Bayer's top-selling pesticides continue to cause bee deaths worldwide
Coalition against BAYER Dangers (Germany) | 23.11.2011 18:29 | Animal Liberation | Ecology | Health | Cambridge | World
Bayer's accountability in the phenomenon known as the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is among the cases to be heard at the Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) Session on Agrochemical Transnational Corporations (TNCs), a landmark international opinion tribunal that will try the six largest agrochemical TNCs for various human rights violations, to be held from December 3 to 6, 2011.
http://www.agricorporateaccountability.net/en/post/media-resources/43
http://www.agricorporateaccountability.net/en/post/media-resources/43
3.- 6. December: Permanent Peoples´ Tribunal at Bangalore/India
Bayer's top-selling pesticides continue to cause bee deaths worldwide
http://www.agricorporateaccountability.net/en/post/media-resources/43
23 November 2011 -- The worrisome deaths of bee populations worldwide is likely to continue as the German agrochemical company Bayer remains unrestricted in its manufacture and sale of neonicotinoid pesticides.
Bayer's accountability in the phenomenon known as the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is among the cases to be heard at the Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) Session on Agrochemical Transnational Corporations (TNCs), a landmark international opinion tribunal that will try the six largest agrochemical TNCs for various human rights violations, to be held from December 3 to 6, 2011.
"Bee deaths are a global problem, so it is crucial to discuss this issue and to find solutions on an international level. It is encouraging that the PPT as a global initiative is addressing this problem, which is both an environmental and an economic threat," said Philipp Mimkes, spokesperson of the Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, a Germany-based public interest group.
Mimkes revealed that imidacloprid (product name Gaucho) and clothianidin (product name Poncho) remain Bayer's top-selling pesticides, despite the fact that this class of pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, is strongly linked to CCD.
In 2010, Gaucho sales were valued at US$ 820 million while Poncho sales were valued at US$ 260 million. Gaucho ranks first among Bayer's best-selling pesticide, while Poncho ranks seventh. "This is the reason why Bayer, despite the serious environmental damage they cause, is fighting tooth and nail against any application prohibition of neonicotinoids," said Mimkes.
In Europe, many dangerous uses of neonicotinoids have been banned. Germany, Italy, France and Slovenia have stopped the use of Gaucho and Poncho as a seed dressing for corn, their most important application. However, the use of these pesticides is unrestricted in many countries, including the U.S. where one-third of the bee population has died every year since 2006.
Honeybees pollinate over 70 out of 100 crops that provide 90% of the world's food. They pollinate most fruits and vegetables-including apples, oranges, strawberries, onions and carrots. The declining bee population thus has potentially serious impacts on food security and livelihood of farmers. It can also affect the range of food crops that can be grown and consequently the nutritional value and variety of our food supply.
Decline of bee populations
CCD is used to described the drastic decline of bee populations across the world, which started in the mid-1990s. This was also the same period when neonicotinoids were introduced in the market. In 1994, honeybee populations started dying in France, and later in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, England, Slovenia, Greece, Belgium, Canada, U.S., Brazil, Japan, and India.
Neonicotinoids are a class of pesticides that are chemically related to nicotine. They are taken up by a plant's vascular system and released through pollen, nectar and water droplets from which bees then forage and drink.
While CCD is likely caused by a combination of many factors including the stresses of industrial beekeeping and loss of habitat, many scientists believe that exposure to pesticides is a critical factor. Neonicotinoids are of particular concern because they have cumulative, sublethal effects on bees and other insect pollinators. These effects include neurobehavioral and immune system disruptions that correspond to CCD symptoms.
CCD has severe impacts on the livelihoods of beekeepers around the globe. In the U.S., where beekeeping industry is valued at US$ 15 billion, losses due to CCD are estimated to be from 29 to 36 percent per year.
In 1991, Bayer began producing imidacloprid, which is now one of the most widely used insecticides for field and horticultural crops, especially maize, sunflower, and rape. In 1999, however, France banned imidacloprid as a seed dressing for sunflowers, after a third of French honeybees died following its widespread use. Five years later, it was also banned as a corn treatment.
