The request to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson from the American Beekeeping Federation, headed by Florida beekeeper Dave Mendes, and five other groups follows the leak of a Nov. 2 EPA memo about the product.
The insecticide sold under the brand name Poncho has an active ingredient called clothianidin. Bayer CropScience AG obtained conditional EPA registration for the product in 2003. The leaked memo identified a study that is the basis for the registration as unsound, said Florida beekeeper Dave Hackenberg, who was checking hives Wednesday in Fort Meade.
The study evaluated the wrong crop, using canola instead of corn, the major pollen-producing crop bees rely on for winter nutrition, beekeepers say.
"The EPA gave Bayer the OK to bring the stuff out as long as they got a core study," Hackenberg said. "The scientists have been telling the EPA for several years this study is flawed."
Jack Boyne, a spokesman for the Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based Bayer CropScience, said the company was recently made aware of the unauthorized release of a draft document from EPA.
“We strongly disagree with the conclusion reached by some that suggest clothianidin is a threat to honeybees. Clothianidin is the leading seed treatment on corn in the U.S. It has been used extensively over six years without incident on honeybees,” Boyne said.
Hackenberg disagreed, saying, “If you use enough of it, it definitely kills bees.”
Hackenberg was the first beekeeper in the nation to report a mysterious decline of honeybees beginning in 2006. It came to be known as colony collapse disorder. While scientists say the phenomenon appears to have multiple causes, including a mix of pathogens, evidence points to pesticide exposure as a contributing factor, according to the Pesticide Action Network, North America, and Beyond Pesticides, two of the groups seeking Poncho’s removal.
Clothianidin is a member of a group of chemicals called neonicotinoids that are taken up by a plant’s vascular system and expressed through pollen, nectar and droplets that bees forage.
James Frazier, an entomology professor at Penn State University, said that the most prudent course would be to take the pesticide off the market while the flawed study is redone.
Hackenberg questions how long the beekeeping industry can survive losing more than a third of its colonies each winter. Bees pollinate about a third of the crops in the human diet.
“Another winter of 'more studies are needed’ so Bayer can keep their blockbuster products on the market and EPA can avoid a difficult decision, is unacceptable,” Hackenberg said.
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