BEE-L Archives

Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

BEE-L@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Peter Loring Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 4 Dec 2014 18:57:29 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (24 lines)
> Does anyone have access to the full text?

You got most of it. This is the rest:

The scientists at the meeting included Maarten Bijleveld van Lexmond, chairman of the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides, and Piet Wit, chairman of the ecosystems management commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an influential network of scientists and environmental groups.

The Task Force, a group of scientists who advise the IUCN, published a report in June stating that neonicotinoids were "causing significant damage to a wide range of beneficial invertebrate species and are a key factor in the decline of bees".

The Task Force used the report to call on regulators to "start planning for a global phase-out" of neonicotinoids. The present two-year EU ban, which began last December, is due to be reviewed next year using evidence from field trials. Thousands of farmers who use neonicotinoids are hoping that the trials, overseen by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, will show that the risks to bees have been overstated.

Nick von Westenholz, chief executive of the Crop Protection Association, which represents Bayer and Syngenta, manufacturers of neonicotinoids, said: "The work of the Task Force is regularly cited by activists as being strongly independent research, conducted with the utmost scientific rigour.

"From reading this document it looks to me that this group decided on its conclusions first and then embarked on the research to back them up. That clearly flies in the face of claims that the IUCN study represents independent and rigorous science. The claims of the Task Force now seem increasingly suspect and I hope that policymakers will treat these studies with an appropriate degree of caution."

Mr Wit said that the leaked note was accurate but he denied that the scientists had decided the conclusions of the research in advance. Dr Bijleveld van Lexmond, a founding member of WWF in the Netherlands, said that the Task Force was independent and unbiased.

Source Citation 
"Scientists 'fixed evidence' to get pesticides banned." Times [London, England] 4 Dec. 2014: 5. 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

ATOM RSS1 RSS2