Legal Petition Asks EPA to Ban Nicotine-Based Pesticide Clothianidin

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Legal Petition Asks EPA to Ban Nicotine-Based Pesticide Clothianidin

April 27th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Legal Petition Asks EPA to Ban Nicotine-Based
Pesticide Clothianidin

“…EPA continues to permit the sale and use of clothianidin, a neonicotinoid
pesticide, for which EPA is lacking a pollinator field study the agency required
eight years ago as a condition of clothianidin’s registration and as necessary to
support the required ‘no unreasonable environmental effects’ determination.”

– Summary of Emergency Petition filed with EPA, March 21, 2012

Western honey bee, or European honey bee
(Apis mellifera), gathering pollen from purple aster.

April 26, 2012 Washington, D. C. – Colony Collapse Disorder, the disappearance of honey bees in large numbers, began to be reported in fall-winter 2006-2007 and extended all over the United States, Canada, England and other European countries. In my first February 2007 interview about his huge honey bee colony losses, Pennsylvania beekeeper Dave Hackenberg warned then that he suspected nicotine-based pesticides. Since then Italy, France and Germany have restricted or banned nicotine-based insecticides. Scientific research continues to show that even the smallest amounts of nicotine toxins such as imidicloprid and clothianidin kill honey bees and other pollinators.

Now in 2012 as one-third of American commercial honey bee colonies continue to die off each year threatening the viability of almond and other food crop pollinations, the American acreage planted with clothianidin-coated seeds is the largest on record, approaching 200 million acres. Meanwhile over the past decade, the Environmental Protection Agency has ignored its own internal scientists’ warnings first revealed in a November 2, 2010, leaked internal document to Colorado honey beekeeper Tom Theobald. That leaked EPA memo stated that the nicotine-based pesticide clothianidin manufactured by Bayer Corp., Germany, “is highly toxic to honey bees.” [ See Archived January 27, 2011 Earthfiles.]

EPA Leaked Memo in November 2010
“Clothianidin is highly toxic to honey bees.”

1st page of 101-page EPA memorandum dated November 2, 2010, from the Environmental
Fate and Effects Division to the Risk Managers and Branch Chief of the Insecticide-Rodenticide Branch Registration Division on the subject of “Clothianidin Registration of Prosper T400
Seed Treatment on Mustard Seed (Oilseed and Condiment) and Poncho/Votivo
Seed Treatment on Cotton.” Memo leaked to Niwot Honey Farm
owner Tom Theobald, Niwot, Colorado. See entire EPA Memo PDF.

Top paragraph, Page 2, November 2, 2010, EPA leaked memo.

So Why Has EPA Granted Bayer Corp. “Conditional Registrations” to Sell Clothianidin in the United States?

Violating its own regulations, EPA has repeatedly granted “conditional registrations” to Bayer Corp. to sell clothianidin in the United States WITHOUT accurate field research with genuine data concerning clothianidin’s safety.

Emergency Citizen Petition to the EPA

Finally on March 21, 2012, commercial beekeepers and environmental organizations backed by over a million citizens, filed an “Emergency Citizen Petition to the EPA Seeking Suspension of Registration for Clothianidin.” Ban the dangerous nicotine-based toxin. Signing the legal petition were the Center for Food Safety, International Center for Technical Assessment, Beyond Pesticides and the Pesticide Action Network North America along with twenty-five honey beekeepers, including Pennsylvania’s Dave Hackenberg. See contact information at the end of this report.

This Emergency Citizen Petition to the U. S. Environmental Protection
Agency Seeking Suspension of Registration for Clothianidin
was filed with the EPA on March 21, 2012.
Click here for full petition text.

Another co-petitioner is Jeff Anderson, owner of the California Minnesota Honey Farms. Jeff said, “EPA has an obligation to protect pollinators from the threat of pesticides. The Agency has failed to adequately regulate pesticides harmful to pollinators despite scientific and on-the-ground evidence presented by academics and beekeepers.”

