Honeybees exposed to triple threat: the EPA, Bayer, and a toxic pesticide

Buzz kill

Again and again we see FDA officials bowing and scraping to their Big Pharma overlords. Safety? That’s a trivial concern compared to protecting drug company profits.

And now it looks like the Environmental Protection Agency has figured out its own special spin on the FDA’s specialty – and for one of the FDA’s biggest cronies.

Bye bye, “protection!” Hello, profits!

All time low

Over the past few years, EPA officials appear to have gone out of their way to protect the profits of Bayer–one of the largest and most powerful drug companies in the world.

But you see, Bayer doesn’t just make drugs. They also make chemicals for agriculture.

In the mid-90s, a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids was first introduced. This poison doesn’t affect humans or animals (that’s what we’re told, anyway), but it disrupts the nervous systems of insects, causing disorientation and death.

It’s one thing when we’re talking about gypsy moths. But what about honeybees?

After neonicotinoid use began in France in 1995, the number of bees per hive was cut in half in just six years.

In a logical world, that red flag (along with other evidence of the pesticide’s toxicity to bees) would have brought neonicotinoid use to a screeching halt. But an international corporate giant like Bayer isn’t hemmed in by minor nuisances like logic or environmental safety.

In early 2003, Bayer applied for EPA registration of a neonicotinoid called clothianidin. At first the agency balked.

Two months later, EPA officials were suddenly not so deeply concerned with honeybee safety. Hmmm…what could have possibly changed their minds? Maybe something green that has absolutely nothing to do with environment???

I’m just sayin’…

So the EPA gave clothianidin a “conditional registration.” This meant the pesticide could be sold and used without restriction in the U.S. But the “conditional” part required Bayer to conduct a study to examine the effect of clothianidin on the life cycle of honeybees.

And this is EXACTLY what happens with FDA drug approvals. A new drug gets the green light with the promise that safety reviews will follow–as if safety is a just a bothersome formality and not a critical concern.

And how did Bayer respond? Exactly the way drug companies do (after all, they’ve had lots of practice). They took forever, dragged their feet, and finally produced a lame, completely inconclusive study…more than FOUR YEARS later!

And what a mess!

You would have thought they were writing the book on the wrong way to do a study.

First: The study was conducted on canola plants, not corn. Bees LOVE protein-rich corn pollen, but canola pollen doesn’t draw them in as much.

Second: Researchers placed hives in a clothianidin-treated field, and other hives in an untreated control field. But the fields were so close together that bees had easy access to both fields.

So, did the research find any differences in mortality between the two sets of bees? Of course not! Maybe that’s because the two sets became one big set very quickly.

And yet very quietly, with no public notice, the EPA granted clothianidin unconditional registration…THREE YEARS later! And during that entire time the pesticide was used more and more while bee populations continued to drop alarmingly.

And in what looks like an effort to be just as incompetent or underhanded (depending on how you look at it) as their FDA brethren, last month, a leaked document revealed that EPA scientists had strong misgivings about the study’s deficiencies and inconclusive results–the very study agency officials reviewed before giving clothianidin the green light for unconditional registration.

So as clothianidin use widens, what’s potentially at stake?

Well, about 75 percent of all flowering plants (which includes most food crops) require pollination. And while birds and other insects help out with pollination, commercial bee colonies play a huge role in pollinating crops. Remove the honeybee from that picture, and you’ve got the makings of an environmental disaster.

Now, I hope this part won’t shock you too much…in 2009, Bayer reported more than $260 million in clothianidin sales.

Yes, it’s the new greener EPA.

Sources:
“Leaked document shows EPA allowed bee-toxic pesticide despite own scientists’ red flags” Tom Philpott, Grist, 12/10/10, grist.org
“Timeline of a Bee Massacre: EPA Still Allowing Hive- Killing Pesticide” Ariel Schwartz, Fast Company, 12/14/10, fastcompany.com