U.S. court finds EPA was wrong to approve Dow pesticide harmful to bees

[hue]

Source: Reuters

A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday that federal regulators erred in allowing an insecticide developed by Dow AgroSciences onto the market, canceling its approval and giving environmentalists a major victory.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, is significant for commercial beekeepers and others who say a dramatic decline in bee colonies needed to pollinate key food crops is tied to widespread use of a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids. Critics say the Environmental Protection Agency is failing to evaluate the risks thoroughly.

The lawsuit was filed in 2013 against the EPA by a number of organizations representing the honey and honey beekeeping industry. The groups specifically challenged EPA approval of insecticides containing sulfoxaflor, saying studies have shown they are highly toxic to honey bees.

The court said in its ruling that sulfoxaflor is a neonicotinoid subclass.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/10/us-epa-agriculture-honeybees-idUSKCN0RA2CQ20150910

---

[saturnsring]

1. Now on to the ussc

[villager]

2. What!? An *Anti-science* ruling from the courts!? Corporations know best...

...and it is woo to dare question them!

[bvar22]

3. Great Victory.

We (my wife, Me, and our 100,000 Honey Bees) Thank You.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1182412


NOW....on to Monsanto & "RoundUp".

[Major Nikon]

12. Why not Azadirachtin and Rotenone?

Both of which are more toxic and/or more harmful to bees.

http://risk-monger.blogactiv.eu/2015/06/17/save-the-bees-ban-these-two-toxic-pesticides-immediately/

The reason is because both are used by the "organic" market and for some applications there's no "organic" alternative.

Kinda funny how that works.

[bvar22]

17. Your post is misleading.

I know many natural farmers who use NONE of the above,
ourselves included.

All GMOs, non naturally occurring herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers are forever banned from our little hill top.
We prefer to lose a crop before we will bring a chemical pesticide or herbicide on our property.
Monsanto (and the others) don't make a red cent off of us and many, many others.

You ARE correct that some unscrupulous people use these toxins,
and then bring their stuff to the Farmers Market and tell you to your face that their produce is 100%natural & Organic.


We were very careful in choosing our current location.
No Farms, No Industry, no neighbors, no suburbs, no Urban areas withing MILES.
We have happy, healthy Bees that reward us with liquid gold.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=268&topic_id=2601&mesg_id=2601

You can continue to use whatever poisons you choose, after all, this IS America.
You can feed them to your wife & Kids.
I don't care.
We are happy and satisfied with our lives, and relationship to our Mother.

[Major Nikon]

18. You pretend your anecdotal information trumps all else while pretending others are misleading?

Kinda silly to assume all farmers use the same products and I implied no such thing.

Someone who throws around the word "poisons" and claims others are misleading is kinda funny too.

[bvar22]

22. Like I said, I don't care WHAT poisons you choose to eat and feed your kids.

Eat everything that comes out of Monsanto and the other World Killers.
The Bees are just an early warning...like a canary in a Coal Mine.
We have heeded the warning.

Something that kills a weed IS IN FACT a "Poison" ...ask the weed.
We believe that all growing things are interrelated,
and that man has barely begun to understand this inter-relationship while we slowly poison our World through arrogance and ignorance.

Please Proceed.

[Major Nikon]

25. Water is "IN FACT" a poison

Ask Andy Warhol. Oh wait, you can't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

[bvar22]

28. As usual,

.....you have wandered off into the absurd in a misguided belief that you actually posted a valid rebuttal.
I'll leave it up to the readers of this thread to judge your post on its merits.


The water at your house may well be poison,
but the water at our house comes from a deep spring.
It has been tested.
It is the same water you probably buy at the supermarket in 1 gallon jugs.
It bubbles up out of the ground in our back yard,
and is ice cold, even on the hottest days...and crystal clear.
.
.
.
Another reason we don't want GMOs, Round-Up, or other toxins on our property.
We cherish and protect our clean water.

[Mr. Evil]

30. Roundup does more than just kill weeds.

If you have the time you should read this.
http://www.naturalnews.com/034504_glyphosate_groundwater_contamination.html#

[Major Nikon]

34. Channeling an AIDS denialist dipshit is kinda sad

If you have the time you should read this.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/NaturalNews

[Mr. Evil]

35. Opinions vary. n/t

[Major Nikon]

38. Sure and Mike Adams is also a birther, an anti-vaxxer, a quack promoter

...as well as a fan of just about every dispshit conspiracy theory that comes down the pike. If you want to promote his opinions, be my guest.