It’s now a month later. EPA acknowledged receipt of the legal petition, but so far has made no further comment. Recently I asked Jay Feldman, Executive Director of Beyond Pesticides, and Tom Theobald, Owner of the Niwot Honey Farm in Colorado, about whether the legal petition can stop EPA’s using “conditional registration” as a loophole to keep approving Bayer’s clothianidin for sale in the United States.

Interview:

Play MP3 interview.

Jay Feldman, Executive Director, Beyond Pesticides, Washington, D. C.: “The point of this petition is to demand that EPA exercise its emergency authority under our federal pesticide law because of the disappearance of about one-third of our honey bees yearly now as a result of what we are point to as these systemic pesticides called neonicotinoids allowed to be used – even though EPA acknowledged that it did not have all the information necessary to make a clear determination of safety, and EPA turned around and accepted (clothianidin) as a supplemental study and didn’t change the use pattern of this chemical. That’s an abomination of the process!

IS IT BECAUSE CORPORATIONS SUCH AS MONSANTO WIRE THE POCKETS OF CONGRESS WITH MONEY. THAT MEANS THAT THE AGENCIES SUCH AS EPAAND FDA ARE ALSO BEING WIRED WITH MONEY BY CORPORATIONS THAT WANT ALL DECISIONS TO FALL THEIR WAY.

Yes, I think the fact that we have vested interests with so much power – the vested interests being the chemical companies. One great example of the power of the chemical industry that is seen in this federal law is the provision we are struggling here, which is something called ‘conditional registration.’ Why would you allow an admitted toxic chemical on the market without having all your i’s dotted and t’s crossed, knowing that it can adversely affect human health and the environment?

WASN’T THAT REVEALED IN THAT LEAKED DOCUMENT FROM INSIDE THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ABOUT A YEAR AGO IN WHICH THE SCIENTISTS INSIDE OF EPA WERE SAYING THAT IT WAS CLEAR THAT CLOTHIANIDIN WAS KILLING HONEY BEES?

Yes, that’s exactly right. The Agency itself (EPA) – and this is what we are relying on as one of the exhibits in this petition – had identified a huge gap in information that was necessary to make a determination on the use of this chemical, clothianidin. EPA did not have that information, according to the (internal) memo.

We’ve gone back and reviewed the studies and it’s clear that this study the Agency had accepted as valid was filled with irrelevant data for assessing the likely impact of this chemical on approximately 90 million U. S. acres of corn treated with clothianidin in the U. S.

Priority of Toxic Soup Profits
Versus Environmental Health

IT WAS THE BEEKEEPERS IN 2007 – DAVE HACKENBERG IN PENNSYLVANIA SAID TO ME, ‘LINDA, I AM TRYING TO RUN AWAY FROM THESE NICOTINE-BASED INSECTICIDES AS FAST AS I CAN BECAUSE I AND OTHER BEEKEEPERS, WE ARE CONVINCED IT IS THESE NEW NICOTINE-BASED PESTICIDES THAT ARE KILLING OUR BEES.’ HOW CAN WE BE FIVE YEARS LATER (AND STILL BE ARGUING ABOUT NICOTINE-BASED PESTICIDE SAFETY)?

Because we live in a toxic soup, which the chemical companies hide behind. Now, had EPA done its job as it should have done at the onset of this request for registration by Bayer, it would have probably made a determination that something awful was going on here that needed to be prevented!

DOESN’T IT BOIL DOWN TO NICOTINE-BASED PESTICIDES NEED TO BE BANNED?

Yes, it goes back to the fact that we are unleashing technologies that we don’t really study fully and understand in terms of the ramifications.

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? HOW COULD NICOTINE-BASED PESTICIDES BE BANNED?

Well, it requires public involvement. The kind of coalition that has been put together around this type of legal petition says to the government that this is an issue of environmental protection and it is also an issue of economic health of the beekeeping industry.

WHAT DO YOU SAY, JAY, TO HONEY BEEKEEPERS WHO ARE GIVING UP NOW ON STRUGGLING TO RAISE WEAK, SICK AND DYING HONEY BEES?

