Honeybees

Geachte Voorzitter, Hierbij informeer ik u ten eerste over de stand van zaken van het Europees besluitvormingsproces inzake het verbod op neonicotinoïden. Ten tweede ga ik in op de openbaarheid van gegevens in gewasbeschermingsmiddelendossiers en geef vervolgens mijn reactie op het onderzoeksrapport over vertrouwelijke studies over imidacloprid en bijen dat in opdracht van Natuur & Milieu is gemaakt. Dit naar aanleiding van uw verzoeken van 10 en 11 april 2013. Tenslotte informeer ik u over de monitoring van wintersterfte bij bijen. In een reactie schrijft de toxicoloog Henk Tennekes dat staatssecretaris Dijksma behendig laveert tussen de LTO visie (die een beperkte inperking van de toepassingen van een aantal neonicotinoiden in een Europees verband nastreeft) en die van haar eigen partij, de PvdA (die de motie Ouwehand steunde en zich daarmee uitsprak voor een Europees moratorium op alle toepassingen van alle neonicotinoiden). Daarbij verliest ze haar eigenlijke taak, namelijk in te grijpen om grote milieuschade te voorkomen, uit het oog, aldus Tennekes. De belangenorganisatie voor de Nederlandse agrochemische industrie Nefyto betreurt het besluit van de Europese Commissie voor het instellen van een 2-jarig moratorium op toepassingen van 3 neonicotinoïden. De basis voor de industrie om verantwoord investeringen te doen in nieuwe land- en tuinbouwmethoden wordt hierdoor aangetast (bijlage).

The shocking minutes relating to President Putin’s meeting this past week with US Secretary of State John Kerry reveal the Russian leaders “extreme outrage” over the Obama regimes continued protection of global seed and plant bio-genetic giants Syngenta and Monsanto in the face of a growing “bee apocalypse” that the Kremlin warns “will most certainly” lead to world war. According to these minutes, released in the Kremlin today by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation (MNRE), Putin was so incensed over the Obama regimes refusal to discuss this grave matter that he refused for three hours to even meet with Kerry, who had traveled to Moscow on a scheduled diplomatic mission, but then relented so as to not cause an even greater rift between these two nations. At the center of this dispute between Russia and the US, this MNRE report says, is the “undisputed evidence” that a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically related to nicotine, known as neonicotinoids, are destroying our planets bee population, and which if left unchecked could destroy our world’s ability to grow enough food to feed its population.

On April 19, 2011 from 12-1 pm Dr. James C. Nieh spoke about “The Decline and Fall of Bees: Pollinators in Peril” in the Events Room at the Biomedical Library. Honey bees face multiple natural and manmade dangers in their environment. Ironically, they are highly successful because of their use in modern agriculture, yet are suffering because modern agriculture imposes stresses from pesticides, diseases, parasites, and management practices such as mobile beekeeping. The research in Dr. Nieh’s laboratory explores natural threats and, more recently, the effects of pesticides on honey bee foraging. Come learn about the amazing solutions that bees have evolved in response to natural perils and how our use of pesticides may be contributing to their decline.

Landwirtschaftsminister Nikolaus Berlakovich hat in der Bewertung der Neonikotinoide einen abrupten Kurswechsel vollzogen. Während der Ressortchef noch Ende April in Brüssel gegen den Vorschlag der EU-Kommission gestimmt hatte, drei Pflanzenschutzmittel aus der Stoffgruppe der Neonikotinoide zu verbieten, kündigte er diese Woche auf einem „Bienengipfel” in Wien an, doch die Position der EU-Kommission für ein Verbot der umstrittenen Wirkstoffe zu unterstützen. Darüber hinaus soll bei uns mehr in die Forschung und Bienenschutzmaßnahmen investiert werden. Berlakovich hatte Vertreter der Imker, der Landwirtschaft und der Wissenschaft in sein Ministerium eingeladen, um die Diskussion zum den Bienenschutz und den Einsatz von Neonikotinoiden zu versachlichen. Ziel sei es gewesen, beim „Bienengipfel” eine bessere Lösung für alle Beteiligten zu erreichen, die auch die Akzeptanz der Bevölkerung finde, so der Ressortchef. Das sei gelungen.

Sulfoxaflor is a new systemic pesticide from the sulfamine family. While it is not a neonicotinoid, it is systemic pesticide that targets the same neural receptors as the neonicotinoids. Without any prior notice to beekeepers, the EPA announced in June 2012, that it would grant a section 18 (emergency permission to use an unregistered product) for use on cotton in four southern states: Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana. The EPA has recently announced the opening of the public comment period on sulfoxaflor. The EPA plans to grant sulfoxaflor a conditional registration despite many serious unresolved questions as to its safety and consequences not only for the honeybees but for the wider environment as well. Is this a repeat process, or lack thereof, regarding the neonicotinoid, Clothianidin? In this special series called "The Neonicotinoid View", host, June Stoyer talks to beekeeper and bee advocate, Tom Theobald and commercial beekeeper, Jeff Anderson to talk about the controversy surrounding the conditional registration of this pesticide. Listen to the broadcast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2yFdozU_8s&feature=youtu.be