Bayer then produced clothianidin, a successor to imidacloprid. This was brought into the American market in 2003, and the German market in 2006. Clothianidin is also a neonicotinoid and highly toxic to honeybees.
A recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report described the Bayer pesticides clothianidin and imidacloprid as a risk to numerous animals. It revealed that these chemicals potentially cause toxic chronic exposure to non-target pollinators, as well as animals such as cats, fish, rats, rabbits, birds and earthworms. "Laboratory studies have shown that such chemicals can cause loss of sense of direction, impair memory and brain metabolism, and cause mortality," the UNEP report said.
Due to their high level of persistence, neonicotinoids can remain in the soil for several years. Thus, even untreated crops planted in fields where the pesticides were previously used can take up the toxins from the soil via their roots.
In 2008 in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Southern Germany, two thirds of the honeybee population along the Rhine River died when dust from the clothianidin seed treatment on corn drifted onto neighbouring fields as the corn was been sown. This resulted in an average loss of 17,000 Euros for affected beekepers. Tests on the dead bees showed that 99 percent had a build-up of clothianidin. Butterflies and other useful insects disappeared at the same.
Aggressive push to stop neonicotinoids
Mimkes' group has been campaigning against neonicotinoids since 1997, when the hazards of neonicotinoids were more or less unknown to the broader public. He said that it is about time that Bayer is aggressively pushed to stop the manufacture and sale of these pesticides, and is made accountable for the economic loss and environmental damage brought by their products.
"The most important development is that today there are thousands of reports, articles and studies around the world about the correlation of exposure to pesticides such as imidacloprid and clothianidin, and the widespread decline of bees. Beekeepers and environmental groups in many countries have become active, and have pressed governments and authorities to protect bees," he said.
Environmental and beekeeping associations worldwide have gathered 1.2 million signatures to demand that clothianidin be removed from the market, which were presented to Bayer's Chief Executive Officer during a shareholder's meeting. The signature campaign was prompted by the public leak of an internal memo from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which confirms the risk that the pesticide poses to bees and describes Bayer safety studies to be inadequate.
The EPA in 2003 provided "conditional registration" to clothianidin, pending Bayer's conduct of a chronic life cycle study on its effect on bees. Bayer asked for more time to finish its research, during which period it extensively sold the product. Bayer finally submitted its study in 2007, which the EPA declared as "scientifically sound" and used as a basis for the continued registration of clothianidin.
But the leaked EPA memo revealed that EPA granted Bayer permission to conduct its study on canola, instead of corn-a crucial distinction, since canola is a minor crop compared to corn. Furthermore, the studies were conducted on test fields that were too small and close together. With bees foraging in a range of up to six miles, it thus seemed most likely that the test bees dined outside of the test fields, the memo further said.
The upcoming PPT Session on Agrochemical TNCs will include in its indictment governments and institutions that in several instances colluded with agrochemical TNCs in violations of the right to life, health, and livelihood, among other basic human rights.
According to Mimkes, "Previous PPTs have helped to put pressure on companies, so we hope that it brings additional momentum for the campaign to stop the mass death of bees."
The PPT has its historical roots in the tribunals on the Vietnam War and Latin American dictatorships. In the more recent era of corporate globalisation, PPTs have tackled and exposed TNCs which operate above national laws and can commit human rights violations with impunity.
The PPT Session on Agrochemical TNCs is the first to target Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow Chemical, DuPont, and BASF or the six companies currently in control of the world's food and agricultural system
More info on the Tribunal: www.agricorporateaccountability.net/en/page/general/20
Bee devastation: Campaign for total ban of neonicotinoid pesticides
Coalition against BAYER Dangers
www.CBGnetwork.org (in English)
CBGnetwork@aol.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Coordination-gegen-BAYER-Gefahren-CBG/127538777294665
Tel: (+49) 211-333 911 Fax: (+49) 211-333 940
please send an e-mail to receive the English newsletter "Keycode BAYER" free of charge
Advisory Board
Prof. Juergen Junginger, designer
Prof. Dr. Juergen Rochlitz, chemist, former member of the German parliament
Wolfram Esche, attorney
Dr. Sigrid Müller, pharmacologist
Prof. Rainer Roth, social scientist
Eva Bulling-Schroeter, member of the German parliament
Prof. Dr. Anton Schneider, biologist
Dr. Janis Schmelzer, historian,
Dr. Erika Abczynski, pediatrician
Please support us. Our international campaigns are expensive to run. We receive no public support and depend entirely on your donations.
