LA Times Article On CCD Manages To Completely Overlook Possible Neonicotinoid Role In Bee Deaths

[hatrack]

EDIT

Lifsher describes how "a mysterious malady known as colony collapse disorder" (CCD) has devastated U.S. bee populations in recent years, citing data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that between 2003 and 2009 "the number of bee colonies in California plunged 26 percent." In CCD, bees mysteriously disappear from the hive usually early in the spring. There are no bodies found. They simply vanish. Press coverage has been quite widespread. Here is a collection of news stories in the EHN archives: Bee Colony Collapse.

Where Lifsher falls short is in the following quick discussion of the causes of CCD: "Scientists believe that colony collapse disorder is a combination of ailments that includes mites, malnutrition, stress and fungi."

Nowhere does he allude to one of the factors that for several years has attracted considerable scientific attention: The role of a relatively new family of insecticides called 'neonicotinoids' to CCD. While the potential contribution of neonicotinoids is debated and disputed by the producer of the insecticide, many scientists consider it a prime suspect. Neonicotinoids' potential contribution has in fact been covered extensively in the press, so it is surprising that Lifsher fails to mention it.

Approximately 60 percent of seeds used in agriculture around the world are now coated with neonicotinoids before planting. These nicotine-based pesticides are widely used because they target insects rather than mammals and because they are remarkably powerful. They work by blocking the transmission of nerve impulses from one nerve across the synapse to the next nerve. The insect version of the molecule that transmits this signal – acetylcholinesterase – differs from that in mammals sufficiently so that people are relatively insensitive to the pesticide, which has been synthesized to target the insect version.

EDIT

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/blog/la-times-overlooks-major-suspect-in-bee-colony-collapse-disorder

[happyslug]

1. The "Insect" version differs from the "Mammal" version?

Last edited Wed Mar 7, 2012, 08:43 PM - Edit history (1)

While there is some evidence to support a difference (See the following):
http://www.proteopedia.org/wiki/index.php/African_Malaria_Mosquito_Acetylcholinesterase

in real terms a question remains is the difference "Real" in the sense that the two version of this molecule actually react differently to the same insecticide? I bring this up for when a Soldier asked a Scientist what was the difference between "Nerve Gas" and "insecticide"? The answer was "Concentration" (of of the gas i.e. people are so much larger then insects that it takes more Nerve gas to kill us then it takes to kill insects). This came up for one thing we were told to watch for in case of a Chemical attack was that all the insects would start to die (i.e. you will hear the insects STOP making noise). Insects would die first, then larger animals then Humans without a protective mask (i.e. No "Gas Mask&quot .

Wikepdia site on this molecule
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcholinesterase

Thus, while the difference in this molecule may be real, is the EFFECT of the difference real?