http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies
Pesticides: Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation
* Alison Benjamin
* guardian.co.uk,
* Friday May 23 2008
Honeybees
Bees gather around a honeycomb. Photograph: Reso/Rex Features
http://image.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/pictures/2008/05/23/honeycomb-reso-rex460.jpg
Germany has banned a family of pesticides that are blamed for the deaths
of
millions of honeybees. The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection
and
Food Safety (BVL) has suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed
treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweetcorn.
The move follows re****ts from German beekeepers in the Baden-Württemberg
region that two thirds of their bees died earlier this month following the
application of a pesticide called clothianidin.
"It's a real bee emergency," said Manfred Hederer, president of the German
Professional Beekeepers' Association. "50-60% of the bees have died on
average
and some beekeepers have lost all their hives."
Tests on dead bees showed that 99% of those examined had a build-up of
clothianidin. The chemical, produced by Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of
the
German chemical giant Bayer, is sold in Europe under the trade name
Poncho. It
was applied to the seeds of sweetcorn planted along the Rhine this spring.
The
seeds are treated in advance of being planted or are sprayed while in the
field.
The company says an application error by the seed company which failed to
use
the glue-like substance that sticks the pesticide to the seed, led to the
chemical getting into the air.
Bayer spokesman Dr Julian Little told the BBC's Farming Today that
misapplication is highly unusual. "It is an extremely rare event and has
not
been seen anywhere else in Europe," he said.
Clothianidin, like the other neonicotinoid pesticides that have been
tem****arily suspended in Germany, is a systemic chemical that works its
way
through a plant and attacks the nervous system of any insect it comes into
contact with. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency it is
"highly toxic" to honeybees.
This is not the first time that Bayer, one of the world's leading
pesticide
manufacturers with sales of €5.8bn (£4.6bn) in 2007, has been blamed for
killing honeybees.
In the United States, a group of beekeepers from North Dakota is taking
the
company to court after losing thousands of honeybee colonies in 1995,
during a
period when oilseed rape in the area was treated with imidacloprid. A
third of
honeybees were killed by what has since been dubbed colony collapse
disorder.
Bayer's best selling pesticide, imidacloprid, sold under the name Gaucho
in
France, has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers in that country
since 1999, after a third of French honeybees died following its
widespread
use. Five years later it was also banned as a sweetcorn treatment in
France. A
few months ago, the company's application for clothianidin was rejected by
French authorities.
Bayer has always maintained that imidacloprid is safe for bees if
correctly
applied. "Extensive internal and international scientific studies have
confirmed that Gaucho does not present a hazard to bees," said Utz Klages,
a
spokesman for Bayer CropScience.
Last year, Germany's Green MEP, Hiltrud Breyer, tabled an emergency motion
calling for this family of pesticides to be banned across Europe while
their
role in killing honeybees were thoroughly investigated. Her action follows
calls for a ban from beekeeping associations and environmental
organisations
across Europe.
Philipp Mimkes, spokesman for the German-based Coalition Against Bayer
Dangers, said: "We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for
almost 10 years now. This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can
come
into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn't be on the
market."
* guardian.co.uk
Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
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