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The Pesticide Action Network has accused the German chemicals company BASF of buying credibility for industry views within academia, after one of its employee was offered a professorship at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. BASF employee Bernhard van Ravenzwaay will officially get a professor seat at the Dutch agricultural university in exchange for BASF funding, PAN Europe said in statement issued on Thursday (2 May). The environmental organisation said van Ravenzwaay has a track record of studies published with a favourable outcome for the chemical industry, suggesting his university research will be biased. By acquiring a professorship in university, BASF might try to buy credibility for the views of industry. Recently Van Ravenzwaay started defending industry-babies such as TTC (Threshold of Toxicological Concern), which substitutes (expensive) experimental studies by statistics, PAN Europe claimed.

The surface runoff of imidacloprid granular product (GR) from turf surfaces, and imidacloprid emulsifiable concentrate (EC), fipronil suspension concentrate (SC) products and fipronil byproducts from concrete surfaces was investigated during 1h rainfall simulations at 50 mm/h or 25 mm/h with product incubation times of 1.5 h, 1 d, 7 d, and 14 d. About 57.3% of the applied mass of imidacloprid, corresponding to an event mean concentration of 392.0 μg/L, was washed off from the concrete surfaces after 1.5h of incubation. After 1 d, 7 d, and 14 d of incubation on either turf or concrete surfaces, up to 5.9% of the applied mass of pesticide was removed in each of the run-off events. The maximum concentrations of pesticides were observed in the initial fraction of the runoff collected in the first rainfall event. They were 157.8, 3267.8 and 143.3 μg/L for imidacloprid GR, imidacloprid EC and fipronil SC, respectively. Imidacloprid was not persistent on concrete surfaces, with run-off concentrations below detection limits in 7d incubation experiments. The cumulative mass losses of imidacloprid from turf and fipronil from concrete had a linear relation with cumulative surface run-off depth, while cumulative mass losses of imidacloprid from concrete surfaces were better fit by a power function of the cumulative surface run-off depth. The concentrations of fipronil in the runoff from the third rainfall event at 14 d incubation time were still relatively high and ranged from 12.0 to 31.0 μg/L.

Little research has focused on the direct effects of insecticides on plants. Here we demonstrate that applications of neonicotinoid insecticides, one of the most important insecticide classes worldwide, suppress expression of important plant defense genes, alter levels of phytohormones involved in plant defense, and decrease plant resistance to unsusceptible herbivores, spider mites Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae), in multiple, distantly related crop plants. Using cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), corn (Zea mays) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants, we show that transcription of phenylalanine amonia lyase, coenzyme A ligase, trypsin protease inhibitor and chitinase are suppressed and concentrations of the phytohormone OPDA and salicylic acid were altered by neonicotinoid insecticides. Consequently, the population growth of spider mites increased from 30% to over 100% on neonicotinoid-treated plants in the greenhouse and by nearly 200% in the field experiment. Our findings are important because applications of neonicotinoid insecticides have been associated with outbreaks of spider mites in several unrelated plant species. More importantly, this is the first study to document insecticide-mediated disruption of plant defenses and link it to increased population growth of a non-target herbivore. This study adds to growing evidence that bioactive agrochemicals can have unanticipated ecological effects and suggests that the direct effects of insecticides on plant defenses should be considered when the ecological costs of insecticides are evaluated.

The European Commission has decided to ban three neonicotinoid insecticides. These chemicals can harm honeybees, according to a large body of scientific evidence, so the European Environment Agency (EEA) commends the precautionary decision to ban them. The three banned insecticides are clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam. A recent assessment from the European Food Safety Authority also found that there were “high acute risks” from the three insecticides. In the recent EEA report ‘Late Lessons from Early Warnings, volume II’, published in January this year, the EEA considered the body of evidence surrounding imidacloprid from scientific studies, beekeepers and industry, concluding that the chemical should be withdrawn from the market given the evidence of harm and scale of the risk.

Research by Utrecht University has demonstrated a link between the insecticide imidacloprid and the abundance of insects and other invertebrates in surface-water: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062374. The concentration of imidacloprid in surface water was in excess of the limit in almost half the sites monitored by Water Boards in the Netherlands in the past eight years. In one instance, the imidacloprid concentration in surface water was 25,000 times above the limit. On average they found three times less invertebrates in polluted locations than in water that meets the standard. The scientists found that even below the limit of 13 nanogram per litre, imidacloprid still adversely affected aquatic insect life. The data underpin Henk Tennekes' long-standing thesis that ground and surface water contamination with persistent insecticides that cause irreversible and cumulative damage to aquatic and terrestrial (non-target) insects must lead to an environmental catastrophe, as described in chapter 3 of his book "The Systemic Insecticides: A Disaster in the Making", published in November 2010 (attached).

