Insecticides

Les apiculteurs français en sont tout abasourdis : le moratoire européen sur certains usages des néonicotinoïdes semble jusqu’ici avoir été inopérant. Depuis sa mise en place en 2013, l’utilisation de ces insecticides, mis en cause dans l’effondrement du nombre d’abeilles et de pollinisateurs sauvages (bourdons, papillons, etc.), a même explosé.

This chapter focuses on the detrimental effects that pesticides have on managed honey bee colonies and their productivity. We examine first the routes of exposure of bees to agrochemicals used for crop protection and their application to crops, fate and contamination of water and plants around the fields. Most of the time, the exposure of bees to pesticides is through ingestion of residues found in the pollen and nectar of plants and in water. Honey bees are also exposed to pesticides used for the treatment of Varroa and other parasites.

Etwa von Mitte April bis Mitte Mai kann man in Hessen ziehende Braunkehlchen (Saxicola rubetra) beobachten, die aus ihrem Winterquartier, dem subtropischen Afrika kommen. Auf ihren Zugwegen benötigen die Braunkehlchen energiereiche Insektennahrung, so erklärt Werner von der HGON (Hessische Gesellschaft für Ornithologie und Naturschutz). Intensiv bearbeitetes blütenarmes Grünland, darunter Grassaaten, die schon Anfang Mai gemäht werden, prägen auch die landwirtschaftlichen Nutzflächen in der Fuldaaue, so der HGON Arbeitskreisleiter.

New U.S. Geological Survey-led research suggests that even though amphibians are severely declining worldwide, there is no smoking gun -- and thus no simple solution -- to halting or reversing these declines. "Implementing conservation plans at a local level will be key in stopping amphibian population losses, since global efforts to reduce or lessen threats have been elusive," said Evan Grant, a USGS research wildlife biologist who led the study published in Scientific Reports today.

Western pond turtles in Sequoia National Park and other California remote wildlands have been exposed to an assortment of agricultural and industrial contaminants, according to a study from the National Park Service and the University of California, Davis. In the study, published online in the journal Chemosphere, scientists sampled for 57 compounds, including pesticides, in turtles, invertebrates, and sediments from three sites: Sequoia National Park, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, and Six Rivers National Forest.

"Kids are on the frontline in Minnesota," the Pesticide Action Network warns in a recently released report on the effects of children's exposure to pesticides. "Kids are more vulnerable to chemical exposure," Lex Horan of the Pesticide Action Network told a Park Rapids area audience this week. "They haven't developed the biological defense mechanisms. When kids are exposed at a critical moment of development it can have a lifelong effect." The report's review of government health trend data and recent academic research found:

Bei der Bewertung von Pestiziden liefert ein einfaches Modell sicherere Ergebnisse als das aktuell von der EU angewandte. Das belegt eine aktuelle Studie des Instituts für Umweltwissenschaften der Universität Koblenz-Landau und der ETH Zürich. Die Wissenschaftler zeigen, dass zur Risikobewertung von Pestiziden ein weitaus weniger komplexes Box-Modell eine höhere Sicherheit für die Umwelt bieten kann als der von der EU verwendete FOCUS-Modellierungsansatz.

A disturbing analysis of how the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) managed to infiltrate and influence EFSA (European Food Safety Agency) and a wide range of other international regulatory bodies concerned with pesticides, chemicals, food safety and drug safety. ILSI goes to great lengths to present itself as a non-lobbying group, but it is quite clear from its membership, actions and funding sources that it is an extremely focused lobbying group.