Coalition Against Bayer Dangers

COALITION AGAINST BAYER DANGERS

http://www.cbgnetwork.de/2821.html

March 6, 2009

Bee devastation: Campaign for total ban of neonicotinoid pesticides

Bayer managers have known the environmental risks of a pesticide-class called ‘neo-nicotinoids’ since the beginning of the 1990s. The company downplayed the risks, submitted deficient studies to authorities and simply ignored the loss of millions of honey bee colonies across the world. After the death of tens of thousands of colonies in Germany last year, the Coalition against Bayer Dangers brought legal charges against Bayer for knowingly endangering the environment.

Bayer CropScience is the world leader in agro-chemicals. Bayer´s annual pesticide sales amount to €5.8 billion (£4.6bn). Since 1991 Bayer has been producing the insecticide imidacloprid which belongs to the substance class of neo-nicotinoids. Imidacloprid is one of the most-used insecticides in the entire world for arable crops. It is often used as seed-dressing, especially for maize, sunflower, and rape. Imidacloprid is Bayer´s best-selling pesticide in global sales.

Since the patent protection for Imidacloprid has expired in most countries, Bayer brought a similar nicotinoid product, Clothianidin, to the market in 2003. Clothianidin sales last year amounted to 223 million euros. The insecticide is mainly used to coat the seeds of maize and oilseed rape (canola) – and is the main insect-killer used on America’s 88 million acre maize crop. The initial use of neo-nicotinoids coincided in time and geography with the widespread extermination of thousands of bee-colonies; first in France, and later in: Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, England, Slovenia, Greece, Belgium, Canada, the USA and Brazil.

The dangers to bees posed by Imidacloprid and Clothianidin are indisputable. In the data sheets published by the German Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) it is noted: “The substance is classified as dangerous for bees (B1). It may not be applied on flowering plants; this applies also to weeds”. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency imidacloprid and clothianidin are “highly toxic” to honeybees.

Because of their high persistence in the soil neonicotinoids can remain in the ground for several years. For clothianidin a half-life of up to five years has been documented.

Therefore even wildflowers and untreated plants, on whose fields imidacloprid or clothianidin was applied in previous years, can absorb the poison via their roots and can express the insecticide through their pollen and nectar – killing even more bees.

Banned in France
In France imidacloprid has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers since 1999, after 500,000 colonies of French honeybees died after its widespread introduction. Five years later it was also banned as a treatment for maize in France. Clothianidin was never approved in France.

In 2003 the Comité Scientifique et Technique, convened by the French government, declared that the treatment of seeds with imidacloprid leads to significant risks for bees. The 108-page report that was made by order of the French Agricultural Ministry by the Universities of Caen and Metz and by the Institut Pasteur states:

“The results of the examination on the risks of the seeds-treatment Gaucho (imidacloprid) are alarming. The treatment of seeds by Gaucho is a significant risk to bees in several stages of life. Concerning the treatment of maize-seeds by Gaucho, the results are as alarming as with sunflowers. The consumption of contaminated pollen can lead to an increased mortality of care-taking-bees, which can explain the persisting bee-deaths even after the ban of the treatment on sunflowers”.

The studies also showed that even miniscule dosages, just a few parts per billion, could impair honeybees´ learning performance. Residues of imidacloprid in sunflower nectar and pollen were found at potentially hazardous levels that “can affect honeybees´ learning abilities” and impair their memory. When individual bees were exposed to sub-lethal doses, their foraging activity decreased and they became disorientated, which researchers concluded “can temporarily damage the entire colony”.

Approval of Clothianidin
Clothianidin is the successor to Imidacloprid and was brought to the American market in 2003 and the German market in 2006.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s data-sheet states:

“Clothianidin is highly toxic to honey bees on an acute basis (LD50>0.0439 μg/bee). It has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honey bees, as well as other non-target pollinators through the translocation of clothianidin resides in nectar and pollen. In honey bees, the affects of this toxic chronic exposure may include lethal and/or sub-lethal effects in the larvae and reproductive effects on the queen”.

The Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency PMRA even states that

“Clothianidin was determined to be highly toxic to the honey bee, Apis mellifera, on an acute oral basis with a LD50 of 0.00368 μg/bee” which is 1/10 of the quantity the US EPA stated to be harmful to bees.

German beekeepers had already warned of Clothianidin´s risks in 2006. In a letter to the German authorities Manfred Hederer, chairman of the German Beekeepers Federation DBIB, criticized that Bayer’s claims about clothianidin´s “harmlessness”were based on partisan studies. This was confirmed by the Canadian PMRA which judged Bayer´s application for licensing as follows:

Bee deaths in Southern Germany
In May 2008 in southern Germany beekeepers reported that two thirds of their bee colonies died; some beekeepers lost all of their hives. Other pollinating insects such as moths, butterflies and bumblebees decreased likewise. The financial loss for the affected beekeepers was on average about 17.000 euros.

