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A mother's exposure to pesticides during pregnancy may be linked to rare types of leukemias that are diagnosed in children younger than 2, according to a study from Brazil. The children whose mothers were exposed at home or at work were two to seven times more likely to have one of the two cancers studied than those whose mothers reported no pesticide exposure. Infants younger than 11 months old were up to seven times more likely to have leukemia if their mothers used the insecticide permethrin. The results suggest that women of reproductive age should minimize their pesticide exposure before and during pregnancy and while nursing. This study is important because it focused on children younger than 2 years old and included both work and home exposures. The short time needed for cancers to develop in the infants suggests pre-birth exposures are important for the leukemias studied, the authors note. The findings support previous studies that indicate maternal pesticide exposure may play a role in childhood leukemia. Prenatal pesticide exposure has been linked to leukemia in older children. Few of these studies have looked at infants and toddlers or considered household pesticide use during the prenatal period. Also, most of the studies focused on occupational exposures.

Through seed coatings and granular applications, systemic insecticides pose minimal risk of pesticide drift or worker exposure in agricultural, nurseries and urban settings. Neonicotinoids and fipronil are also preferred because they appear to be less toxic to fish and terrestrial vertebrates. Initially proposed as environmentally friendly agrochemicals, their use in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs has been questioned by recent research that shows their negative impact on predatory and parasitic agents. New formulations have been developed to optimize the bioavailability of neonicotinoids, as well as combined formulations with pyrethroids and other insecticides with the aim of broadening the insecticidal spectrum and avoid resistance by pests. Indeed, as with any other chemical used in pest control, resistance to imidacloprid by whitefly (Bemisia tabaci), cotton aphids (Aphis gossypii) and other pests is rendering ineffective this and other neonicotinoids such as acetamiprid, thiacloprid and nitenpyram. This chapter (attached) examines the negative impacts that systemic insecticides have on organisms, populations and ecosystems. The efficacy of these products in controlling the target pests is assumed and not dealt with here – only the effects on non-target organisms and communities are considered.

Syngenta AG said there aren’t grounds for restricting the use of its Cruiser insecticide after European Commissioner for Health Tonio Borg called for laws which may control the product and sprays from Bayer AG. The Swiss maker of crop chemicals said any constraint on Cruiser, a neonicotinoid pesticide which protects crops from corn to cotton against insects such as beetles and centipedes, would cause significant loss to farmers and the economy, without helping bees. “We believe that a large number of European Member States agree and will make clear their positions in the coming weeks,” Syngenta spokesman Paul Barrett said in an e-mailed statement. Bee populations “are primarily under threat from disease and poor nutrition,” he said, challenging the findings of a European Food Safety Authority report, which said Cruiser threatens bee health. Borg will propose EU-wide legislative measures Jan. 31 on neonicotinoids, which kill bugs by attacking the central nervous system, he told EU ministers in a meeting yesterday. He said the measures would be “inspired by the precautionary principle,” although a total ban would not be justified. Borg’s comments are a blow to Basel-based Syngenta which won sales exceeding $1 billion for Cruiser in 2011, or 7.5 percent of revenue. The crop chemicals-maker is due to report full-year results on Feb. 6.

Two of the UK's biggest home improvement retailers have pledged to remove products from their shelves containing pesticides linked to the decline in the bee population. B&Q and Wickes, two of the best known names in garden centres and DIY, said on Tuesday they would remove products containing neonicotinoids. These chemicals, commonly used as pesticides, have been suspected for years of harming bees, but were identified this year as having a devastating effect on the pollinators. B&Q is banning the only product it sells containing imidacloprid, one of the neonicotinoid family of insecticides, and Wickes will later this year take off products containing the related thiamethoxam compound. Along with a third compound, clothianidin, these are the three neonicotonoids identified by the European Food Safety Authority as threatening serious damage to bees. The move by the retailers comes in response to long-running campaigns from various environmental organisations, who have warned of the links between the pesticides and bee deaths for some time, as studies have suggested links before the EFSA gave its final damning verdict. There will now be increased pressure on other retailers still stocking the products to follow suit.

The European Commission will put forward, on 31 January, a set of legislative measures limiting the use of neonicotinoids on crops attractive to honeybees, such as maize, cotton, rapeseed and sunflowers, in a bid to “ensure an equally high level" of their protection across the EU, Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner Tonio Borg told the Agriculture Council, on 28 January. The decision comes after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a study, on 16 January, identifying “a number of risks posed to bees by three neonicotinoid insecticides” (clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam) commonly used for the production of a number of crops across the EU. “These concerns call for swift and decisive action,” said Borg. However, he ruled out a total ban on neonicotinoids. “Our proposal will call for harmonised and legally binding measures, inspired by the precautionary principle, but also by the principle of proportionality,” Borg said. “In fact, a number of safe uses of these substances as regards bees have been identified by the EFSA. A total ban would not therefore be justified,” he added. A number of countries, including France, Italy and Slovenia, have already put restrictions in place on some uses of neonicotinoids in order to protect bees. “The Commission did not intervene in relation to such measures,” Borg said, underlining that now is the time to approach this issue in a harmonised manner.