[Major Nikon]

33. Nah, just demonstrating how misleading your posts are

Just as you continue to reinforce the idea.

If you don't think the water at your house or anywhere else doesn't have a specific toxicity to humans, then you clearly have no idea what the words "poison" and "toxins" mean, or you are simply trying quite poorly to mislead.

You also demonstrated how little you know about pesticides by claiming herbicides are "poison" to weeds, which while true is no less true for the "natural" alternatives you advocate which makes your point rather comically self defeating.

So yeah, I'm quite content to let anyone judge both or our respective posts on their merits.

Another reason we don't want GMOs, Round-Up, or other toxins on our property.
We cherish and protect our clean water.

NdGT wrote this for you:

http://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/203188108697677824

[LeftOfWest]

54. Your posts are misleading.

mirror meet face.

[Major Nikon]

57. Well, you certainly make a convincing argument

[hue]

36. Water is "IN FACT" a poison-->too wrong!

Humans are in general about 75% water. Our blood is about 90 ish % water. (Depending on how hydrated we are.)
Such a generalization is absurd! For example, the liver is poisonous because it detoxifies poisons we consume.

Some water contains poison but water itself is H2O. Water intoxication occurs when it is in the wrong concentration; too much water or too little other electrolytes (Na+, K+, Ca++, Phos, etc.) for homeostasis.

Without water we would die!

Believing your crazy statements is "IN FACT" poisonous!

[Major Nikon]

37. No shit. All toxicity occurs when something is in the wrong concentration

I'm sure you think that what you posted makes some kind of sense, but it really doesn't.

The wrong concentration was kind of the whole point, which was toxicity without dosage is about as useful as man nipples.

[appalachiablue]

60. You are living & farming nature's way. Global industrial, factory farming is killing for profit $$.

[trillion]

48. I enjoyed that read. Awsome life you must have. I'm in the suburbs.

[flamingdem]

50. Yes! Save the bees! And the humans too!

Kidney, Liver Damage Linked to Chronic, Low-Dose Glyphosphate Exposure


(Beyond Pesticides, September 1, 2015) A research study published in the journal Environmental Health links chronic, ultra-low dose exposure to glyphosate in drinking water to adverse impacts on the health of liver and kidneys. The study, Transcriptome profile analysis reflects rat liver and kidney damage following chronic ultra-low dose Roundup exposure, is the latest in a string of data showing unacceptable risks resulting from exposure to glyphosate and products formulated with the chemical, like Monsanto’s Roundup.



Researchers conducted the study by exposing rats to minute (0.1 parts per billion) doses of Roundup in drinking water for a period of 2 years. After noting tissue damage and biochemical changes in the blood and urine of exposed animals that was indicative of organ damage, the authors attempted to confirm their findings by analyzing changes in gene expression within liver and kidneys. Of 4,447 gene transcript clusters analyzed by scientists, 4,224 showed some alteration. Compared to non-exposed rats, “here were more than 4,000 genes in the liver and kidneys whose levels of expression had changed,” said Michael Antoniou, PhD, senior author of the study to Environmental Health News.

Authors indicate that the changes in gene expression observed in the study are associated with the type of organ damage observed in the rats. “The findings of our study are very worrying as they confirm that a very low level of consumption of Roundup weedkiller over the long term can result in liver and kidney damage. Our results also suggest that regulators should re-consider the safety evaluation of glyphosate-based herbicides,” said Dr. Antoniou.

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2015/09/kidney-liver-damage-linked-to-chronic-low-dose-glyphosate-exposure/

[rhett o rick]

4. Who was in charge of the EPA when the decision was made to allow the chemical? nm

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. Prolly a former lobbyist for Monsanto.

[progressoid]

42. Actually, he was formerly the CEO for the National Audubon Society.

Robert 'Bob' Perciasepe (born February 19, 1951) is president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization promoting strong policy and action to address the twin challenges of energy and climate change.[1]

For almost 40 years, Perciasepe has been an environmental manager with a background of local, state and national experience, most recently as the Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.[2]

Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Perciasepe was Chief Operating Officer for the environmental conservation non-profit National Audubon Society. Before that, he served in the Administration of President Bill Clinton as EPA’s Assistant Administrator for clean water and then later as the Assistant Administrator for clean air.[3] [4]

Prior to that time he served as Maryland’s Secretary of the Environment after holding the positions of Chief of Capital Planning and Assistant Director for Planning for the city of Baltimore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Perciasepe

[rhett o rick]

43. So what happened? nm

[Spitfire of ATJ]

45. Oh, so he wasn't one of the cocaine and prostitute guys from Bush's Department of the Interior.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Good. This is a big one.

