A Year or two ago I wrote about the problems with the honey bees new disease called Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists were blaming it on everything from cell phone signals to pesticides, and to a virus. Well, it turned out to be a group of pesticides manufactured by Bayer Crop Science, a division of the giant German Pharmaceutical giant Bayer. The subject merited mention because honey bees pollinate a huge portion of the worlds food crops.
It turns out that Bayer has been suppressing information for the last decade that their pesticides in the class of neonicotinoids have been killing the bees. The European Union has submitted a letter of concern and wants the pesticide banned, while France and Germany have already banned these chemicals.
You might wish to avoid this class of toxic chemicals to protect the health of your family and your family pets. Here is a list of most of the neonicotinoids most commonly found in use here:
- Imidacloprid (Admire, Advantage, Antarc, Chinook, Confidor, Gaucho, Hachikusan, Kochinor, Premise, Prothor, Winner)
- Clothianidin (Arena, Belay, Clutch, Gaucho, Poncho, Titan)
- Acetamiprid (Adjust, Assail, Intruder)
- Thiamethoxam (Actara, Centric, Cruiser, Helix, Platinum)
Bayer puts profits first, just like Monsanto and Dow and the other Multi-national Pharmaceutical/Chemical giants. Their list of offenses goes on and on. By threatening the honey bee population Bayer created a major threat to the world’s food supply, realized the damage they were causing, and continued sales of their pesticides anyway in the name of profit, estimated at $1.25 billion from these products.
For some time, environmental and health advocates have been asking is it really by accident that most pharmaceutical companies also manufacture pesticides, and how much do they profit by the illness suffered by individuals exposed to these toxic chemicals in both the home and workplace? I think you all know my sentiments regarding these subjects, but when the New England Journal of Medicine published an article last year stating that this generation of Americans will be the first generation to live shorter lives that the previous generation it becomes evident that these toxins impact on our overall body burden is doing some serious damage, and that’s strictly from the position of mortality. What about morbidity, and the overall decline in health over the last fifty years that corresponds with the increase in man made chemicals in our environment, and what percentage of that decline can be reasonably blamed on these chemicals? Unfortunately, the bigger these Multi-National corporations get, the less likely they are to accept responsibility.