Please send checks to:
CBG, Postfach 15 04 18, 40081 Duesseldorf, Germany
or by bank transfer to bank account number 8016 533 000 at GLS Bank, Germany
sort code: 430 609 67
BIC/SWIFT Code: GENODEM1GLS
(Bank Identifier Code)
IBAN: DE88 4306 0967 8016 5330 00
(International Bank Account Number)
Please note that bank transfers within Europe are usually no more costly than within your own country, if you quote the BIC and IBAN numbers
Bayer's top-selling pesticides continue to cause bee deaths worldwide
http://www.agricorporateaccountability.net/en/post/media-resources/43 23 November 2011 -- The worrisome deaths of bee populations worldwide is likely to continue as the German agrochemical company Bayer remains unrestricted in its manufacture and sale of neonicotinoid pesticides.
Bayer's accountability in the phenomenon known as the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is among the cases to be heard at the Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) Session on Agrochemical Transnational Corporations (TNCs), a landmark international opinion tribunal that will try the six largest agrochemical TNCs for various human rights violations, to be held from December 3 to 6, 2011.
"Bee deaths are a global problem, so it is crucial to discuss this issue and to find solutions on an international level. It is encouraging that the PPT as a global initiative is addressing this problem, which is both an environmental and an economic threat," said Philipp Mimkes, spokesperson of the Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, a Germany-based public interest group.
Mimkes revealed that imidacloprid (product name Gaucho) and clothianidin (product name Poncho) remain Bayer's top-selling pesticides, despite the fact that this class of pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, is strongly linked to CCD.
In 2010, Gaucho sales were valued at US$ 820 million while Poncho sales were valued at US$ 260 million. Gaucho ranks first among Bayer's best-selling pesticide, while Poncho ranks seventh. "This is the reason why Bayer, despite the serious environmental damage they cause, is fighting tooth and nail against any application prohibition of neonicotinoids," said Mimkes.
In Europe, many dangerous uses of neonicotinoids have been banned. Germany, Italy, France and Slovenia have stopped the use of Gaucho and Poncho as a seed dressing for corn, their most important application. However, the use of these pesticides is unrestricted in many countries, including the U.S. where one-third of the bee population has died every year since 2006.
Honeybees pollinate over 70 out of 100 crops that provide 90% of the world's food. They pollinate most fruits and vegetables-including apples, oranges, strawberries, onions and carrots. The declining bee population thus has potentially serious impacts on food security and livelihood of farmers. It can also affect the range of food crops that can be grown and consequently the nutritional value and variety of our food supply.
Decline of bee populations
CCD is used to described the drastic decline of bee populations across the world, which started in the mid-1990s. This was also the same period when neonicotinoids were introduced in the market. In 1994, honeybee populations started dying in France, and later in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, England, Slovenia, Greece, Belgium, Canada, U.S., Brazil, Japan, and India.
Neonicotinoids are a class of pesticides that are chemically related to nicotine. They are taken up by a plant's vascular system and released through pollen, nectar and water droplets from which bees then forage and drink.
While CCD is likely caused by a combination of many factors including the stresses of industrial beekeeping and loss of habitat, many scientists believe that exposure to pesticides is a critical factor. Neonicotinoids are of particular concern because they have cumulative, sublethal effects on bees and other insect pollinators. These effects include neurobehavioral and immune system disruptions that correspond to CCD symptoms.
CCD has severe impacts on the livelihoods of beekeepers around the globe. In the U.S., where beekeeping industry is valued at US$ 15 billion, losses due to CCD are estimated to be from 29 to 36 percent per year.