I'm tired of the lawn service companies that use Round-up as an edger, instead of removing weeds by hand. One of the saddest things I've witnessed is the regular application of a weed-killing spray along the edges of a hedgerow that was planted on what should have been a storm drainage area. Bad landscaping plan for more reasons than the fact that the weed-killer residue will end up in our retention ponds.

Consider what happens during every major rainstorm. Not only do roots rot where there is a saturation of water, but the nutrients and mulch get washed away. These are just basic, logical facts that every smart homeowner should consider before landscaping their yards.

[yeoman6987]

51. Round up is used everywhere in my community

Including my house through the lawn services. Until they find something else to keep our lawns looking HOA approved it will continue. One day they will find something else to kill the weeds hopefully.

[LeftOfWest]

55. OMG.

are you serious with this post????

'HOA approved'???

ugh...

[yeoman6987]

58. Apparently your unaware of an HOA

[LeftOfWest]

71. HOA's are 1% ers keeping the undesirables aka undesirables OUT

of their neighborhoods.

THAT is what I am aware of HOA groups yeoman6987.

[Baitball Blogger]

64. Shortcuts.

No one wants to spend the time working in their own yard, so they take shortcuts. And when they delegate to a lawn service, they will invariably end up poisoning their yards.

It's a personal observation, but, I have found a correlation between people who like to play it over the edge with a strong distaste for garden work. Presumably, lawn work is a menial task for menial people.

On the other hand, there is the valid concept of the executive yards, which are those big houses with tiny yards and slender sideyards. The theory is that the owner is too busy with corporate work to tend to his own property, so they keep the property small enough to maintain over a weekend.

Either way, everyone is looking for a short-cut. So, with poor information in the public's hands, everyone is poisoning the ground their children play on.

[tabasco]

61. How I pity you.

Willingly living in a place where you have a perfect little lawn with perfect little crew-cut grass and douse it with chemicals to kill weeds (also known as wonderful native flowering plants). Why not install astroturf for your perfect little artificial lawn in your perfect little artificial community?

[yeoman6987]

62. I love living here. Very safe, clean and great neighbors

Thanks for the pity but it is not needed. I shutter to think where you live. Makes me ill thinking of the possibilities. Good day!

[Baitball Blogger]

66. I live in an HOA and my experience with the neighbors has provided grist for the mill for a writer.

Love the house, though.

[tabasco]

68. I'm sure you love living in your little, perfect, artificial world

I'm sure it's perfect for you. My, what a dainty little flower you are - becoming ill so easily. I hope you recover soon and resume your hobby in photography.

[yeoman6987]

69. So you never mentioned where you live

I find that interesting. Probably an HOA.

As most do now a days especially new neighborhoods. It is the future of home owning regardless of your negative feelings about them.

[Baitball Blogger]

65. Most new houses are built in HOAs. At least in Florida

I don't see this as a coincidence. Those cities that are big on small government policies prefer the HOA plan because it's less infra-structure to be maintained by the public.

[Jamastiene]

6. Something the rest of us could have used common sense to

figure out a long time ago and it takes a lawsuit and court to tell the EPA to do their damn job. Gives some credence to the claims they are bought by the very companies that they should be monitoring.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. You mean, HUMANS HAVE A SELF PRESERVATION GENE, AFTER ALL?

Holy Shyte, Batman.

[procon]

8. Why did the EPA use data provided by Dow in the first place?

That's like asking the fox guarding henhouse if the chickens will be safe.

[druidity33]

9. It happens ALL THE TIME. nt.

[arikara]

10. Because its SCIENCE

don't you know?

[mountain grammy]

11. Why indeed? Now that's the real question here.

[Bubzer]

14. Beat me to the punch! Way to go!

[Enthusiast]

20. SOP nowadays.

It's a great Republican idea! Like war in Iraq.

[Javaman]

23. because dow probably provided the "study".

"all is well! all is well!"

"just ignore the dead bees, but all is well!"

[Bubzer]

13. That's excellent! But it raises the concern of who pushed it through the EPA in the first place?

[Mr. Evil]

31. Corrupt bureaucrat maybe?

And they aren't in jail because of more corruption.

[DebJ]

15. K&R. But ROUNDUP needs to go as of yesterday! n/t

[glinda]

16. But where are they going to dump it then since other countries don't want it????

[Dont call me Shirley]

19. Excellent!

[Enthusiast]

21. It ain't just the bees.

Millions of us suddenly have an extreme intolerance to wheat gluten. WTF?

