the mix and cumulative effects of the multiple pesticides bees are exposed to in these ways. Neonicotinoids are of particular concern because they have cumulative, sublethal effects on insect pollinators that correspond to symptoms of honey bee colony collapse disorder (CCD) —namely, neurobehavioral and immune system disruptions.
Clothianidin has been on the market since 2003. With a soil half-life of up to 19 years in heavy soils, and over a year in the lightest of soils, commercial beekeepers are concerned that even an immediate stop-use of clothianidin won’t save their livelihoods or hives in time.
Beyond Pesticides, in its comments, states
“Honey bees are the most economically valuable pollinator worldwide, and many high-value crops, such as almonds and broccoli, are entirely reliant upon pollination services by commercial beekeepers and their honey bees. Globally, 9.5% of the total economic value of agricultural production for human consumption comes from insect pollination —in 2005, this amounted to just under $200 billion. However, each year since 2006 commercial beekeepers have reported annual losses of 29-36%. Such losses are unprecedented, and approximately double what is considered normal. Like France, Germany, and other European countries, EPA must make a proactive decision against the neonicotinoid class of chemicals. Clothianidin and thiamethoxam [a neonicotinoid precursor that converts to clothianidin in plants and animals] are not only extremely persistent in the environment, but they are highly toxic to bees and other non-target insects. Clothianidin’s use as a systemic pesticide means that every part of the plant is potentially toxic to the honey bee, and can result in widespread contamination of soil and wild plants. We believe the risks posed by clothianidin and other neonicotinoids have been underestimated by the agency, especially given the outstanding honey bee data that have yet to be adequately reviewed. In light of the agency’s mandate in Section 3(c)(7)(A) of [the Federal, Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)] to ensure that pesticides do not pose unreasonable adverse effects on the environment, clothianidin and its parent thiamethoxam should be cancelled.”
Other points outlined in the comments include:
Clothianidin’s Toxicity to Honeybees
Clothianidin, like other neonicotinoids, is an insecticide that is highly toxic to a range of insects, including honey bees and other pollinators. It is particularly dangerous because, in addition to being acutely toxic in high doses, it also results in serious, though sub-lethal, effects when insects are exposed to chronic low doses, as they are through pollen and water droplets laced with the chemical as well as dust that is released into the air when coated seeds are planted. These effects cause significant problems for the health of individual honey bees as well as the overall health of honey bee colonies and they include disruptions in mobility, navigation, feeding behavior, foraging activity, memory and learning, and overall hive activity.
Clothianidin’s Registration Is Unlawful
Clothianidin was initially registered by EPA in 2003 on the condition that the registrant, German chemical manufacturer Bayer, completes and submits a field study demonstrating the chemical’s effects on pollinators. In addition to any registration of clothianidin being a violation of FIFRA’s prohibition of chemicals that pose “unreasonable adverse effects on the environment,” in December 2010 it was revealed that the pollinator study Bayer had submitted had been downgraded by EPA and deemed insufficient to fulfill the field study requirement upon which the chemical’s registration was contingent. However, EPA took no action to ban or restrict clothianidin in light of this development and to this day is not in possession of an acceptable pollinator field study for clothianidin. Thus, following the agency’s own logic, there is no current basis for continuing to allow clothianidin to remain registered.
EPA Is Behind In Its Understanding of Pollinator Effects
Judging by the pollinator data requirements that EPA has stated it is seeking for clothianidin’s registration review, the agency is severely lacking in its understanding of how the chemical affects pollinators, and honey bees specifically. Despite allowing the chemical to be used on thousands of acres of American farmland over the past nine years, there is still a great deal EPA does not know about how bees are exposed to clothiandin and what the consequences of exposure actually are for bee health on the individual, colony, and species level.
The comments also note,
“The rapid disappearance of the honey bees, also dubbed “Colony Collapse Disorder” or CCD, has been observed in the U.S. since 2006. Even though researchers have indicated that there may be several variables associated with CCD, clothianidin, and other chemicals in its class, cannot be ruled out as a major contributor and this must be factored into the agency’s assessment. Honey bees intercept, and are contaminated by, particles on crops and suspended in the air, and retain them in their hair and/or accumulate them in their bodies and hives. Mitigation techniques (e.g. product label restrictions) to prevent honeybees from coming into contact with this highly toxic pesticide once it is used in the environment are highly infeasible. The only way to protect important pollinators is to remove these toxic neonicotinoids from the environment.”
