Hi:

We are trying to put together a report that will eventually go to EPA.  The
purpose is to show how bees could be used in the context of EPA's
ecological risk assessments.  Risk assessments try to be more quantitative
than an environmental impact statement.  The good news is that we know more
about bees than most other terrestrial insects.  The bad news is that there
are some big gaps in the available data.  Maybe some of you can help us
fill them - by pointing us toward information resources that we may have
missed.

Ok:

There are lots of publications on pesticides and toxicity to bees.  We have
all of the Atkins, Mayer, Johansen reports and have all of that information
in an ACCESS database.  It appears that many of the international listings
of chemicals found in bees are often a repeat of these -- and virtually all
of the lists in North America simply repeat these information sources.  At
least everyone seems to have adopted the toxicity classifications of how
much chemical expressed as active ingredient per bee is considered to be
non-toxic through highly toxic.

We also know that chemical safety sheets in Europe include "Risk Phrases".
In the R series of risk phrase categories, R 57 is one that addresses
Toxicity to Bees.

Question:

We know other countries do some of their own pesticide testing.  We also
know that some don't like relying on data from the U.S. because of
differences in climates, races of bees, etc.

So, is there some place where one can find a common database that
summarizes the results of toxicity testing with bees in other countries?
Is there a common repository for all chemicals that are subject to R 57?

Question:

Worst case, we find a report that a chemcial is non-toxic, moderately
toxic, highly toxic with no specific values.  Often, we can find an LC50 or
LD50 (the lethal concentration or dose that kills 50% of the bees).
Occassionally, and more often in a paper on a specific test, we get lucky
and find the equation for a regression or the slope and interval for a
probit.  In other words, the is a way to estimate toxicity at different
levels than simply the 50% one, and in some cases, we can get some idea of
how variable (uncertain) the estimates may be.  Using a single "magic"
numbers is called a deterministic approach.  Its easy to do - compare the
exposure you are interested in to the number, if its higher than the LC50
or LD50, you are likely to have a problem.  But real chemicals and bees
vary in how the dose affects the bees, so having some way of estimating the
range of responses (called a probablistic approach) is preferred.

In Europe, risk assessors sometimes calculate a hazard quotient (a ratio of
the LC50 or LD50 to the Active Ingredient of the Chemical).  That's a
deterministic approach.  So far, we haven't found anything better.

So

Question:  Has anyone seen/done/found reports that provide the information
needed to do more probablistic calculations?

Finally, there is a lot of interest in calculating bioaccumulation factors
-- how much is in soil or water or air versus how much is in bees.  We have
done some of this, the Italians and Croatians have also done some of this
for both pesticides and industrial contaminants.

Question:

Are there others who might have the data needed to calculate uptake from
soil or plant or water or air (how much is in the media versus how much
ends up in/on the bee).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jerry


Jerry J. Bromenshenk
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http://www.umt.edu/biology/bees