THE TRUTH ABOUT NEONICOTINOID INSECTICIDES, CROP TREATMENTS, BEE DEATHS AND WILDLIFE DEATHS

By: Graham White
Date: 2011-11-30

Dear Editor and Australian Beekeepers/ Bee farmers,

Up here in the UK we have been documenting the spread of so-called CCD - which exactly parallels the introduction of Neonicotioid Systemic Crop Insecticides since 1994.
When Imidacloprid was introduced in France in 1994 - for sunflowers, maize and oilseed rape - the French lost 500,000 colonies in less than two years.  The beekeepers funded their own independent tests at the University of Montpelier - which proved that Imidacloprid killed bees acutely at an exposure of just 3 parts per billion  (3ppb) which is equivalent to one teaspoon dissolved in 1000 metric tonnes of water (an average swimming pool).  Later the same university proved that chronic-sub lethal effects on bees ability to navigate, fly, feed and mate, were evident at 1/50th less exposure than this - a mere 0.1 parts per billion.

The industry denied this of course -but the French banned Imidacloprid in AD2000 and the ban has never been lifted for sunflowers, maize and oilseed rape.

Last week - October 25th 2011- Bayer 'voluntarily' withdrew Imidacloprid from use on over 740,000 acres of the Califoirnia Almond crop; the suspected reason being that one more season of losses on this scale - a million hives a year - would completely finish off the entire bee population of North America.  So they withdrew its use on 740,000 acres - to safeguard their use of other neonicotinoids on the remaining 200 million acres of maize, soya, wheat, barley, sunflowers and oilseed rape.

Clothianidin was introduced in America in 2003 and currently 92 million acres of the American Maize crop is seed-treated with this hyper-toxic bee-poison.  The Americans have lost more than 4,000,000 hives since 2006.

The new super-neonicotinoid is Thiamethoxam - marketed as 'Cruiser'; the entire French beeekeeping industry marched throught the streets of Paris, Grenoble, Lyon and other cities to demand a ban on its introduction. The President of the French beekeepers union - Henri Clement - said "If Cruiser is licensed in France - that will be the end of the beekeeping industry - finis!"

Here in the UK - beekeepers are losing an 'average' of 30%-50% of hives each winter - but many people have lost far more; some have lost 100% - always in areas where neonics are used on arable crops.


*PLEASE HELP INFORM YOUR MEMBERSHIP*

I attach a variety of introductory briefings - plus two historic documents from *Dr Rosemary Mason* - a medical doctor who is also a bumblebee expert in the UK.

Her paper* 'The Truth About The Neonicotinoid Insecticides' *uses the published statements of the regulatory bodies in American, Britain and Europe to prove, beyond any measure of doubt, that:

"This summary proves that the pesticides industry and all of the environmental protection agencies were aware of the following, which up until now, they had consistently denied.
*
*

  *a) That the systemic neonicotinoid pesticides are harmful to bees.*

  *b) That the tests and protocols that had allowed registration of
  the systemic pesticides were not adapted to assess potential hazard
  and risk from this type of pesticide.*

  *c) Despite knowing all this, the Protection Agencies have allowed
  the pesticides industry to keep neonicotinoids on the market.*

  *d) Many of the projects suggested for the future have already been
  done by independent scientists (See page 39 under Research and
  Recommendations).*


In addition, we have found that when clothianidin was conditionally registered in 2003, the US EPA knew it was highly toxic to honey bees on an acute contact basis and it had the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honey bees, as well as other non-target pollinators, through the translocation of clothianidin in pollen and nectar. They also knew it was persistent in soil and had the potential to leach into ground water, as well as surface water. There was also evidence of effects on the rat immune system and that juvenile rats appeared to be more susceptible to these effects"

I hope you can provide this paper on your website and please send it to all your pesticides and agriculture regulators in Australia, in addition to your political reps.

The second paper:/* "Widespread Immune Deficiency in Wildlife"*/ is a hypothesis linking the strange mass-deaths of birds, amphibians, frogs. toads, fish and crustaceans etc to the use of neonicotioids around the world.


*CONCLUSION
If you would like further information please contact me.  I can send you the links to various peer-reviewed studies from France, Italy and Germany which all confirm that neonicotinoids are lethal to bees at levels of exposure which are so low they are in many cases beyond the limits of detection in pathology studies.



*
Hope this is of interest.

Graham White
Beekeeper
Scotland
gwhite122@btinternet.com
44 1890 882 713

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