In 1991, Bayer began producing imidacloprid, which is now one of the most widely used insecticides for field and horticultural crops, especially maize, sunflower, and rape. In 1999, however, France banned imidacloprid as a seed dressing for sunflowers, after a third of French honeybees died following its widespread use. Five years later, it was also banned as a corn treatment.
Bayer then produced clothianidin, a successor to imidacloprid. This was brought into the American market in 2003, and the German market in 2006. Clothianidin is also a neonicotinoid and highly toxic to honeybees.
A recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report described the Bayer pesticides clothianidin and imidacloprid as a risk to numerous animals. It revealed that these chemicals potentially cause toxic chronic exposure to non-target pollinators, as well as animals such as cats, fish, rats, rabbits, birds and earthworms. "Laboratory studies have shown that such chemicals can cause loss of sense of direction, impair memory and brain metabolism, and cause mortality," the UNEP report said.
Due to their high level of persistence, neonicotinoids can remain in the soil for several years. Thus, even untreated crops planted in fields where the pesticides were previously used can take up the toxins from the soil via their roots.
In 2008 in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Southern Germany, two thirds of the honeybee population along the Rhine River died when dust from the clothianidin seed treatment on corn drifted onto neighbouring fields as the corn was been sown. This resulted in an average loss of 17,000 Euros for affected beekepers. Tests on the dead bees showed that 99 percent had a build-up of clothianidin. Butterflies and other useful insects disappeared at the same.
Aggressive push to stop neonicotinoids
Mimkes' group has been campaigning against neonicotinoids since 1997, when the hazards of neonicotinoids were more or less unknown to the broader public. He said that it is about time that Bayer is aggressively pushed to stop the manufacture and sale of these pesticides, and is made accountable for the economic loss and environmental damage brought by their products.
"The most important development is that today there are thousands of reports, articles and studies around the world about the correlation of exposure to pesticides such as imidacloprid and clothianidin, and the widespread decline of bees. Beekeepers and environmental groups in many countries have become active, and have pressed governments and authorities to protect bees," he said.
Environmental and beekeeping associations worldwide have gathered 1.2 million signatures to demand that clothianidin be removed from the market, which were presented to Bayer's Chief Executive Officer during a shareholder's meeting. The signature campaign was prompted by the public leak of an internal memo from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which confirms the risk that the pesticide poses to bees and describes Bayer safety studies to be inadequate.
The EPA in 2003 provided "conditional registration" to clothianidin, pending Bayer's conduct of a chronic life cycle study on its effect on bees. Bayer asked for more time to finish its research, during which period it extensively sold the product. Bayer finally submitted its study in 2007, which the EPA declared as "scientifically sound" and used as a basis for the continued registration of clothianidin.
But the leaked EPA memo revealed that EPA granted Bayer permission to conduct its study on canola, instead of corn-a crucial distinction, since canola is a minor crop compared to corn. Furthermore, the studies were conducted on test fields that were too small and close together. With bees foraging in a range of up to six miles, it thus seemed most likely that the test bees dined outside of the test fields, the memo further said.
The upcoming PPT Session on Agrochemical TNCs will include in its indictment governments and institutions that in several instances colluded with agrochemical TNCs in violations of the right to life, health, and livelihood, among other basic human rights.
According to Mimkes, "Previous PPTs have helped to put pressure on companies, so we hope that it brings additional momentum for the campaign to stop the mass death of bees."
The PPT has its historical roots in the tribunals on the Vietnam War and Latin American dictatorships. In the more recent era of corporate globalisation, PPTs have tackled and exposed TNCs which operate above national laws and can commit human rights violations with impunity.