Many corporate spokesmen insist it is a figment of our imagination. It they had gone through my health issues due to gluten they would have an instant change of heart.

[progressoid]

46. Not a figment of imagination

but perhaps misdiagnosed.

It may be the fructans (AKA FODMAPs) that are the problem and not the gluten for sufferers of irritable bowel syndrome and other functional gastrointestinal disorders.

BACKGROUND & AIMS:

Patients with non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) do not have celiac disease but their symptoms improve when they are placed on gluten-free diets. We investigated the specific effects of gluten after dietary reduction of fermentable, poorly absorbed, short-chain carbohydrates (fermentable, oligo-, di-, monosaccharides, and polyols [FODMAPs]) in subjects believed to have NCGS.

RESULTS:

In all participants, gastrointestinal symptoms consistently and significantly improved during reduced FODMAP intake, but significantly worsened to a similar degree when their diets included gluten or whey protein. Gluten-specific effects were observed in only 8% of participants. There were no diet-specific changes in any biomarker. During the 3-day rechallenge, participants' symptoms increased by similar levels among groups. Gluten-specific gastrointestinal effects were not reproduced. An order effect was observed.

CONCLUSIONS:

In a placebo-controlled, cross-over rechallenge study, we found no evidence of specific or dose-dependent effects of gluten in patients with NCGS placed diets low in FODMAPs.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23648697

A low FODMAP diet helped a friend of mine better than a gluten free diet.

[Enthusiast]

56. I was healed by eliminating gluten from my diet. Strange that

only the accidental reintroduction of gluten causes my symptoms to reappear.

[Javaman]

24. My bees are going to love this...

but then again, they won't understand me tell them. LOL

[KT2000]

26. not a victory for environmentalists

but for human health and bee health.
It is so ridiculous to marginalize public health issues as "environmentalist."

[chapdrum]

27. Exactly right

This reminds of the schism between left and right in the fossil fuel arena, with the latter evidently siding with industry and the former with environmentalists.

Even something as vital to us all as clean water, soil and air is made the subject of political division.

Why are environmentalists generally found on the left?

Don't the anti-environmentalists (for lack of a better description) need the same unpolluted items in order to live and stay healthy?

[KT2000]

52. it was an intentional divide

corporations have done a thorough job of defining environmentalism as a class issue - working people versus the environmentalists. Of course environmentalists are from the "elite" class that are trying to make life difficult for working people. In reality, environment IS public health.

[procon]

29. Works for environmentalists, human, bees, and even capitalists.

In addition to benefitting people and bees, many native plants that are important to environment and the food chain are dependent on bees, too. Without bees those commercial crops wouldn't bring in all that lovely money for small farmers and Big Ag investors.

This decision is a win for everyone except the greedy, lying, scheming, duplicitous chemical industry that put their profits ahead of everything else.

[Mr. Evil]

32. No water, no life.

No bees, same result.

[KT2000]

53. think I would EPA to that list

so glad to see them publicly shamed for doing the bidding of corporations.

[FlatBaroque]

40. See, I would have thought that the best way to regulate Monsanto

was by hiring their lobbyists to be the regulators.

[4lbs]

41. I believe the head of the EPA during the initial DOW approval phase was a Bush appointee

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_L._Johnson


Stephen L. Johnson (born March 21, 1951) was the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President George W. Bush during the second term of his administration.

.........


After leaving the EPA in 2010:

On November 11, 2010, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company announced that Johnson had been named to its Board of Directors

[progressoid]

44. However, it wasn't approved until May of 2013.

"in May 2013 the EPA decided to go ahead with unconditional registration"

In May of 2013, the head of the EPA was Bob Perciasepe:

Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Perciasepe was Chief Operating Officer for the environmental conservation non-profit National Audubon Society. Before that, he served in the Administration of President Bill Clinton as EPA’s Assistant Administrator for clean water and then later as the Assistant Administrator for clean air.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Perciasepe

[trillion]

47. Freaking awesome! Best news I've heard all day. I really didn't expect this.

[Admiral Loinpresser]

49. Brenie's EPA Administrator:

anybody named Udall!

[SoLeftIAmRight]

63. do not agree - while better than many - they are just not good enough

we can do better

[Admiral Loinpresser]

70. Bill McKibben? n\t

[Sunlei]

59. IMO at the minimum the USA should ban the same products that are banned in other 1st world countries

Our Federal & State Govs are dominated by Corporate interests & their lobbyists.

[Zorra]

67. YAY!!! Honeybees are so nice, I love them!