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Data collected in 2012 by the British Trust for Ornithology showed there were only 3,300 breeding pairs left in the UK. Over the last 14 years, numbers have fallen by 57%. The birds are already on the amber list as a species of conservation concern, but plans to develop in a woodland where they live could threaten the species further. Conservationist Chris Rose said: “Unfortunately developers and politicians don’t care enough to ward off the most obvious threats – Lodge Hill in Kent, Britain’s only woodland specifically designated as a valued breeding site for nightingales, is under threat from developers.” There is a real concern that these native songbirds may disappear forever, with many UK residents never hearing their song. The song of a nightingale is said to be the most beautiful of any British bird.

Prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) require vast expanses of grassland to survive. Agricultural practices are thought to be the prime reason for the bird’s demise. Biologists recognized the precipitous decline nearly 80 years ago. As a result, the state purchased a couple of parcels of property around the Iroquois and Green rivers in northern Illinois. However, the birds eventually disappeared in those areas. Once again the state stepped in, buying property in Marion and Jasper counties, forming the Prairie Ridge State Natural Area in the early 1960s. And, the prairie chicken population remained fairly stable until the past few years. In a last ditch effort to save the residual population, a federal grant was obtained to move 300 prairie chickens from Kansas to Prairie Ridge. The program will introduce 100 birds per year over a three-year span. The first 91 birds, 50 males and 41 females, were released earlier this year. The birds are outfitted with radio telemetry equipment before being released. Early reports from the field are encouraging. Prairie Ridge State Natural Area contains about 4,000 acres of habitat. The long-range plan is to release more birds in areas like Pyramid State Park. According to The Associated Press, the program will cost $520,000.

Pesticides have been linked to Parkinson’s disease, declines in cognitive performance, developmental disorders, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children. Their application has also been tied to environmental issues, such as the collapse of honeybee colonies and the development of resistant pests and weeds. But we know surprisingly little about population-wide health effects of the low doses that are in the foods we eat every day, panelists at the Harvard School of Public Health said Thursday. “We can’t tell for sure if you eat a bowl of salad today for lunch if it will lead to cancer in 10 to 20 years,” said Chensheng Lu, an associate professor of environmental exposure biology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Lu, whose recent research has tracked the mysterious collapse of honeybee colonies to a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, said that broad studies on the effects of pesticide residue in foods are difficult to do. Funding is hard to attract because there isn’t a specific health impact being investigated. Also, there are daunting challenges to designing a scientifically valid study, stemming from the fact that so much of the population has been raised on foods treated with chemicals.

This study aimed to better elucidate reproductive and possible hormonal effects of the fungicide carbendazim (CBZ) through a review of published toxicological studies as well as an evaluation of this fungicide in the Hershberger and uterotrophic assays, which are designed to detect in vivo effects of the sex hormones. The literature review indicates that CBZ induces reproductive and developmental toxicity through alteration of many key events which are important to spermatogenesis. The lower dose of CBZ (100 mg/kg) evaluated in the Hershberger test increased prostate weight compared to control group but did not alter the weight of other testosterone-dependent tissues. In the uterotrophic assay, CBZ did not induce an estrogenic or an antiestrogenic effect. In the literature, it has been reported that CBZ may: 1) alter the levels of various hormones (testosterone, LH, FSH, GnRH); 2) negatively influence testicular steroidogenesis; 3) have androgenic effects acting directly in the androgenic receptors and/or increasing the expression of androgen receptors. Despite the contradictory results reported by the different studies that investigated a possible endocrine mode of action of CBZ, it seems that this fungicide may influence the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad axis in addition to being a testicular toxicant.

A very interesting paper has been issued under the aegis of the UK Royal Society, which however seems highly selective and biased in its ‘interpretations’. While this ‘appears’ to be a neutral assessment of the existing evidence on neonicotinoids and bee deaths, it is in my opinion a government/ science establishment project designed to justify/ bolster the UK government’s position. The involvement of Tjeerd Blacquiere from Wageningen in Holland makes one immediately suspect a rat - as does the involvement of anyone from Rothamsted Research - whose so-called ’scientists’ have served as the shock-troops for the advancement of GM technology, systemic pesticides and the industrialisation of farming in the UK. There are two scientists here from NERC -funded (National Environmental Research Council) research bodies; this is synonymous with UK government. The paper will undoubtedly be used to justify the UK government’s continued support for neonics and for their opposition to a Europe-wide ban.

This spring most Canadian corn and soybean growers will be planting another crop of pesticide-coated seeds, even as researchers raise new warnings that the practice may have deadly side effects for bees and other wildlife. The heated debate around the use of the neonicotinoid-coated seeds, developed by Bayer CropScience and introduced here about a decade ago, has divided farmers, beekeepers and scientists, and turned Canada into a kind of environmental battlefront.

The editor of Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT) uses double standards when it comes to publishing in favour of the industry, Prof. Séralini’s team say. Now the journal’s publisher Elsevier has compelled him to publish a right of reply by the Séralini team. More than a year after its publication, the editor of Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT), Dr A. Wallace Hayes, retracted the long-term toxicity study on two Monsanto products, the NK603 GM maize and its associated herbicide Roundup by Séralini et al. He did so despite the fact that he found neither fraud nor conscious misinterpretation in the study. In a new article published in FCT, following pressure from the journal’s publisher Elsevier, the scientists explain why they do not accept Dr Hayes’ conclusion. They denounce the lack of scientific validity of the reasons given for the reatraction, explain why the Sprague-Dawley rat strain used is appropriate, and describe the statistical results in depth concerning the blood and urine parameters affected, proving that the liver and kidney pathologies and the mammary tumours are solidly based.

Since 1995, neonicotinoid insecticides have been a critical component of arthropod management in potato, Solanum tuberosum L. Recent detections of neonicotinoids in groundwater have generated questions about the sources of these contaminants and the relative contribution from commodities in U.S. agriculture. Delivery of neonicotinoids to crops typically occurs as a seed or in-furrow treatment to manage early season insect herbivores. Applied in this way, these insecticides become systemically mobile in the plant and provide control of key pest species. An outcome of this project links these soil insecticide application strategies in crop plants with neonicotinoid contamination of water leaching from the application zone. In 2011 and 2012, our objectives were to document the temporal patterns of neonicotinoid leachate below the planting furrow following common insecticide delivery methods in potato. Leaching loss of thiamethoxam from potato was measured using pan lysimeters from three at-plant treatments and one foliar application treatment. Insecticide concentration in leachate was assessed for six consecutive months using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Findings from this study suggest leaching of neonicotinoids from potato may be greater following crop harvest in comparison to other times during the growing season. Furthermore, this study documented recycling of neonicotinoid insecticides from contaminated groundwater back onto the crop via high capacity irrigation wells. These results document interactions between cultivated potato, different neonicotinoid delivery methods, and the potential for subsurface water contamination via leaching.

EFSA has published new guidance that enables scientists to carry out a specialised aspect of environmental exposure assessment for pesticides. The guidance document provides a clear methodology for evaluating studies that measure the time required for the actual degradation of 50 % of a chemical pesticide and its transformation products in soil. This is known as the DegT50 value. Importantly, it allows users to exclude the effects of dissipation, another process that causes pesticide residues to disappear from soil. The guidance is aimed primarily at risk assessors and industry applicants and allows them to derive DegT50 values, critical information for the safety evaluation of pesticides. EFSA has developed the guidance document as part of its ongoing work in the field of pesticides to safeguard the environment. The methodology can be also applied to chemicals released into soil from non-pesticide uses.