The PPT Session on Agrochemical TNCs is the first to target Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow Chemical, DuPont, and BASF or the six companies currently in control of the world's food and agricultural system
More info on the Tribunal: www.agricorporateaccountability.net/en/page/general/20
Bee devastation: Campaign for total ban of neonicotinoid pesticides
Coalition against BAYER Dangers
www.CBGnetwork.org (in English)
CBGnetwork@aol.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Coordination-gegen-BAYER-Gefahren-CBG/127538777294665
Tel: (+49) 211-333 911 Fax: (+49) 211-333 940
please send an e-mail to receive the English newsletter "Keycode BAYER" free of charge
Advisory Board
Prof. Juergen Junginger, designer
Prof. Dr. Juergen Rochlitz, chemist, former member of the German parliament
Wolfram Esche, attorney
Dr. Sigrid Müller, pharmacologist
Prof. Rainer Roth, social scientist
Eva Bulling-Schroeter, member of the German parliament
Prof. Dr. Anton Schneider, biologist
Dr. Janis Schmelzer, historian,
Dr. Erika Abczynski, pediatrician
Please support us. Our international campaigns are expensive to run. We receive no public support and depend entirely on your donations.
Please send checks to:
CBG, Postfach 15 04 18, 40081 Duesseldorf, Germany
or by bank transfer to bank account number 8016 533 000 at GLS Bank, Germany
sort code: 430 609 67
BIC/SWIFT Code: GENODEM1GLS
(Bank Identifier Code)
IBAN: DE88 4306 0967 8016 5330 00
(International Bank Account Number)
Please note that bank transfers within Europe are usually no more costly than within your own country, if you quote the BIC and IBAN numbers
Coalition against BAYER Dangers (Germany)
e-mail:
CBGnetwork@aol.com
Homepage:
www.CBGnetwork.org
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
Bayer, Monsanto, and Hoechst Originate from Name Changed I.G.Farben.
25.11.2011 08:29
Union Jack
BAYER / I.G FARBEN / CARL DUISBERG and so on and on
25.11.2011 19:40
The Coalition won a six year court battle when Bayer tried to silence us legally (see the full text of the German Supreme Court´s decision). (also very interesting!!)
FROM ASPIRIN TO FORCED LABOR
When most of us hear the brand name “BAYER” we think of Aspirin. But BAYER, based in Leverkusen, Germany is a major producer of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and plastics. The company has 120,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of some 28 billion Euro. BAYER has a long history of giving profits precedence over human rights and a sound environment. During the first World War the company invented Chemical Warfare ("moisture gas"). BAYER was part of IG FARBEN, which cooperated closely with the nazis.
IG FARBEN´s subsidiary DEGESCH manufactured Zyklon B, the poison gas used in the gas chambers. In the late 30´s organophosphates (sarine, tabun) were introduced, after the war marketed by BAYER as pesticides (E 605). Today BAYER is the second largest pesticide manufacturer worldwide. IG FARBEN was broken up into BASF, BAYER and Hoechst (now called Aventis), but the three firms still cooperate closely and exert a large influence on German and European politics.
USELESS & HAZARDOUS
BAYER is best known for Aspirin and for the antibiotic Cipro, but it has also provided many useless and dangerous medicines. In 1898 BAYER introduced Heroine as a cough medicine "without side-effects" and marketed the drug for decades inspite of the well-known dangers of addiction. Ten years ago the company admitted foreknowledge in selling HIV-tainted blood clotting products which infected thousands of hemophiliacs. Last year BAYER was forced to withdraw one of its leading pharmaceutical products, the anti-cholesterol drug Baycol or Lipobay, which was linked to over 100 deaths. Even BAYER´s flagship product, Aspirin, which is marketed as preventing heart attacks and strokes, has its problems: in Western countries more people die from side-effects of acetyl salicylic acid than of AIDS.
CORPORATE LOBBYING
BAYER leverages its economic clout in the political arena. The company is a member of hundreds of lobby groups tackling 'trade barriers' like environmental or health & safety laws. The European Round Table of Industrialists effectively writes big chunks of EU corporate legislation. BAYER also helped set up the Transatlantic Business Dialogue, where European and US multinationals work together to influence policy in the direction of greater liberalisation and deregulation. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, another corporate coterie of which BAYER is part, helped 'hijack' the UN Earth Summits in Rio and Johannesburg, and continues to promote the idea that issues like climate change are safest left in the hands of multinational corporations. Other lobby groups in which BAYER takes an active role are the International Chamber of Commerce and the Global Crop Protection Federation.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
BAYER is among the leading genetically modified (GM) crop companies in Europe, with more than half of the GM crop varieties up for approval for commercial use. If the European moratorium on the commercial growing of GM crops is lifted, BAYER will be set to flood Europe´s fields with GM oilseed rape and maize. In most European countries BAYER will be responsible for the majority of GM field trials over the next year. BAYER is also linked with PPL Therapeutics, the leading company in cloning.