TAKE ACTION: EPA is accepting public comments in the clothianidin docket through February 21, 2012. Tell EPA that because this pesticide is toxic to honey bees and wild pollinators, and has not been properly evaluated in field studies as required, it should be banned. Submit comments directly to the EPA docket or sign-on to Beyond Pesticides’ comments.
For more information on pesticides, honey bees and other pollinators, as well as more you can do, see Beyond Pesticides’ Pollinator Protection web page.
Tell EPA that because this pesticide is toxic to honey bees and wild pollinators, and has not been properly evaluated in field studies as required, it should be banned.
February 17th, 2012 at 10:59 amWithout honeybees, mankind is lost. Do what’s right.
February 17th, 2012 at 2:53 pmPlease, these pesticides are not a manditory requirement for human life.. OUR HONEYBES ARE!
February 17th, 2012 at 3:04 pmEinstein said that if the bees perished, mankind would soon follow. Therefore, STOP killing the bees!!!
February 17th, 2012 at 4:14 pmColony Collapse disorder is a serious problem that needs to be addressed NOW!
February 18th, 2012 at 6:22 pmClothianidin, this pesticide is toxic to honey bees and wild pollinators. Ban Bee-Killing Pesticides NOW!
February 24th, 2012 at 6:50 pmStop killing our bees with pesticides.
March 6th, 2012 at 5:45 pmAll of these chemical pesticides need to be banned permanently. Not only are they threatening our food safety and sovereignty, but they cause serious human health risks, as well as risks to the food chain and pollinators.
April 9th, 2012 at 3:40 pmI concur with the other commments about removing these pesticides. I will also go as far to say we need to take a serious look on how GMO (genetically modified organism) crops are effecting the bee population. A number of studies have been done on animals and humans and its not good.
April 23rd, 2012 at 10:47 amIs there more we can do currently? How can we speak this crisis to ears closed to reason?
April 23rd, 2012 at 11:30 amWe have the oportunity to turn around the destruction of our ecosystem. Dont let it pass us by.
April 23rd, 2012 at 1:39 pmThe evidence is clear. The science is telling us these chemicals must be banned. All countries that have banned them – France, Italy, Germany have seen a recovery in their bee populations. How much more evidence do governments need. You have been elected by the people, now show that what the people say means something! Ban these chemicals without delay.
April 23rd, 2012 at 2:52 pmBees are a vital part of life on earth and to the pollination of flowering trees and plants. Pesticides are killing them. You are n a position to ban these pesticides. Please do before it’s too late.
April 23rd, 2012 at 10:11 pmNeed help. I have a Bee problem at my house. How can I get rid of them? They won’t go away.
April 28th, 2012 at 1:26 pmHey EPA, because of your greed, you had to take paybacks from these corporate monsters, my children and I are suffering allergic reactiones we developed thru the years of ignorantly consuming the end product of the different types of plant foods that contained these pesticides already mixed in the seeds, as well as those that have been genetically modified! That you approved as safe.
May 13th, 2012 at 4:09 pmThere is blood in your hands, that you will never be able to cleanse it for good. You represent us the people, not the greedy corporates that have been able to entice you with their sadistic charm and lies, all those studies were procured by similarly greedy biochemical analysis groups that paid poor people off and then those results altered to make it appear as safe. We know of all your ways of wreacking havoc in the name of the law.
Without pollinators we will lose the ability to grow food in a natural and healthy way, the way nature intended! Bats and bees are dying in droves due to pesticides and we know that because their deaths are so obvious. We don’t know yet about how destructive it is to many other species. You obviously don’t care about the effects your poisons have on your own families not to mention the planet! Stop your pesticide war against nature now!
June 1st, 2012 at 11:16 amThe EPA knows that neonicotinoids is the direct cause of CCD it’s a no brainer , In Greece where these neonicotinoids are not widely used CCD is non existent. They have been taking us on a wild goose chase for years now with viruses being the cause funguses and even cell phones. Give me a break. Give the lobbyist the money they gave you and do your job. The truth will set you free and save the bees.
June 25th, 2012 at 5:16 pm