As we have detailed in a number of stories, a pesticide (clothianidin) produced by Bayer may be responsible, at least in part, for the precipitous decline of the bee population in the last few years. The pesticide was approved on the basis of a study that the EPA knew to be faulty. There is little evidence supporting Bayer’s claim that clothianidin is safe (and a growing stack of evidence that it isn’t).
Bayer’s response to all the negative press surrounding clothianidin: go into spin mode. But the company’s recent blog post on clothianidin’s safety is itself full of holes.
Take this sentence, for example: “Bayer CropScience was recently made aware of an unauthorized release
from within the Environmental Protection Association (EPA) of a document
regarding the seed treatment product, clothianidin, which is sold in
the United States corn market.” The document’s release was not “unauthorized”; it was available through the Freedom of Information Act. It was forwarded to Colorado beekeeper Tom Theobald by an EPA employee, who first made Theobald aware of it. But that’s almost beside the point.
Bayer also notes that its flawed study “was peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Economic Entomology, and that the EPA initially called it “scientifically sound” and said it “satisfies the guideline
requirements for a field toxicity test with honey bees.”
Indeed, that was what the Agency said at first blush. But the recently unearthed document reveals the EPA’s concern with the study. “Another field study is
needed to evaluate the effects of clothianidin on bees through
contaminated pollen and nectar,” it says. In other words, the study doesn’t satisfy guideline requirements for a core study on honey bee safety.
Bayer’s response? “This was an incomplete document, something that they were working on,” says Jack Boyne, Director of Communications at Bayer CropScience. “The study in question was a peer-reviewed, scientifically valid study.”
