German Coalition Sues Bayer Over Pesticide Honey Bee Deaths
Environment News Service (ENS), August 25 2008
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2008/2008-08-25-01.asp FREIBURG, Germany - The German organization Coalition against Bayer
Dangers today brought legal action against Werner Wenning, chairman of
the Bayer AG Board of Management, by filing a charge against him with
the public prosecutor in Freiburg.
The group accuses Bayer CropScience of "marketing dangerous pesticides
and thereby accepting the mass death of bees all over the world."
The coalition filed the charge in cooperation with German beekeepers
who claim they lost thousands of hives after poisoning by the Bayer
pesticide clothianidin in May.
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 has expired in most
countries, Bayer in 2003 brought a similarly functionning successor
product, clothianidin, onto the market, the coalition alleges.
Both substances are systemic chemicals that work their way from the
seed through the plant. The substances get into the pollen and the
nectar and can damage beneficial insects such as bees.
The coalition alleges that the start of sales of imidacloprid and
clothianidin coincided with the occurrence of large scale bee deaths
in many European and American countries.
Up to 70 percent of all hives have been affected. In France,
approximately 90 billion bees died over the past 10 years, reducing
honey production by up to 60 percent.
Attorney Harro Schultze, who represents 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 sweet corn
treatment.
Convened by the French government, in 2003 the Comité Scientifique et
Technique declared that the treatment of seeds with imidacloprid leads
to significant risks for bees. Bayer's application for approval of
clothianidin was also rejected by French authorities.
Clothianidin and imidacloprid are two of a relatively new class of
insecticides known as neonicotinoids that impact the central nervous
system of insects.
"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 10 years," says Philipp Mimkes, spokesman for
the Coalition Against Bayer-Dangers.
The coalition is demanding that Bayer withdraw all neonicotinoids from
the market worldwide.
"With an annual turnover of nearly 800 million euro, neonicotinoids
are among Bayer's most important products," said Mimkes. "This is the
reason why Bayer, despite serious environmental damage, is fighting
against any application prohibitions."
The accusation of flawed studies is echoed by the Canadian Pest
Management Regulatory Agency which said of 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," said the Canadian agency.
The agency said, "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."
Germany banned neonicotinoids for seed treatment in May 2008, due to
negative affects on bee colonies. Beekeepers in the Baden-Württemberg
region suffered a severe decline linked to the use of clothianidin.
The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety
suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products
on maize and rapeseed, including clothianidin and imidacloprid.
Bayer says the pesticide entered the environment because farmers
failed to apply an adhesive agent that affixes the compound to the
seed coats. Without the fixative agent, Bayer says, the compound
drifted into the environment from sown rapeseed and sweet corn and
then affected the honeybees.
"Seed treatments are one of the most targeted and environmentally
friendly forms to apply crop protection products. We regret the recent
bee losses and the situation they have created for the beekeepers in
Baden-Württemberg," said Dr. Hans-Josef Diehl, head of development and
registration at Bayer CropScience Deutschland GmbH during an expert
hearing on bee losses in Karlsruhe, Germany in June.
Dr. Richard Schmuck, an ecologist at Bayer CropScience, said in June,
"All studies available to us confirm that our product is safe to bees
if the recommended dressing quality is maintained. This is also shown
by the product safety assessments which we have submitted to the
registration authorities."
"When used correctly," he said, "this crop protection product is safe
for operators, consumers and the environment and fulfills the
international criteria with regard to ecological systems."
In the United States, the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council
filed a lawsuit August 15 in federal court in Washington, DC to force
the federal government to disclose studies it ordered on the effect of
clothianidin on honey bees.
Studies on clothianidin were ordered by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency from Bayer CropScience in 2003 when the EPA granted
the company a registration for the chemical.
NRDC attorneys believe that the EPA has evidence of connections
between pesticides and the mysterious honey bee die-offs reported
across the country called colony collapse disorder that it has not
made public.
Colony collapse disorder has claimed more than one-third of honey bees
in the United States since it was first identified in 2006.