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PostPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:50 am 
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Government Plunder of the Week:
EPA Sued for Bee Colony Collapse Cover-Up
Over the past two years, beekeepers have reported an alarming and potentially catastrophic loss of bees from their hives ranging anywhere from 30-90 percent. This "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD) isn't just a problem for beekeepers and farmers, but for consumers as well, since bee pollination is essential for crop production. The USDA claims that one out of every three mouthfuls of food is dependant on bee pollination. Experts have been researching CCD and have linked the die-off to a number of likely culprits.

One of the likely killers is a new pesticide, clothianidin, approved by the EPA in 2003. Germany and France have banned this type of pesticide to protect their bee population. In the U.S., clothianidin was approved after Bayer CropScience, the chemical's maker, submitted required studies to the EPA regarding the chemical's impact on bees and the environment. Now the EPA is suspiciously and illegally refusing to release these public documents. To expose this cover-up and hopefully to save the bees, last week the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit against the agency.
Learn more here.
Makes me upset. Guess the rest of the link didn't come thru-I'll try to figure out how to post the rest.

Patty


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 11:16 am 
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How sad but unfortunately not surprising. Hopefully if this is the case, we will take necessary action (as the other countries did) to ban it quickly and not bow to big business (again).

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 3:14 pm 
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I'll try to paste the rest of the article.

Patty

EPA is Hiding Colony Collapse Disorder Information
EPA Buzz Kill: Is the Agency Hiding Colony Collapse Disorder Information?
Natural Resources Defense Council, via Common Dreams, August 18, 2008
Straight to the Source


NRDC Forced to Sue to Get Public Records on Bee Mystery

WASHINGTON - August 18 - The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit today to uncover critical information that the US government is withholding about the risks posed by pesticides to honey bees. NRDC legal experts and a leading bee researcher are convinced that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has evidence of connections between pesticides and the mysterious honey bee die-offs reported across the country. The phenomenon has come to be called "colony collapse disorder," or CCD, and it is already proving to have disastrous consequences for American agriculture and the $15 billion worth of crops pollinated by bees every year.

EPA has failed to respond to NRDC's Freedom of Information Act request for agency records concerning the toxicity of pesticides to bees, forcing the legal action.

"Recently approved pesticides have been implicated in massive bee die-offs and are the focus of increasing scientific scrutiny," said NRDC Senior Attorney Aaron Colangelo. "EPA should be evaluating the risks to bees before approving new pesticides, but now refuses to tell the public what it knows. Pesticide restrictions might be at the heart of the solution to this growing crisis, so why hide the information they should be using to make those decisions?"

In 2003, EPA granted a registration to a new pesticide manufactured by Bayer CropScience under the condition that Bayer submit studies about its product's impact on bees. EPA has refused to disclose the results of these studies, or if the studies have even been submitted. The pesticide in question, clothianidin, recently was banned in Germany due to concerns about its impact on bees. A similar insecticide was banned in France for the same reason a couple of years before. In the United States, these chemicals still are in use despite a growing consensus among bee specialists that pesticides, including clothianidin and its chemical cousins, may contribute to CCD.

In the past two years, some American beekeepers have reported unexplained losses of 30-90% of the bees in their hives. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), bees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops grown in America. USDA also claims that one out of every three mouthfuls of food in the typical American diet has a connection to bee pollination. As the die-offs worsen, Americans will see their food costs increase.

Despite bees' critical role for farmers, consumers, and the environment, the federal government has been slow to address the die-off since the alarm bells started in 2006. In recent Congressional hearings, USDA was unable to account for the $20 million that Congress has allocated to the department for fighting CCD in the last two years.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 3:15 pm 
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con't...

"This is a real mystery right now," said Dr. Gabriela Chavarria, director of NRDC's Science Center. "EPA needs to help shed some light so that researchers can get to work on this problem. This isn't just an issue for farmers -- this is an issue that concerns us all. Just try to imagine a pizza without the contribution of bees! No tomatoes. No cheese. No peppers. If you eat apples, cucumbers, broccoli, onions, squash, carrots, avocados, or cherries, you need to be concerned."

Chavarria has spent more than 20 years studying bees, and has published a number of academic papers on the taxonomy, behavior and distribution of native bees.

NRDC filed the lawsuit today in federal court in Washington DC. In documents to be filed next month, NRDC will ask for a court order directing EPA to disclose its information about pesticides and bee toxicity.

More information on CCD can be found at NRDC's www.BeeSafe.org web site.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has 1.2 million members and online activists, served from offices in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Beijing.


CONTACT: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Josh Mogerman at 312/780-7424 jmogerman@nrdc.org

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 9:04 am 
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The urban bee keepers I have been working with tell that powdered sugar is working against the mites. I gave them some empty puffer applicators like the new DE comes in. They are to try and get back with me. They were hopeful it would work well. The irony - once again - is that the non-toxic solution is better than the chemicals that are causing all the trouble.


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