[Pollinator] Fwd: FW: Report--How common herbicide kills bees

Tue Apr 20 08:27:43 PDT 2021

Research surprise unveils how common herbicide kills bees
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.13867

Marc Heller
<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eenews.net%2Fstaff%2FMarc_Heller&data=04%7C01%7CSeth_Lerman%40nps.gov%7C283e34173094481af5c208d9037090fb%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637544604262748859%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=91gq%2BHB0K%2F0QgMfjV287lumBTZcuNWO08uq5pXyyTr4%3D&reserved=0>,
E&E News reporterPublished: Monday, April 19, 2021[image: Buff-tailed
bumblebee. Photo credit: Eduardo E. Zattara]

A buff-tailed bumblebee forages on a head of red clover flowers. Eduardo E.
Zattara

Many studies already claimed the nation's most-used weedkiller was lethal
to bees, but new research indicates its much-maligned active ingredient —
glyphosate — isn't to blame.

Instead, the culprit appears to be inert ingredients added to the
herbicide, such as wetting agents called surfactants, according to
researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Groups critical of pesticides, such as the Center for Biological Diversity
and the Center for Food Safety, urged EPA to put new controls on the use of
the ingredients, which often aren't disclosed on labels.

The researchers published their findings
<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbesjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com%2Fdoi%2F10.1111%2F1365-2664.13867&data=04%7C01%7CSeth_Lerman%40nps.gov%7C283e34173094481af5c208d9037090fb%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637544604262758817%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=W0RIA3ZIg0TKG1vpyn3j%2FIyFBP6rPFlgmFRnpPwqzQw%3D&reserved=0>
earlier
this month in the *Journal of Applied Ecology*.

For their study, the researchers said they used a few versions of Roundup,
the brand-name herbicide made by Bayer AG, and found mortality rates of
greater than 90% in bumblebees exposed to it. But a glyphosate-free version
also killed 96% of exposed bees, they said, "demonstrating that the active
ingredient, glyphosate, is not the cause of the mortality."

Surfactants and other ingredients may suffocate the bees by blocking their
tracheal systems, according to the study.

Researchers have already established that surfactants are toxic to
honeybees and solitary bees. This was the first major study finding similar
threats to bumblebees, the researchers said.

While bumblebees aren't major commercial pollinators on the same scale as
honeybees, they're important in the wild for pollinating various plants.
The potential effect of farm chemicals on wild, native bees is alarming
enough to warrant further study, scientists and environmental group say.

"Given the hazard demonstrated here with all tested Roundup® products, and
the extensive exposure of bees to such GBHs [glyphosate-based herbicides]
world-wide, GBHs may pose a high risk to bees, and thus may be an as yet
unidentified driver of the bee declines that are occurring around the
globe," the study said.

Bayer, which acquired Roundup in its merger with Monsanto Co. in 2018, has
cited studies showing no adverse effect on honeybees from glyphosate
exposure, even when hives are treated with amounts considerably greater
than they would typically see in the environment.

"Glyphosate products have been extensively tested in the laboratory and in
the field to evaluate potential toxicity to honey bees. This extensive
testing has found, when used according to the label, that glyphosate
products pose no acute or chronic adverse effects to honey bees," the
company said on its website. A spokesperson didn't have an immediate
comment today on the new study.

Glyphosate is the most commonly used herbicide on U.S. farms. Crops such as
corn and soybeans have been genetically modified to survive application of
the chemical, helping drive a surge in use. Manufacturers and some farm
groups tout it as a soil conservation hero, since farmers who use it don't
have to till the soil as much to eliminate weeds.

The herbicide faces a stiff challenge, and lawsuits from critics who point
to an International Agency for Research on Cancer's finding in 2015 that it
probably causes cancer, although scientific agencies in the United States
and elsewhere, including EPA, have disputed that conclusion.

EPA has registered more than 1,100 herbicide formulations containing
glyphosate as an active ingredient. The inert ingredients are considered
proprietary, and the agency doesn't disclose them, according to CBD.

CBD said the latest study supports its position that EPA should require
disclosure of inert ingredients and force companies to submit safety data
on them as part of periodic pesticide reviews at the agency.

CFS requested such a move by EPA during the Trump administration, but the
Trump EPA did not act on the request.

"This important new study exposes a fatal flaw in how pesticide products
are regulated here in the U.S.," said Jess Tyler, a staff scientist at CBD,
in a news release. "Now the question is, will the Biden administration fix
this problem, or will it allow the EPA to continue its past practice of
ignoring the real-world harms of pesticides?"

Email: *mheller at eenews.net <mheller at eenews.net>*

-- 

Kelly Rourke

Director of Programs and Operations

Pollinator Partnership

475 Sansome St., 17th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94111

e:  kr at pollinator.org

w:  www.pollinator.org
o:  415.362.1137

c:  585.255.0962

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