Harvard Finds Pesticide in 70% of Honey Samples Tested
Results that are hurting our pollinators
The Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) issue you keep hearing about (thephenomenon that is killing our bees and butterflies), well it just got
real again with a study from Harvard. The study shows that 70% of honey samples collected in Massachusetts contain at least one neonicotinoid, the pesticide class that biotech companies say have nothing to do with the bee die offs we are seeing around the world.
The new study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health appears in the Journal of Environmental Chemistry.
Chensheng (Alex) Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure
biology in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School
and lead author of the study, states:
“Data from this study clearly demonstrated the
ubiquity of neonicotinoids in pollen and honey samples that bees are
exposed to during the seasons when they are actively foraging across
Massachusetts. Levels of neonicotinoids that we found in this study fall
into ranges that could lead to detrimental health effects in bees,
including CCD.”
Scientists, policymakers, farmers, and beekeepers have been alarmed
at the rates in which bees and other pollinators are dying, leaving
approximately a third of crops in a fragile position worldwide since
they depend on pollination to produce.
Though other studies have shown neonic residues in honey and pollen
samples collected at one point in time, this particular study shows how
pervasive the problem has become. Researchers took samples over summer
and spring months, when bees are normally foraging, from the same set of
hives around Massachusetts.
Read: Obama Urged to Suspend Bee-Killing Pesticides