Yeah, well I think a good start is to get EPA to recognize that these systemic pesticides as captured in this petition that was filed – that is an emergency and we’ve got to get behind this petition as a means of removing this from the market.

Beekeepers are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the fact that they are providing pollination services in conventional agriculture. They are stuck with where agriculture is at this moment in time. So it really takes a coming together – the consumer, community and beekeeping community and environmental community – to say there is a better way and we can altogether make this transition toward organic production methods that are not reliant on these (nicotine poison) things.

That’s the bottom line! We have to stop using them. We only have two choices: we can stop using by trying to force our regulatory agencies to ban these things. Or we can stop using it if consumers refuse to buy crops grown with them.

Will “Imminent Hazard”
Emergency Convince EPA?

WHAT DO YOU THINK REALISTICALLY WILL BE THE VERY NEXT STEP FROM HERE?

Well, we’ve asked for action based on imminent hazard, which is an emergency provision in the federal pesticide law and we would expect within 30 days we would have a response to that. We need to see how seriously the Agency takes this issue and decide from there what legal action we can take seeking injunctive relief against the Agency. These are all complicated legal maneuverings that go on.

MEANWHILE, MONSANTO AND BAYER ARE DISTRIBUTING THE NICOTINE-BASED INSECTICIDES OUT IN THE WORLD AND HONEY BEES CONTINUE TO DIE.

Right, exactly! We’ve become very lethargic and slow and bureaucratic – really crisis oriented and the crisis has to be staring us in the face.

THE HONEY BEEKEEPERS SAY THIS IS A CRISIS.

Right, and unfortunately EPA has not yet been able to see the crisis. And why that is, is hard to know. We’re hoping that this petition helps to galvanize that awareness and give EPA the legal handles they maybe could not see for themselves. That’s what you do in a legal petition. You say, ‘Look! Look, guys, you’ve got the authority to do this! Here it is. You know, it’s in Section 6 of the Federal Insecticide and Rodenticide Act. It’s in Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. You, EPA, have the legal authority to do this, so do it! And go for it. You’re not doing what you’re supposed to do. Wake up! There’s some urgency here.”

Beekeepers Don’t Know How to Keep Going

At least one-third of honey bee colonies in the United States are dying
each year, and many beekeepers have experienced up to 100% colony loss
since Colony Collapse Disorder was identified in 2007. Empty comb honey
supers for honey bee colony© 2010 by Honeyflow Farm.

In Colony Collapse Disorder, honey bees
either don’t return to the hive or are found dead
around the honey bee colony. Image © 2007 by CBC.

One of the long-time American honey beekeepers
with a passion for raising honey bees is Tom Theobald, owner of the Niwot Honey Farm in Niwot, Colorado. Tom was appalled when he received a copy of the leaked November 2, 2010, EPA internal document that clearly stated, “Clothianidin is highly toxic to honey bees.” Tom thought that revelation would convince EPA to stop giving Bayer Corp. permission to sell clothianidin in the United States. But now as 2012 goes forward with the largest ever acreage of seasonal crops in the United States planted with clothianidin – in spite of the current legal challenge to EPA and growing scientific evidence that nicotine-based insecticides kill honey bees – Tom Theobald feels like giving up.

Interview:

Tom Theobald, Owner, Niwot Honey Farm, Niwot, Colorado: “It’s probably over for me. This will probably be my last year. I can’t continue to pour money into the operation and re-build it from the ashes every year and conduct a business. And I am indicative of what is happening all across the country!

IF YOU BEEKEEPERS CAN’T SUSTAIN KEEPING HONEY BEES GOING, WHAT HAPPENS IN THE UNITED STATES?

Well, we’ve had over 200 million acres of farm land filled with toxins and an untold number of acres in the urban and suburban landscape. I think we might very well be witnessing one of the greatest environmental disasters of our time. This is enormous and goes far beyond the honey bee. It might be too late for the beekeepers.

