neonicotinoidi e api

Metto qui sotto un articolo di Linda Mouton Howe del 17 marzo 2012 in cui intervisto', fra gli altri, un esperto italiano sulla questione della moria delle api.

Da:
www.earthfiles.com

Airborne Nicotine-Based Insecticide Residues from
Pneumatic Drilling/Seeding Machines Kill Honey Bees

© 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe

“Experimental results show that the environmental release
of particles containing neonicotinoids can produce high exposure
levels for bees, with lethal effects compatible with colony
losses phenomena observed by beekeepers.”

- Andrea Tappar, Ph.D., Univ. of Padua, Italy

March 17, 2012 Padova, Italy - Back in February 2007, at the beginning of the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the first honey bee grower that Earthfiles interviewed was Dave Hackenberg, owner of Hackenberg Apiaries in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Dave and his family had been raising honey bees for half a century when he was shocked to find in the winter of 2006 to 2007 that nearly 80% of his honey bees disappeared or died. For the first time in his life, Dave went into debt to stay in business.

In our interviews about his honey bee crisis, Dave told me, “We’re trying to stay as far away from all those nicotine-based insecticides as we can until we figure out what this whole problem is about.”

Nicotine-based insecticides produced by Bayer of Germany first came on the world markets in the late 1990s. It didn't take long for farmers to notice that honey bee populations declined where the nicotine-based insecticides such as Imidicloprid were used. That's why Dave Hackenberg was suspicious that neonicotinoid insecticides were causing the honey bee die-offs.

A year later in July 2008, German beekeepers reported that 50 to 100 percent of their hives died after pneumatic equipment was used to spray and plant corn seed covered with nicotine-based insecticide that ended up blowing into the air and contaminating canola fields where the farmers' honey bees were pollinating.

The next year in 2009, Germany suspended authorization to use the nicotine-based insecticide Clothianidin on corn because of growing concerns that neonicotinoid insecticides were killing honey bees.

Then Purdue University scientists in the United States found that dead honey bees in and around hives at several apiaries in Indiana showed the presence of the neonicotinoid insecticides. Other research carried out on honey bees in laboratories has shown that neonicotinoids build up in the central nervous system of the insect, so that very small doses over a long time period can kill honey bees.

Now in the January 31, 2012, issue of the American Chemical Society's journal, Environmental Science & Technology, Italian scientists from the University of Padua report their “Assessment of the Environmental Exposure of Honeybees to Particulate Matter Containing Neonicotinoid Insecticides Coming from Corn Coated Seeds.” See Websites below.

[ Editor's Note]

The science team lead by Andrea Tappar, Ph.D., writes: “Since seed coating with neonicotinoid insecticides [ Clothianidin; Imidicloprid] was introduced in the late 1990s, European beekeepers have reported severe colony losses in the period of corn sowing (spring). As a consequence, seed-coating neonicotinoid insecticides that are used worldwide on corn crops have been blamed for honeybee decline. In view of the currently increasing crop production, and also of corn as a renewable energy source, the correct use of these insecticides within sustainable agriculture is a cause of concern.”

"A probable route of environmental exposure of honeybees to and intoxication with neonicotinoid insecticides, namely, the atmospheric emission of particulate matter containing the nicotine-based insecticide by drilling machines, has been quantitatively studied. Using optimized analytical procedures, quantitative measurements of both the emitted particulate and the consequent direct contamination of single bees approaching the drilling machine during the foraging activity have been determined. Experimental results show that the environmental release of particles containing neonicotinoids can produce high exposure levels for bees, with lethal effects compatible with colony losses phenomena observed by beekeepers.”

In August 2008, the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York environmental advocacy group, filed a lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency accusing the agency of withholding information about the risks pesticides such as the nicotine-based Clothianidin pose to honeybees.

On December 8, 2010, several environmental groups and bee keeping organizations wrote to the EPA citing “imminent hazards” to honey bees in continued use of nicotine-based insecticides and urged the agency to “issue a a stop use order immediately” for Clothianidin. In a response dated February 18, 2011, the EPA declined and stated:

“At this time, we are not aware of any data that reasonably demonstrates that bee colonies are subject to elevated losses due to chronic exposure to this pesticide. Based on EPA’s thorough review of the scientific information, EPA does not intend at this time to initiate suspension or cancellation actions against the registered uses of Clothianidin.”

Contrary to EPA's self-assessment, James Frazier, Ph.D., Professor of Entomology at Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, who began studying Colony Collapse Disorder back in 2007, warns:

“Among the neonicotinoids, Clothianidin is among those most toxic for honey bees; and this combined with its systemic movement in plants has produced a troubling mix of scientific results pointing to its potential risk for honey bees through current agricultural practices. Our own research indicates that systemic pesticides occur in pollen and nectar in much greater quantities than has been previously thought, and that interactions among pesticides.”
EPA gave Clothianidin a “conditional registration” in 2003, when health and safety data are lacking in the case of a new pesticide, allowing companies to sell the pesticide before EPA gets safety data. Unfortunately, it is a common i the Environmental Protection Agency for its Office of Pesticide Programs to allow products to be sold with conditional registrations for many years before test results are completed. The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that of 16,000 current product registrations, 11,000 (68%) have been conditionally registered.

Tom Theobald, owner of Niwot Honey Farm in Niwot, Colorado, told Earthfiles in January 2011, after joining his fellow beekeepers in their urgent request to EPA to ban the use of Clothianidin, “I think fundamentally this is an EPA management failure. The EPA’s fundamental charter is the prevention of unreasonable damage to humans and the environment. Their role is protection. But what has happened is they have turned the environment into the experiment and we have all become the experimental subjects. These things should have been resolved before these products ever went on the market!”

Click on these other Earthfiles Archived reports:

• 01/27/2011 — Updated: Leaked EPA Document Says Bayer's Clothianidin Kills Honey Bees
• 10/28/2010 — Honey Bee Disappearances Not “Solved” by Virus and Fungi
• 05/05/2010 — Updated: U. S. Honey Bee Industry Struggles with 34% Colonies Loss
• 08/31/2008 — Honey Bees Not Healthy in U. S. or U. K.
• 06/28/2007 — Hackenberg Apiary, Pennsylvania - 75-80% Honey Bee Loss in 2007. What Happens If Colony Collapse Disorder Returns?
• 05/04/2007 — Environmental Emergency Updates: Part 1 - Spreading Honey Bee Disappearances - Nosema c
eranae Not the Answer?
• 02/23/2007 — Part 1: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees