This State may Become the 1st to Ban the Sale of Bee-Killing Neonicotinoids
But the EPA won't study the pesticide-bee link until 2018
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Maryland has nearly become the first state in the U.S. to ban the sale of neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides which are a major contributor to the decline of honeybees.
Two bills previously cleared the Maryland State Senate and Maryland House of Delegates. The bills’ similarities were to likely to result in them being combined into a single piece of legislation to be sent to Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s desk, where it could be signed into law.
Thursday night, the Maryland House and Senate agreed upon and jointly passed a final version of the Maryland Pollinator Protection Act, which would eliminate consumer use of neonicotinoids, a widely-used class of pesticides that has been shown to negatively impact honeybees.
Hogan just needs to sign the Maryland Pollinator Protection Act for finalization. Del. Anne Healey, who authored the House version, said it has strong bipartisan support, and would likely get enough votes to succeed. She told The Washington Post:
“I’m a little nervous talking about things that haven’t happened yet. There were very strong votes in both houses. The public is very much in favor … of doing something to protect our pollinators in the state.”
Popular pesticide brands, including Knockout Ready-to-Use Grub Killer, Ortho Bug B Gon, All-In-One Rose & Flower Care, and Lesco Bandit Insecticide, would be pulled from thousands of hardware stores, garden centers, and nurseries across Maryland.
The bill bans stores from selling products laced with neonicotinoids. However, farmers and professionals will be exempted from the law when it takes effect in 2018.
Last year Maryland lost 60% of its hives, each containing about 20,000 bees, far above the national average of 42.1%. In 2015, honey production dropped 12% among producers with 5 or more colonies, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) survey shows.
The honeybee crisis has prompted about a dozen other states to consider crafting similar legislation. California, Alaska, New York, and Massachusetts have made efforts to ban or limit neonicotinoids, but no piece of legislation has made it as far as Maryland’s has. Oregon is the only state with a bill that bans the pesticides on a certain species of tree.
Neonicotinoids are used on many crops in the United States. Introduced into agriculture in the 1990s, the pesticides, also called neonics, were made available to the public more recently, because the class was believed to be safer for bees than other products.
Read: List of Foods We Will Lose if We Don’t Save the Bees
Rather than simply coating the surface of plants, neonics seep into them and become systemic. Some researchers say there is not enough evidence to prove a link between neonicotinoids and bee mortality, but many researchers are gathering an ever-growing mountain of evidence showing there is. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to review whether several varieties of the insecticide have contributed to the collapse of bee colonies, but not until 2018.
The potent pesticides have been linked to the widespread death of bees and other pollinator species. EcoWatch reported in March 2015 that a global review of 1,121 studies conducted by 29 independent scientists found overwhelming evidence linking the pesticides to bee decline.
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Featured image source and credit: KPLU / TOM BANSE
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| Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog. |
Come on with the Chrissy articles Julie. Do some real research and try to find the real issue (something the top bee scientists seem unable to do), because even you can’t explain why bees are thriving in places like Australia where these insecticides are widely used.
Nice work freelance,
Invoke authority. Claim for yourself or associate
yourself with authority and present your argument with enough ‘jargon’
and ‘minutia’ to illustrate you are ‘one who knows’, and simply say it
isn’t so without discussing issues or demonstrating concretely why or
citing sources.
Explanation,
The Australians did something different, they acted on the warnings from the bee industry and their experts,
In 2007 buzzaboutbees dot net/support-files/australianpollinatorssoc dot pdf
The discoveries and scientific representation resulted in,
In 2010 rirdc dot infoservices dot com dot au/items/12-043
Which lead to their bee colonies success today, through applicable laws, regulatory actions, policies, education, published literature and stressing farmer and beekeeper communications.
As opposed to the chemical polluting companies, lead by freelance pr agents, continuing to sway, disseminate lies to maintain profit, political as well as scientific opinion on the dangers,. The lack of effort has lead to the continued dangers being presented to the Continents bee colonies.
Very good using Australia’s success to demonstrate the lack of care or regard towards nature by the Nations corporate chemical companies.
That’s how I see it based on my research.
Yes maybe they are using the insecticides in a different way, but THEY are using the very same ones without issues. Maybe people should focus on why the are successful instead of jumping to dumb conclusions, but of course you can’t help that can you spud.
Good point, that is why I provided those links as demonstration.
Your benefactors are in it purely for profit, thereby disregarding any facts or already successful programs. As in, you attempting to disregard scientific and experts in the field by claiming I’m dumb.
“Put
simply, most of these personnel do not have all the skills and depth of
knowledge required to undertake sophisticated Perception Management
operations. What they need is a range of skills covering such
disciplines as marketing, advertising, journalism, theatrical production
and broadcasting. It is not enough to take service personnel or civil
servants and send these individuals on Government-run courses. One only
has to look at the experts on Madison Avenue, in the news media and in
Hollywood to see what is actually required. An undergraduate education
in a related topic, followed by a long apprenticeship in the industry,
is usually the minimum that is needed to be successful in these
disciplines.”
From this
quote, you should be able to fathom the range of skills that a psyop
team can have at its disposal and the degree of sophistication that can
go into a psyop program. Perception Management is not just ordinary
military personnel trained in traditional warfare tactics. Those
involved in planning and executing these programs might be better
classed as psychologists, cognitive and behavioral scientists, marketing
experts, public relations experts, special effects technicians,
copywriters, etc. Many specialized skills derived from the corporate
world are highly suited for psyop programs, and a Psyop Specialist knows
how to employ the techniques used in these fields to manage the
perceptions of their target audience.
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