Wherever these systemic pesticides have been introduced, we’re seeing enormous consequences. Now, I have been doing this for 37 years. I had the smallest honey crop ever last year and I’ve been a beekeeper long enough. The bees just weren’t up to the task.

These systemic pesticides have a number of modes of action, all the way from immediate death to lingering effects, which are accumulative and irreversible and kill the colony over time.

ISN’T IT TRUE, TOM, THAT CLOTHIANIDIN AND IMIDICLOPRID BUILD UP IN SOILS, BUILD UP IN THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEMS OF BEES?

Yes. It appears from what we are seeing from the emerging science is that you would be hard pressed to design a worse chemical. It’s water soluble, which means it can be transported by the ground water or the surface water. And it has almost immediate lethal effect. It can be expressed in the nectar and in the pollen. It can accumulate in the soil from successive plantings and can linger for decades! Very small amounts can have very significant effects.

AND, TOM, WHAT DO YOU THINK REALISTICALLY HAPPENS IF THE LEGAL PETITION AGAINST THE EPA TO BAN CLOTHIANIDIN FAILS?

We’re going to see the collapse of American beekeeping. I did a little survey just recently of Iowa. Iowa is the heartland of genetic modification and systemic seed coating. In 1993, Iowa had 70,000 managed colonies of bees. By 2008, Iowa had 28,000. It had lost 66% of its managed colonies of bees!

I think it’s the corporations that need to be reined in, frankly. There need to be some limits because they have taken control of everything. A couple of years ago, a new term came into my vocabulary and that is corporatism – the flip side of fascism. Fascism is the takeover of industry by government and corporatism is the reverse. And the major corporations have taken control of just about everything.

I think it might already be too late for the beekeepers. I hate to say that, but what if we stopped use of these chemicals immediately today – which is very unlikely. But if we stopped today, what would it mean? Well, the environment is so polluted that it’s going to be hostile for decades to come.”

Legal Petition to EPA Needs Public Support:

To help take action, contact and click on purple hot links to websites:

– Peter Jenkins, Atty.
The Center for Food Safety and
Int’l. Center for Technical Assessment
660 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, #302
Washington DC 20003
Ph: (202) 547-9359
Email: [email protected]

– Jay Feldman, Executive Director
and John Kepner

Beyond Pesticides
Washington, D. C.
Ph: 202-543-5450

Email: [email protected]

– Paul Towers
Pesticide Action Network North America
49 Powell St., Ste. 500
San Francisco, CA 94102
PH: 415-981-1771

Commercial Honey Beekeepers:

Jeff Anderson, Owner, California Minnesota Honey Farms.
(209) 847-4731

David Hackenberg, Owner, Hackenberg Apiaries, Pennsylvania.
(813) 713-1239

Steve Ellis, Owner, Old Mill Honey Co., California and Minnesota.
(651) 357-8280

Jim Frazier, PhD, Professor of Entomology, Penn State University.
(814) 599-5143

More Information:

For further reports about honey bees, colony collapse disorder (CCD) and pesticide and GMO threats, please see reports below from Earthfiles Archive.

