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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
allen dick <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 21 Dec 2002 00:24:52 -0700
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> I'm not sure anyone really knows just how little imidacloprid will
> have negative effects on bees.

That is precisely the point.  Now that we can detect what were
unimaginably small amounts of substances only a decade ago, we are
starting to realise that even a few stray molecules of some things can
have very significant efffects.

> From what our counterparts in France
> say, even plants grown from seeds that were treated with imidacloprid
> killed bees.  I don't know how to do the math for this, but it has to
> be smaller than 20 ppb, I'd bet money that a French beekeeper would
> take issue with 6 ppb.

Actually, it *was* a French beekeeper who was suggesting 6 ppb a few
years back, in the face of strong resistance, but I suspect that even
that tiny amount may prove to be huge when the compound is fully
understood.

The question of concentration in flesh of toxins due to passage up a
food chain or concentration in water due to evaporation is meaningful,
but perhaps an understanding that places emphasis on concentration,
rather than the basic nature of the substance in question may detract us
from possible trigger-type, key-like or catalytic action mechanisms that
may be less dependant on concentration that on the shape and other
characteristics of the molecule.

Conceivably there could be substances for which zero tolerance must
actually mean zero --  ie. not one molecule!  I'm not seriously
suggesting that the substances currently under discussion here are, in
fact, such compounds, but then again...  what do we really know?

allen

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