Pathology tests on the dead bees showed that 99% of those examined were contaminated with clothianidin. The chemical had been applied to the seeds of Maize planted along the river Rhine. The Julius Kuehn Institut, a federal research institute dealing with agricultural issues, stated that “Clothianidin is clearly responsible for the death of the bees in parts of Baden-Wuerttemberg”. The German Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) immediately ordered the suspension of the approval for both imidacloprid and clothianidin.

Beekeepers and agricultural officials in Italy, France, Slovenia and Holland noticed similar phenomena in their fields when planting began a few weeks ago. Slovenian and Italian authorities subsequently banned Clothianidin in those countries.

Environmental groups across Europe are demanding a total ban of Imidacloprid and Clothianidin. The Coalition against Bayer Dangers, based in Germany, brought a legal suit against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer Board of Management. Bayer is accused of marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby accepting the mass death of bees all over the world. The Coalition introduced the charge in cooperation with German beekeepers who lost thousands of their hives after the poisoning last year.

MORE FOLLOWS
Press Release, August 25, 2008
Coalition against BAYER Dangers (Germany)

Pesticides cause mass death of bees

Germany: Charge against Bayer´s Board of Management

The German Coalition against Bayer Dangers today brought a charge against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer Board of Management, with the Public Prosecutor in Freiburg (south-western Germany). The group accuses Bayer of marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby knowingly accepting the mass-death of bees all over the world. The Coalition introduced the charge in cooperation with German beekeepers who lost thousands of hives after poisoning by the pesticide clothianidin in May this year.

Since 1991 Bayer has been producing the insecticide Imidacloprid, which is one of the best selling insecticides in the world, often used as seed-dressing for maize, sunflower, and rape. Bayer exports Imidacloprid to more than 120 countries and the substance is Bayer´s best-selling pesticide. Since patent protection for Imidacloprid expired in most countries, Bayer in 2003 brought a similarly functioning successor product, Clothianidin, onto the market. Both substances are systemic insecticides that are absorbed from from the seed and which through the plant into sap, leaves, pollen, nectar and fruit or seeds. The substances get into the pollen and the nectar and can damage beneficial insects such as bees.

The start of the use of Imidacloprid and Clothianidin coincided in time and geography with the large-scale death of entire bee colonies in many European and American countries. Up to 70 per cent of all hives have been affected. In France alone approximately 90 billion bees died within ten years, reducing honey production by up to 60%.

Harro Schultze, attorney of the Coalition against Bayer Dangers said:

“The Public Prosecutor needs to clarify which efforts BAYER undertook to prevent a ban of Imidacloprid and Clothianidin after sales of both substances were stopped in France. We´re suspecting that Bayer submitted flawed studies to play-down the risks of pesticide residues in treated plants”.

In France Imidacloprid has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers since 1999 and in 2003 was also banned as a treatment for Maize. The Comité Scientifique et Technique, convened by the French government, declared that the treatment of seeds with Imidacloprid leads to significant risks for bees. Bayer´s application for Clothianidin was also rejected by French authorities.

Philipp Mimkes, speaker of the Coalition against Bayer-dangers, said:

“Bayer´s Board of Management has to be called to account since the risks of neonicotinoids such as Imidacloprid and Clothianidin have now been known for more than ten years. With an annual sales of nearly 800 million Euros, neo-nicotinoids are among Bayer´s most profitable pesticides. This is the reason why Bayer, despite serious environmental damage, is fighting against any application prohibitions”. The Coalition demands that Bayer withdraw all neonicotinoids from the market worldwide.”

The accusation of flawed studies is confirmed by the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) which judged on Bayer´s Clothianidin application:

“All of the field/semi-field studies, however, were found to be deficient in design and conduct of the studies and were, therefore, considered as supplemental information only. Clothianidin may pose a risk to honey bees and other pollinators, if exposure occurs via pollen and nectar of crop plants grown from treated seeds”. PRMA adds: “It should also be noted that Clothianidin is very persistent in soil, with high carry-over of residues to the next growing season. Clothianidin is also mobile in soil.”

In May 2008 German authorities blamed clothianidin for the deaths of millions of honeybees. The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products, including Clothianidin and Imidacloprid, on maize and rape.

The case is filed by the Public Prosecutor in Freiburg (Tel: +49-(0)761 2050) under the file number 520 UJs 1649/08