The following came to me in a circuitous route, from a French paper,
translated in Endland, skipping across the pond to the midwest, then
bouncing to my mailbox in Albany.  Gotta love the internet!  I have no
reason to doubt the source, or the translation, nor do I suspect any
vested interest or ax grinding.  Then again, I don't even know the
source, I have met the translator (a very nice gentleman), and I know
the person who sent it my way (I believe he owes me a beer).  Anyway,
given all the hops, skips and jumps, this might be considered hearsay,
although I suspect it can be either easily verified or debunked.

Aaron Morris - I think, therefore I bee!

Regent TS Insecticide and Bees

Possibilities of unacceptable risks for bees, according to report an
official report from CST (Scientific and Technical Committee)

Bees: The pesticide, Regent TS presents an unacceptable risk

Agence France Presse Friday15 February  PARIS

The pesticide Fipronil, sold under the name Regent TS by the German
chemical Company BASF and prohibited in France since 2004 for maize and
sunflowers, carries "unacceptable risks" to bees, according to an
official report from AFP.

A comparison between bees exposed to different levels of concentration
of Fipronil, has shown evidence of  'worrying' results which 'do not
allow the exclusion of unacceptable risks' to bees, according to this
report by a committee appointed by the French Minister of Agriculture.
This committee had published a report in 2003 on the insecticide
'Gaucho', produced by Bayer, similarly prohibited in 2004 for use on
seeds because of neurological risks which would have presented in bees.
The reduction in the bee population, which presents a danger for
reproduction by pollination of vegetables, has been moderated in France
since the halting of the use of these two substances, but the
controversy has bounced back with the recent endorsement by the
government of a new pesticide, Cruiser.

According to MDRGF (The Movement for the Rights and the Respect of
Future Generations) the report "shows clearly  the inherent danger with
systemic insecticides" (the family to which the three insecticides
Regent, Gaucho and Cruiser belong).

The Movement demands "the immediate suspension of the approval of
'Cruiser' on maize and an undertaking by the government not to approve
these substances".

On its side, AFFSA (The French Agency for the Health Safety of Foods)
carried out a study on 120 colonies of domestic bees to examine the
cause of the death of these insects. "No statistical evidence between
the presence of residues and the populations of adult bees and larvae,
nor with the death of colonies, has been able to be proved" according to
the study by AFFSA, which specified that the results "are based on a
very small number of observations".

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