The drift effect of pesticides affects bees, trees and wild plants even at a distance from crops. There is no escape, stress the authors of the experimental research conducted in Trentino-South Tyrol, published in Frontiers in Physiology. (1)
‘Save the Bees and the Farmers,’ the European Citizens’ Initiative, still awaits signatures from many of those who aspire to protect ecosystems from the serious threats still underway.
Bees and pollen without secrets
Bees collect pollen from about 150 flowers and yet forage for plants of the same species during the same flight. Researchers have for the first time divided pollen collected from individual bees according to their color. In order to measure the levels of agrotoxic contamination of both characteristic plants in apple orchards (apple and dandelion, whose pollens are light green and orange, respectively) and those found in non-cultivated areas. Such as wild plants and tree species (e.g., pine, ash, chestnut).
Multi-residual chemical analysis and palynological analysis made it possible to accurately identify the insecticides, herbicides and fungicides present in the different plants where the bees roosted to retrieve nourishment. The research was coordinated by Sergio Angeli and Riccardo Favaro-entomologists, professors and researchers at the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano, Faculty of Science and Technology-in collaboration with researchers from the Provincial Environmental and Climate Protection Agency of Bozen/Bolzano. And beekeepers from Trentino and South Tyrol, who provided eight apiaries.
Pesticide drift effect
The innovative biomonitoring system enabled researchers to check the extent of the so-calledpesticide drift effect(pesticides drift). That is, the extent of their range-and the resulting risks to ecosystems (soils, waters, plants, pollinating insects, and other animal species, including humans)-outside of croplands and target species. Drift can also extend over long distances, through air and rainfall as well as atmospheric dust.
Pollens collected from wild or urban herbaceous and tree plants outside the apple orchards outside the cultivated areas revealed equal and indistinguishable levels of chemical contamination by agrotoxics compared to those in the apple orchards where the survey began. Both during the flowering stage and in the period afterwards. Thus, the drift effect of pesticides in the territories surrounding cultivated areas was verified, with particularly high toxicity values.
Pesticides and bee mortality
The toxicological risk of chemical residues in pollen on adult bees was calculated using a special quotient, the Pollen Hazard Quotient. The PHQ combines the concentration of agrotoxin residues with their lethality levels for bees.
The most commonly found insecticides are Flonicamid, Phosmet, Imidacloprid, Methoxyfenozid, and Chlorpyrifos-methyl. (2)
Chlorpyrifos residues, which in the EU today are not tolerated above the
level of detection
, reached 160 percent of the LD50(Lethal Dose 50) in one sample. (3) That is, the level of exposure capable of causing the death of 50 percent of the bee population within 24 hours.
Let’s save the bees!
The paradox-in Italian apple orchards as in California almond orchards-is that bees are exploited to help pollinate plants and maliciously poisoned with agrotoxics used in crops.
The European Citizens’ Initiative ‘
Save the Bees and the Farmers
‘ therefore deserves our utmost commitment.
Let’s add our name
HERE
and involve our contacts by asking them to do the same, by 3/31/21. For the European legislature to progressively ban agrotoxics that devastate ecosystems, protect natural areas and biodiversity, and support ecological transition and eco-agriculture.
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Favaro, R., Bauer, L. M., Rossi, M., D’Ambrosio, L., Bucher, E., & Angeli, S. (2019). Botanical origin of pesticide residues in pollen loads collected by honeybees during and after apple bloom. Frontiers in Physiology, 10, 1069. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2019.01069/full
(2) The use in open fields-not also in greenhouses-of some neonicotinoid pesticides(imidacloprid, clothianidin, and thiamethoxam) has been banned in the EU, by EU Regulations 2018/783, 784, 785. See previous article https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/progresso/pesticidi-via-libera-della-corte-di-giustizia-ue-ai-divieti-nazionali-salviamo-le-api
(3) Chlorpyrifos is the most recurrent pesticide in notifications to theRapid Alert System on Food and Feed (RASFF) for outlawed MRLs (Maximum Residue Levels) in 2019. V. https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/sicurezza/rapporto-annuale-rasff-2019-le-allerta-sulla-sicurezza-di-alimenti-mangimi-e-moca-in-ue
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
