Two studies released last week have linked pesticide use to colony collapse disorder in bees, adding to two other studies this year suggesting the same linkage. One study out of Britain and published in the journal Science found bumblebees reacted negatively to neonicotinoid pesticides, which harm the central nervous system. The other study was conducted in France and found the pesticide affected the honing capability of bees to find their hives, even with little exposure. The pesticides in question are made by Bayer CropScience.
The company questions how the British study was conducted and said all studies about pesticide use affecting bees are "oversimplified" and ignore decades of declining bee health. CCD was identified in 2006 and has killed an estimated 20 to 40 percent of U.S. honeybees, reports Rick Wills of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The country could lose $15 billion worth of crops that bees pollinate each year. Beekeepers and several environmental organizations have filed a legal petition asking the Environmental Protection Agency to halt use of some pesticides.
NPR's Dan Charles reports the EPA knew neonicotinoid pesticides were harmful to bees when it approved usage of them in the late 1990s. He writes: "Government regulators, relying in part on studies carried out by Bayer CropScience, came to the conclusion that bees would be exposed to only tiny amounts of the pesticide, well below what's necessary to kill them." The new studies, though -- one of which is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- are starting to prove otherwise. Charles provides a review of this year's CCD and pesticide linkage studies. (Read more)
The company questions how the British study was conducted and said all studies about pesticide use affecting bees are "oversimplified" and ignore decades of declining bee health. CCD was identified in 2006 and has killed an estimated 20 to 40 percent of U.S. honeybees, reports Rick Wills of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The country could lose $15 billion worth of crops that bees pollinate each year. Beekeepers and several environmental organizations have filed a legal petition asking the Environmental Protection Agency to halt use of some pesticides.
NPR's Dan Charles reports the EPA knew neonicotinoid pesticides were harmful to bees when it approved usage of them in the late 1990s. He writes: "Government regulators, relying in part on studies carried out by Bayer CropScience, came to the conclusion that bees would be exposed to only tiny amounts of the pesticide, well below what's necessary to kill them." The new studies, though -- one of which is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- are starting to prove otherwise. Charles provides a review of this year's CCD and pesticide linkage studies. (Read more)
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