Andean condors (Vultur gryphus) are some of the largest birds on Earth, with 10-foot (3 meter) wingspans. They can fly up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) in a single day, and they feed on the remains of dead animals like cattle and other large mammals. The birds inhabit the Andes Mountains, ranging as far north as Colombia and south to Patagonia. There are approximately 10,000 condors left, and they are classified as "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A bill has been introduced to the Peruvian Congress that would protect Andean condors, a huge species of raptor that is in decline and in danger of dying out in some parts of its territory. Backers of the bill would like to do away with an Andean ritual in which condors are strapped to the backs of raging bulls, which conservationists say hurts and kills the birds, according to Andean Air Mail & Peruvian Times, a regional news website. The law would declare the birds a "national treasure" and implement jail sentences for anybody who hurts or kills one.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has belatedly discovered that the most common genetic regulatory sequence in commercial GMOs also encodes a significant fragment of a viral gene. The finding – published quietly in a new journal [1] - has serious ramifications for crop biotechnology and its regulation, but possibly even more so for consumers and farmers. There are clear indications that this viral gene (called Gene VI) might not be safe for human consumption, although the authors fall short of stating that. It also may disturb the normal functioning of crops, including their natural pest resistance. The authors, Nancy Podevin from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Patrick du Jardin at University of Liege in Belgium, discovered that of the 86 different transgenic events (unique insertions of foreign DNA) commercialized to-date in the United States 54 contain portions of Gene VI within them. They all have the regulatory sequence called the CaMV 35S promoter (from the cauliflower mosaic virus CaMV), the most commonly used for driving gene expression in GMOs. The events therefore include some of the most widely grown GM crops all over the world such as Roundup Ready soybeans (40-3-2) and MON810 maize. Also included is the controversial NK603 maize recently reported to cause tumours in rats [2] (see also [3] GM Cancer Warning Can No Longer Be Ignored, SiS 56).

The European Commission has said it will take legislative action to protect honey bees from the effects of neonicotinoids but has ruled out a complete ban. The European Commission said Monday it would draw up "stringent" measures to protect bees from dangers attributed to certain pesticides, but pulled back from an anticipated ban. The European Union executive "will propose a series of ambitious but proportionate legislative measures," said Health and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Tonio Borg. The official said "rapid and decisive" action would be taken to limit the damage caused by three types of insecticides said by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) earlier this month to pose "disturbing" risks. But Borg underlined that "a total ban would not be justified." Bees and other pollinating insects are hugely important for food production, especially of fruit, and "their protection is essential," EFSA said on January 16. It said the so-called neonicotinoid insecticides in question attack the central nervous system of insects, causing paralysis and death. The Commission said it was writing to manufacturers Bayer, Syngenta and Cruiser OSR seeking action, otherwise it would "take the necessary measures," according to Borg's spokesman at the time.

Because they dared to speak out about health and medical disasters they were persecuted by those they attacked. Séralini is the Co-Director of the department of multidiscipline risk management (MRSH- CNRS*) as well as Chairman of the scientific council of the Criigen; last September, he published a toxicological study destroying the official truth about the safety of GMO and of the world’s main herbicide, Monsanto’s Roundup.

After 2 years of cooperation the Deutsche Berufs- und Erwerbsimkerbund (German Association of Professional Beekeepers, DBIB) has decided to withdraw from the Bee Monitoring Project; which involved the Beekeepers, the German Farmers Union and the Pesticide/ Chemical Industry. The reason for our withdrawal from the scheme, is that despite repeated attempts by the DBIB, the German Pesticide Industry refuses to investigate pesticides to the same extent as other factors, which they allege are involved in the mass bee decline. After several beekeepers' representatives protested at this biased approach, Bayer agreed to carry out laboratory investigations into neonicotinoids - which - to nobody's surprise - all produced negative results - i.e. neonicotinoids were not implicated in the death of bees. In the second year of the Bee Monitoring Project the German Chemical Industry simply dropped all investigations regarding the pesticides issue. Instead, it was decided that the samples of dead bees should be frozen, and that these should then only be investigated for pesticide residues when required. This meant that this issue was sidelined. Instead, in the project, big budget cuts were made regarding funding for all possible investigations into illnesses afflicting bees. At a stroke the budget for independent laboratory investigations on pesticides was done away with! There was also no research work to determine which pesticides are used near honey bee colonies. Hence, it transpired that targeted investigations of specific pesticides became impossible. And this allowed the Bee Monitoring Project to happily concentrate on the most important part of the project: the press and PR work! When it came to the Public Relations really impressive work was done.