While EU Acts, EPA Blows Smoke in Bee Death Report

Looking for a smoking gun when it came to the colony collapse disorder afflicting bees, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could only find smoke.

A Report on the National Stakeholders Conference on Honey Bee Health (pdf) asserts that “researchers are increasingly using multi-factorial approaches” in investigating CCD, and lists as contributing factors the parasitic mite Varroa destructor (“the single most detrimental pest”), multiple viruses, bacteria, nutrition, gut microbes, and genetic variation, along with the acute and sublethal effects of pesticides (“a primary concern,” though this is down the list).

Though the EU just voted to “restrict the use of imidacloprid and clothianidin, made by Germany’s Bayer, and thiamethoxam, made by the Swiss company, Syngenta,” for two years until the safety of neonicotinoids could be proved, Jim Jones, acting assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention, was quoted in the New York Times saying: “At E.P.A. we let science drive the outcome of decision making.” The nonsensical Times headline was: “Study Finds No Single Cause of Honeybee Deaths” — it was a report, not a study, and putting it like that is a bit like saying there’s no reason to worry about school slayings because kids die for all sorts of reasons.

Then, when you read the report, however, you can’t help but notice that it says the Varroa mite is “recognized as the major factor underlying colony loss in the U.S. and other countries, but is not associated as a primary factor in colony collapse disorder in the United States.” [Emphasis added.]

No fewer than 30 studies have already proven that neonicotinoids can kill honey bees, or gradually weaken them through sublethal, but cumulative, exposure. The messaging from neonicotinoid proponents, which is remarkably similar to the tack the EPA is taking, is that there is no “silver bullet,” that the science is inconclusive, or that research was performed only in labs and must be tested in field trials. (The silver-bullet delaying tactic is also being used by “gun rights” groups, to argue that since absurdly lethal military-grade weapons aren’t used to kill the majority of people killed with guns, there’s no good reason to restrict their use.)

The claims about the science come down to this — more science demonstrates the dangers of neonicotinoids than their safe use. The demand for field trials is particularly remarkable, since Bayer foot-dragged from 2003 to ’07 in providing a study on clothianidin, only to be told they needed to do a better job. EPA scientists told Bayer then: “This compound is toxic to honey bees. The persistence of residues and potential residual toxicity of Clothianidin in nectar and pollen suggests the possibility of chronic toxic risk to honey bee larvae and the eventual instability of the hive.”

Over at WonkBlog, they noticed some irony in the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency is “erring on the side of certain economic interests,” rather than the environment. This week, the EPA granted an unconditional registration for sulfoxaflor. Here is an excerpt from their risk assessment study:

Bergfield A (2007; MRID 47832102). The acute toxicity of sulfoxaflor (purity 96.6 % w/w) to the honeybee (Apis mellifera) was determined after contact exposure. Adult worker bees were topically exposed to nominal doses of 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 μg a.i./bee and observed for 72 hours. In addition, a dilution water control was tested. There was 7% mortality in the control group with dose-response mortality ranging 3-97% in the treatment groups. No sublethal effects were noted at the end of the test. The 72-hour LD50 was 0.379 μg a.i./bee.

Besides the fact that the EPA, far from reducing the number of pesticides known to kill bees in sufficient dosage, is adding to them, it’s worth noting that this risk assessment sidesteps the danger of systemic pesticides that bioaccumulate. A 72-hour window seems insufficient when studies now show such pesticides remaining active for up to three years.

The EPA’s failure here with regard to basic facts, and to context (the Varroa mite is a significant pest for honeybees, yes, but that doesn’t explain the global pollinator die-off ongoing) is frightening, because the problem extends beyond the insect kingdom. A report commissioned by the American Bird Conservancy found “neonicotinoid contamination levels in both surface and ground water in the United States and around the world are already beyond the threshold found to kill many aquatic invertebrates.”