Neonicotinoid is a recently developed insecticide with worldwide use that has been increasing. It acts as a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist. Chloropyridinyl neonicotinoid is a subgroup of neonicotinoid, and are commercially available as imidacloprid, nitenpyram, acetamiprid, and thiadoprid. The maximum residue limits of acetamiprid for fruits and tea leaves are high in Japan, e.g. 5 ppm for grapes and 30 ppm for tea leaves. 6-chloronicotinic acid (6 CNA) is a common metabolite in animals after exposure to chloropyridinyl neonicotinoids, but has not yet been detected in human urine. "Spot" urine samples on the first visit and after were collected from eleven patients 6-52 years-old, who visited X-clinic from August to December in 2008, within 24 hours after symptom onset with unknown origin. Urinary 6 CNA was detected in six out of the eleven patients (IC positive group), by ion chromatography and identified in twenty specimens of these six patients by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS), maximum 84.8 microg/L from the first visit to the 20th visit. The sensitivity of ion chromatography for LC/MS was 45%, and the specificity was 100%. The IC positive group showed headache, general fatigue, finger tremor, and short time memory disturbance in 100%, fever (> 37.0 C), cough, palpitation, chest pain, stomachache, myalgia/muscle spasm/muscle weakness in 83%, heart rate abnormality (sinus tachycardia, sinus bradycardia, or intermittent WPW syndrome) in 83%, high domestic fruits intake > 500 g/day) in 83%, high tea beverage intake (>500 ml./day) in 66%. Five patients who were not among the IC positive group showed<80%, <40%, 60%, 60%, 20%, respectively. The patients gradually recovered through supportive therapy and the restriction of fruits and tea intake within several days to two months. In conclusion, urinary 6-chloronicotinic acid, a common metabolite of chloropyridinyl neonicotinoid insecticide, was detected for the first time, from six patients with subacute nicotinic symptoms.

A clear majority of EU countries have supported the European Commission proposal to temporarily ban three pesticides that are scientifically shown to be harmful to bees: imidacloprid and clothianidin, produced by chemical company Bayer, and thiamethoxam, produced by Syngenta. The following member states voted against the European Commission proposal: CZ, IT, HU, RO, SK, AT, PT, UK. The following member states abstained: IE, EL, LT, FI. The other member states were in favour. Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director Marco Contiero said: “Today’s vote makes it crystal clear that there is overwhelming scientific, political and public support for a ban. Those countries opposing a ban have failed. Now, the Commission must draw the only conclusion possible and immediately halt the use of these pesticides as a first step to protect European food production and ecosystems. Any further delay would mean giving in to the lobbying muscle of Bayer and Syngenta.” The three pesticides are all neonicotinoids, pesticides that are used to coat seeds before germination, added to soil or sprayed on plants. Greenpeace European bees campaign coordinator Matthias Wüthrich said: "Bee decline is one of the most obvious and visible effects of a failed industrial farming model, which contaminates our environment and destroys farmers' smartest natural ally - pollinators. European policymakers should shift funding away from chemical-intensive agriculture and promote ecological farming."

One of the best ways to support healthy hives and pollinator protection is to provide ample foraging. Keeping a
garden that provides not just nectar, pollen, and habitats, but also refrains from using toxic pesticides will go a long way towards helping bees and other pollinators. The most widely used garden insecticides are a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids. Attached is a list of common home and garden products containing neonicotinoids.

That this House welcomes the publication of The State of Britain's Larger Moths 2013 (attached), produced by Butterfly Conservation and Rothamsted Research; notes that Britain's moth population has declined seriously in the last 40 years, with over 60 species becoming extinct since 1900; recognises that the findings have serious implications for biodiversity, moths facilitating the pollination of many plants, constituting food for many animals, and acting as indicators of the impact of habitat loss, land-use intensification and global warming; and calls on the Government to ensure that steps are taken by all relevant departments and agencies to reverse the declines highlighted by the report and that funding is found to support concerted action for threatened moths especially those listed in section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, and to ensure continuation of Rothamsted Research's long-running data collection on the moth population in the UK.

In February 2012, EFSA has published an own-initiative opinion on a concept called “Threshold for Toxicological Concern” (TTC). This concept has been heavily promoted by industry, notably the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), a food and biotech lobby group. NGOs including Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe are worried about the impacts of EFSA endorsing this concept, because it would allow for misleading ‘safe levels of exposure’ for many chemicals which have not been fully tested for toxicity (report attached). It now appears that numerous experts on EFSA’s TTC working group have conflicts of interest with the same industry pushing for the TTC approach.