SOLIDARITY AGAINST CORPORATE POWER
Multinational companies are decisively responsible for ecological, social, and political problems all over the world. BAYER is one of the trendsetters in the Chemical Industries and an example of multinational company policy. The Coalition against BAYER-Dangers fights against hazards caused by BAYER and the all-pervading power of this company. Our group unites people and organizations from all over the world. We fight against corporate power and for humane living and working conditions. Almost Thirty years of confronting this influential company have shown us that big corporations put profits before people - even when human lives and the environment are endangered. In our opinion multinational companies need to be controlled independently. Our strength results from international solidarity and cooperation.
Please help us
Our international campaigns are expensive to run. We receive no public support and depend entirely on your donations.
Please send checks to:
CBG, Postfach 15 04 18, 40081 Duesseldorf, Germany
or by bank transfer to bank account number 8016 533 000 at GLS Bank, Germany
sort code: 430 609 67
BIC/SWIFT Code: GENODEM1GLS
(Bank Identifier Code)
IBAN: DE88 4306 0967 8016 5330 00
(International Bank Account Number)
Please note that bank transfers within Europe are usually no more costly than within your own country, if you quote the BIC and IBAN numbers
Something must be done against the power of large companies. We are - with success:
1982: Spectacular exposure of BAYER's involvement in the development and production of chemical weapon VX for the US Army
1983: Participated in organizing of the International Water Tribunal in Rotterdam and drawing up of the suit against BAYER. A prominent jury of international experts found the BAYER group guilty on all points.
1984: The Critical Shareholders first address the shareholders at the BAYER general meeting. This action became an example for many similar actions - also against other large companies and banks. We were involved in the founding of the "Association of Critical Shareholders in Germany" in 1986.
1985: Exposure of the BAYER group's responsibility for the "salad oil scandal" in Spain, which cost thousands of people their lives or their health.
1986: Participated in the "Diluted Acid Blockade" at the BAYER factory in Antwerp. As a result of the blockade, the legislation was changed and BAYER "voluntarily" stopped dumping highly toxic diluted acid in the North Sea.
1987: Protests against building a BAYER factory in the middle of the Australian mud flats. The factory was not built.
1988: Campaign against exploitation and the deprivation of rights of Latin American workers with motto "Repression instead of Wages." BAYER had to rehire fired union workers.
1990: Campaign against the BAYER pesticide LEBAYCID in Greece. The mayor of the island Paxos thanked the CBG for their support in the fight against BAYER. The CBG is a founding member of the Pesticide Action Network (PAN).
1991: Sensational CBG victory in the German Federal Constitutional Court. The CBG achieved a victory that went beyond the conflict with BAYER for freedom of speech and democracy. BAYER failed miserably in their attempt to dismantle democratic rights.
1992: Exposure of deadly work conditions at the BAYER subsidiary CHROME CHEMICALS in South Africa.
1993: Colombian flower harvesters spoke out at the BAYER shareholders meeting against BAYER pesticides.
1994: Actions started against BAYER for the scientific and deadly infection of many thousand hemophiliacs throughout the world with the AIDS virus through contaminated BAYER blood products.
1995: Initiation of the campaign "Never again!" for BAYER and other companies to financially compensate former IG FARBEN forced laborers
1996: The CBG was able to force an ecologically oriented items on the shareholders meeting agenda for the first time in history. A large number of the shareholders that were present sided with the CBG. That was a bitter defeat for BAYER.
The list of our successes is incomplete and contains only a few examples of our work.
CBGnetworker
Homepage:
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/277.html