Hi Paul:

> Prejudice. People with this prejudice against synthetic pesticides 
> IMAGINE that exposures to miniscule, trace amounts have 
> far reaching adverse (e.g. sublethal) human and bee health 
> affects that are either undiscovered or have been covered 
> up by the chemical companies.  

I am not an organic farmer.  I have used synthetic pesticides.
When our own potatoes run out I eat local potatoes with a 
maximum allowable residue of 300,000 ppb imidacloprid
without qualms.  The sublethal effects on bees are of tiny
amounts are not undiscovered, they are well documented,
even by Bayer :

Pflanzenschutz-Nachrichten Bayer 52/99,3
Page 290 shows a photo of the conditioned proboscis
extension test investigating "effect of imidacloprid
on the associative learning behaviour of honeybees".
The graph on page 291 (figure 6) shows clear effects
even at the lowest concentration tested (4ppb).  This
concentration is about what Jim Kemp found in canola
following treated potatoes in New Brunswick, and is
less than what Cynthia Scott-Dupree found in treated 
canola in Ontario.  It is also less than amounts found
in treated sunflowers in France.  So sublethal effects 
are discovered and documented.

Nor have I said that there is a coverup by Bayer.
But a four year delay in doing the analyses on samples
from my hives in a study where the control group 
which did not go to canola growing after treated 
potatoes did better than the hives going to canola
fields (by several parameters measured such as 
mortality, weight gain, diseases....) is trying
my patience, and making me wonder.

Regards
Stan

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