De Nederlandse Bijenhoudersvereniging (NBV) is opgelucht dat de discussie over het gebruik van een aantal neonicotinoïden, denkbare veroorzakers van bijensterfte, in een wat rustiger vaarwater is terecht gekomen. Het door de Europese Commissie opgelegde moratorium van het gebruik van een aantal toepassingen tot eind 2015 geeft gelegenheid tot grondig onderzoek naar de effecten ervan op bijen, ander insectenleven en vogels en de ontwikkeling van modernere testen, nodig voor verantwoorde toelating van dit soort producten op de markt. In een reactie schrijft de toxicoloog Henk Tennekes dat het hoofdbestuur van de NBV met haar tendentieuze houding ten aanzien van de oorzaken van bijensterfte de controverse onder haar leden over de neonicotinoiden alleen maar heeft aangewakkerd en helemaal niets heeft bijgedragen aan het door de Europese Commissie opgelegde moratorium van het gebruik van een aantal toepassingen van neonicotinoiden. De zogenaamde 'opluchting' van de NBV is niets meer dan een ongeloofwaardige constructie om de aansluiting bij het Europese beleid niet te verliezen. Het hoofdbestuur van de NBV heeft ten aanzien van de neonicotinoiden, de grootste bedreiging van insecten ooit, compleet verzaakt en zou dientengevolge af moeten treden, aldus Tennekes.

Honeybee colony losses continue to be unacceptably high. In the US this spring, colonies brought in to California to pollinate almonds from throughout the country, about half of the colonies were lost (New York Times, March 29, 2013). It is generally accepted that multiple pathogens ultimately bring down stressed colonies (Cornman 2012). However the role of pesticide stress on colonies remains controversial. Chronic exposure studies are often poorly constructed and frequently do not follow the exposed insects long enough for effects of the toxin to become evident. The best studies look at mortality, or behavioral effects, over a substantial fraction of the insect’s lifespan while varying the toxin concentration or dose. Time-to-effect studies lend themselves to a simple time dependent “power law” empirical model which can guide expectations for field toxicity effects (Tennekes 2011, Sánchez-Bayo 2009). Other reviews of the toxicity of imidacloprid (Cresswell 2011) attempt to establish specific “acute” or “chronic” levels, but this seems useless if the time of exposure is not explicitly included. Hence, I’ve made an effort to identify relevant time-to-effect studies in the literature most specifically for imidacloprid with insects of order hymenoptera, which includes bees and ants.

On a warm April afternoon in Oakdale — a small farming town in the San Joaquin Valley of California — beekeepers Steve Ellis and Jeff Anderson sit at a dining-room table built for 10 in Anderson’s rural home. Ellis and his bees are visiting from his home base in Minnesota so that the bees can pollinate California almond crops during the Spring, but business is not the only reason for his visit. On the kitchen wall hangs a plaque in the shape of a bumblebee that reads “The Bee Attitudes.” The two men explain their take on beekeepers’ standard view of environmentalists. “Most are kind of philosophically opposed to quote unquote ‘wacko environmental groups,’ says Ellis, a wiry man with gentle eyes who has been keeping bees commercially for 33 years, “because they’re going to be the downfall of the world.” But now the two camps are unlikely partners in a David and Goliath battle. Ellis and a handful of other beekeepers from around the country are teaming up with some of the most powerful and sophisticated environmental groups in the U.S. They’re plaintiffs in a lawsuit, Ellis v. Bradbury, against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop the use of two pesticides that Ellis and other beekeepers believe are killing their bee colonies. The suit not only attempts to eliminate the use of neonicotinoid pesticides containing the ingredients clothianidin and thiamethoxam, which damage the central nervous system of insects, but to challenge the way the EPA approves pesticides. If they win, it could change the way pesticides hit the market. If they lose, Ellis and the others believe it could be the end of beekeeping as we know it.

Der Agrochemiekonzern Syngenta bedauert die Entscheidung der EU-Kommission, eine zweijährige EU-weite Nutzungseinschränkung für Pestizide auf Neonikotinoid-Basis zu verhängen. Der Kommission sei es in der heutigen Abstimmung erneut nicht gelungen die notwendige Unterstützung für ihr geplantes Verbot für diese wichtige Technologie zu erhalten, hält Syngenta in einer Medienmitteilung am Montag fest. Bei einer erneuten Abstimmung in Brüssel hatten die Pläne der Kommission keine qualifizierte Mehrheit erreicht, obwohl das Verbot von 15 der 27 Mitgliedsstaaten unterstützt wurde. Da jedoch auch für eine Ablehnung keine Mehrheit zustande kam, liegt die Entscheidung nun bei der Kommission, die das Verbot befürwortet. Betroffen sind drei synthetische Insektizide (Neonicotinoide) für die Einsatzbereiche Sonnenblumen, Raps, Mais und Baumwolle. Von Syngenta ist das Produkt Thiamethoxam betroffen, von Bayer Imidacloprid und Clothianidin.

In the early 1990s Bayer scientists launched onto the world the chemical weapon from hell; a powerful neurotoxin that, as Dutch toxicologist Dr Henk Tennekes demonstrated (and others have subsequently confirmed), causes a virtually irreversible blockage of postsynaptic nicotinergic acetylcholine receptors in the central nervous system of all invertebrates from pollinators down to soil and aquatic organisms. The pesticides industry stands accused of failure to investigate the hazards of systemic neonicotinoids fully and of failure to establish standard tests and protocols. The protection agencies stand accused of failing to protect human health and the environment.