*[Enwl-eng] Bird Activists Call for A Ban On NeonicotinoidInsecticides

[ENWLine]

*Bird group calls for halt to widely applied insecticide*

Chuck Raasch, USA TODAY7:56p.m. EDT March 18, 2013

Illustration Omitted:
A sparrow sits on a branch at the City Cemetery in Brownsville,
Texas, on Jan. 2.(Photo: Paul Chouy, AP)

The American Bird Conservancy is calling for a ban on using one of the
globe's most widely used classes of insecticides in seed treatments and
for a suspension of all other uses, pending an independent review of its
impact on birds and other wildlife.

The Bird Conservancy, one of the nation's most active bird-conservation
groups, released a 97-page report Monday that says that independent
studies of the damage to birds and aquatic ecosystems they depend upon
for food raise "significant environmental concerns" and that the
Environmental Protection Agency has been too lenient in allowing the use
of this class of insecticides, called neonicotinoids.

Their possible role in the decline of honeybee populations in the USA
and Europe has spurred intense debate among scientists, wildlife
advocates and manufacturers, and the EPA is re-evaluating its
registration of this class of insecticide.

The EPA will "carefully consider the study results and conclusions cited
in this report," and the agency's review "is not limited to impact on
bees," said Jim Jones, acting assistant administrator for the Office of
Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

He said the EPA "has accelerated the comprehensive re-evaluation of
these pesticides in the registration review program due to stakeholder
concern about the environmental impacts of neonicotinoid pesticides."

Manufacturers say the American Bird Conservancy report depends on
suspect science, and a ban would be destructive to global agricultural
production. Defenders say that neonicotinoids were created as safer
alternatives to the pesticide class they replaced about 20 years ago.

Neonicotinoids have been in use for about two decades. The insecticides
are sprayed or used to coat seeds, such as corn, to protect crops and
control insects around the globe.

The Bird Conservancy says it's worried that bird populations are
diminishing, partly because this class of insecticide lingers longer in
plants than the classes it replaced.

Birds that eat seed coated with the pesticide can die after a single
kernel, and even smaller amounts can affect reproduction, the report
says. It says high concentrations of neonicotinoid have been found in
aquatic food chains, from California to the Netherlands, that birds
depend upon for food.

"It is clear that these chemicals have the potential to affect entire
food chains," said Cynthia Palmer, pesticides program manager for the
American Bird Conservancy.

She and Pierre Mineau, a former senior research scientist at Environment
Canada, that country's environmental agency, reviewed about 200
independent studies of neonicotinoids in the USA, Canada and Europe, and
thousands of pages of EPA documents they obtained through the Freedom of
Information Act.

They concluded that the EPA has "greatly underestimated this risk, using
scientifically unsound, outdated methodology that has more to do with a
game of chance than with a rigorous scientific process."

"There is evidence that the neonicotinoids got a very soft ride through
registration" from the EPA, the report says.

An industry scientist disagreed, arguing that the EPA constantly
monitors the effects and that extensive studies by Bayer and other major
producers of the insecticide do not show adverse effects on birds.

"Field studies have shown that birds rarely, if ever, are affected when
fed a diet with a high content of treated seed," said Mike Leggett,
senior director of environmental policy for CropLife America, the
association that represents pesticide makers. "This seed technology
continues to be an important tool in modern agriculture that allows
farmers to protect their crops with increasing precision."

He said farmers, using GPS and other recent advances, have vastly
limited the areas where the insecticide is applied.

Leggett said the EPA "conducted a thorough review of risk to birds and
other wildlife during the registration of neonicotinoids and continues
to assess the risk of these and all plant protection products on a
recurring basis."

Neonicotinoids were first introduced in the 1990s to replace older
classes of pesticides that had become ineffective and had raised health
concerns. The Bird Conservancy's Palmer said she and Mineau found that
EPA scientists raised red flags but neonicotinoids were approved anyway.

"What we are telling EPA is that their own research yields some quite
significant results that they should be looking at," Palmer said.

Mineau acknowledged that he and Palmer were calling for drastic action,
but what they found in the scientific studies should cause the EPA to be
"shaken quite radically" in its oversight.

"A transition away from the world's most widely used insecticides would
not be easy and would have to involve a lot of hard work by a range of
disciplines in coming up with alternative products and processes," he
said. "But if we can send a man to the moon, surely we can invent better
pest control technologies."

CropLife America's Leggett said he believes the bird group is trying to
piggyback on the bee controversy.

"For the EPA to ... adhere to the recommendations of the Bird
Conservancy and call for an all-out ban would be hugely disruptive to
agriculture," he said. "There is nothing in this report that meets the
standard for EPA to entertain this drastic a step."

About the Author
Chuck Raasch
Native of South Dakota, national correspondent, bylines from 49
states and four continents, covered six presidential campaigns.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/18/birdsinsecticides/1996271/

*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational
purposes only. ***



From: "Yahoo Newsgroups" <vasi...@ramapo.edu>
Sent: Friday, March 22, 2013 3:13 PM
Subject: News: Bird Activists Call for A Ban On Neonicotinoid Insecticides


------------- * ENWL * ------------
Ecological North West Line * St. Petersburg, Russia
Independent Environmental Net Service: http://www.bellona.ru/enwl/
Russian: ENWL(discussions), ENWL-inf(FSU information), ENWL-misc(any topics)
English: ENWL-eng (world information)
en...@lew.spb.org, enwl...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org
Subscription, Moderator: vf...@lew.spb.org or en...@enw.net.ru
Archive: http://enwl.bellona.ru/pipermail/
and http://groups.google.com/group/enwl/
SEE ALSO: http://www.bellona.org (English)and http://www.bellona.ru
(Russian)
RSS: http://groups.google.ru/group/enwl/feeds?hl=ru
(C) Please refer to exclusive articles of ENWL
-------------------------------------
ONLY if your address is subscribed:
Enwl-eng mailing list
Enwl...@enwl.bellona.ru
http://enwl.bellona.ru/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/enwl-eng