• 03/17/2012 — Airborne Nicotine-Based Insecticide Residues from Pneumatic Drilling/Seeding Machines Kill Honey Bees
• 01/27/2012 — GMOs Have Created Stronger Weeds – Now “Agent Orange” Toxin Under Consideration As Next Stronger Weed Poison
• 06/09/2011 — Winter 2010 Honey Bee Colony Losses Averaged 30% in U. S. But beekeepers are suffering 50% to 60% losses over a year.
• 01/27/2011 — Updated: Leaked EPA Document Says Bayer’s Clothianidin Kills Honey Bees
• 10/28/2010 — Honey Bee Disappearances Not “Solved” by Virus and Fungi
• 07/28/2010 — Bee Expert Says Cell Phones Are Not Cause of Honey Bee Collapse
• 05/05/2010 — Updated: U. S. Honey Bee Industry Struggles with 34% Colonies Loss
• 03/25/2010 — GMO Seed Prices Skyrocket and Justice Department Investigates Monsanto for Antitrust Violation
• 02/18/2010 — U. S. Honey Bee Deaths Increase Again
• 03/30/2009 — European Honey Bee Decline Continues While Aggressive Africanized Honey Bees Attack in Southern U. S.
• 09/26/2008 — NRDC Sues EPA for Honey Bee Lab Data and EPA Approves Another Bee-Killing Pesticide
• 08/31/2008 — Honey Bees Not Healthy in U. S. or U. K.
• 04/10/2008 — Honey Bee Collapse Now Worse on West Coast
• 10/13/2007 — Now Bumblebees Are Disappearing, Too.
• 09/26/2007 — North American Honey Bees Still Weak
• 09/07/2007 — Honey Bee DNA Study Finds Australian Virus in Colony Collapse Disorder
• 06/28/2007 — Hackenberg Apiary, Pennsylvania – 75-80% Honey Bee Loss in 2007. What Happens If Colony Collapse Disorder Returns?
• 05/04/2007 — Environmental Emergency Updates: Part 1 – Spreading Honey Bee Disappearances – Nosema ceranae Not the Answer?
• 04/06/2007 — Collapse of Honey Bees in U. S., Canada and 9 European Countries
• 03/17/2007 — Honey Bee Disappearances Continue: Could Pesticides Play A Role?
• 02/23/2007 — Part 1: Earth Life Threats – Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees

Websites:

March 21, 2012, “Bees Are Still Dying” – Legal Petition to EPA to Ban Clothianidin.
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7106/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10078

Wall Street Journal Market Watch, March 21, 2012: “Beekeepers and Environmentalists Petition EPA to Stop Pesticide Linked to Bee Deaths”:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/beekeepers-and-environmentalists-petition-epa-to-stop-pesticide-linked-to-bee-deaths-2012-03-21

Environmental Science Technology, January 2012: “Assessment of the Environmental Exposure of Honeybees to Particulate Matter Containing Neonicotinoid Insecticides Coming from Corn Coated Seeds”

Neonicotinoids: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid

Neonicotinoid Insecticides: Historical Evolution and Resistance Mechanisms: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20737790

Leaked EPA Memo, November 2, 2010: http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/Memo_Nov2010_Clothianidin.pdf

Pesticide Action Network North America: http://www.panna.org/

Center for Biological Diversity: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

Beyond Pesticides: http://www.beyondpesticides.org/

Biological Diversity: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

Natural Resources Defence Council: http://www.nrdc.org/

U. S. Fish Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov/

Boulder County Beekeepers’ Association: http://www.bouldercountybeekeepers.org/

Tom Theobald: “Plight of the Honey Bee”:
http://www.frontrangeliving.com/cooking/Honeybee.htm

“Translocation of Neonicotinoid Insecticides From Coated Seeds to
Seedling Guttation Drops: A Novel Way of Intoxication for Bees”: http://www.beeccdcap.uga.edu/documents/Girolami.pdf

Pesticides: Germany Bans Chemicals Linked To Honeybee Devastation:
http://www.laleva.org/eng/2008/05/pesticides_germany_bans_chemicals_linked_
to_honeybee_devastation-print.html

Fortune.com, October 8, 2010: “What a scientist didn’t tell The New York Times about
his study on bee deaths,” © 2010 by Katherine Eban:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/08/news/honey_bees_ny_times.fortune/index.htm

CBD Press release: Imidacloprid: Long-term risks undervalued, August 2, 2010:
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/3490.html

Coalition Against Bayer Dangers (CBD) Press Releases, 1990 – 2010:
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/269.html

Understanding the Science: the Impact of Imidacloprid On Bees:
http://pierreterre.com/page/impact-imidacloprid-bees

Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association about Imidacloprid:
http://www.metroatlantabeekeepers.org/registration_of_imidacloprid_fro.htm

“Mysterious Honey Bee Disorder Buzzes into Court,” August 19, 2008:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2008/2008-08-19-092.asp