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From:
Brian Ames <[log in to unmask]>
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:40:17 -0400
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Looks like Canada and Germany are also getting on board the train to take on Bayer and the 
neonictinoids. 


http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2008/2008-08-25-01.asp

German Coalition Sues Bayer Over Pesticide Honey Bee Deaths

FREIBURG, Germany, August 25, 2008 (ENS) - The German organization Coalition against Bayer 
Dangers today brought legal action against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer AG Board of 
Management, by filing a charge against him with the public prosecutor in Freiburg.
The group accuses Bayer CropScience of "marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby accepting 
the mass death of bees all over the world."

The coalition filed the charge in cooperation with German beekeepers who claim they lost 
thousands of hives after poisoning by the Bayer pesticide clothianidin in May.

Since 1991, Bayer has been producing the insecticide imidacloprid, which is one of the best selling 
insecticides in the world, often used as seed-dressing for maize, sunflower, and rape. Bayer 
exports imidacloprid to more than 120 countries and the substance is Bayer's best-selling 
pesticide.

Since patent protection for imidacloprid has expired in most countries, Bayer in 2003 brought a 
similarly functionning successor product, clothianidin, onto the market, the coalition alleges.

Both substances are systemic chemicals that work their way from the seed through the plant. The 
substances get into the pollen and the nectar and can damage beneficial insects such as bees.

The coalition alleges that the start of sales of imidacloprid and clothianidin coincided with the 
occurrence of large scale bee deaths in many European and American countries.

Up to 70 percent of all hives have been affected. In France, approximately 90 billion bees died 
over the past 10 years, reducing honey production by up to 60 percent.

Attorney Harro Schultze, who represents the Coalition against Bayer Dangers said, "The public 
prosecutor needs to clarify which efforts Bayer undertook to prevent a ban of imidacloprid and 
clothianidin after sales of both substances were stopped in France. We're suspecting that Bayer 
submitted flawed studies to play down the risks of pesticide residues in treated plants."

In France, imidacloprid has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers since 1999 and in 2003 
was also banned as a sweet corn treatment.

Convened by the French government, in 2003 the Comité Scientifique et Technique declared that 
the treatment of seeds with imidacloprid leads to significant risks for bees. Bayer's application for 
approval of clothianidin was also rejected by French authorities.

Clothianidin and imidacloprid are two of a relatively new class of insecticides known as 
neonicotinoids that impact the central nervous system of insects.

"Bayer's Board of Management has to be called to account since the risks of neonicotinoids such as 
imidacloprid and clothianidin have now been known for more than 10 years," says Philipp Mimkes, 
spokesman for the Coalition Against Bayer-Dangers.

The coalition is demanding that Bayer withdraw all neonicotinoids from the market worldwide.

"With an annual turnover of nearly 800 million euro, neonicotinoids are among Bayer's most 
important products," said Mimkes. "This is the reason why Bayer, despite serious environmental 
damage, is fighting against any application prohibitions."

The accusation of flawed studies is echoed by the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency 
which said of Bayer's clothianidin application, "All of the field/semi-field studies, however, were 
found to be deficient in design and conduct of the studies and were, therefore, considered as 
supplemental information only.

"Clothianidin may pose a risk to honey bees and other pollinators, if exposure occurs via pollen 
and nectar of crop plants grown from treated seeds," said the Canadian agency.

The agency said, "It should also be noted that clothianidin is very persistent in soil, with high 
carry-over of residues to the next growing season. clothianidin is also mobile in soil."

Germany banned neonicotinoids for seed treatment in May 2008, due to negative affects on bee 
colonies. Beekeepers in the Baden-Württemberg region suffered a severe decline linked to the use 
of clothianidin.

The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety suspended the registration for 
eight pesticide seed treatment products on maize and rapeseed, including clothianidin and 
imidacloprid.

Bayer says the pesticide entered the environment because farmers failed to apply an adhesive 
agent that affixes the compound to the seed coats. Without the fixative agent, Bayer says, the 
compound drifted into the environment from sown rapeseed and sweet corn and then affected the 
honeybees.

"Seed treatments are one of the most targeted and environmentally friendly forms to apply crop 
protection products. We regret the recent bee losses and the situation they have created for the 
beekeepers in Baden-Württemberg," said Dr. Hans-Josef Diehl, head of development and 
registration at Bayer CropScience Deutschland GmbH during an expert hearing on bee losses in 
Karlsruhe, Germany in June.

Dr. Richard Schmuck, an ecologist at Bayer CropScience, said in June, "All studies available to us 
confirm that our product is safe to bees if the recommended dressing quality is maintained. This 
is also shown by the product safety assessments which we have submitted to the registration 
authorities."

"When used correctly," he said, "this crop protection product is safe for operators, consumers and 
the environment and fulfills the international criteria with regard to ecological systems."

In the United States, the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit August 15 in 
federal court in Washington, DC to force the federal government to disclose studies it ordered on 
the effect of clothianidin on honey bees.

Studies on clothianidin were ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from Bayer 
CropScience in 2003 when the EPA granted the company a registration for the chemical.

NRDC attorneys believe that the EPA has evidence of connections between pesticides and the 
mysterious honey bee die-offs reported across the country called colony collapse disorder that it 
has not made public.

Colony collapse disorder has claimed more than one-third of honey bees in the United States 
since it was first identified in 2006.

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