Pesticides Are Harming Bees — But Not Everywhere, Major New Study Shows

[ChadMcGoatMan]

[QUOTE]In the global debate over neonicotinoid pesticides, the company that makes most of them has relied on one primary argument to defend its product: The evidence that these chemicals, commonly called "neonics," are harmful to bees has been gathered in artificial conditions, force-feeding bees in the laboratory, rather than in the real world of farm fields. That company, Bayer, states on its website that "no adverse effects to bee colonies were ever observed in field studies at field-realistic exposure conditions."[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/06/29/534852611/pesticides-are-harming-bees-but-not-everywhere-major-new-study-shows"]http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/06/29/534852611/pesticides-are-harming-bees-but-not-everywhere-major-new-study-shows[/URL]

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[quote]Bayer will have a harder time making that argument after today.[/quote]

No they won't.

The author may be trying to spin it as neonicotinoid killing bees, but he later goes on to say there doesn't appear to be a correlation and at no point does the scientists who conducted the study say that. The fact they quote mined the scientists say "it's a cause for concern" and didn't include what else he/she was saying suggests to me that in context of something else.

Popsci journalism at its worst.

[Headhumpy]

[QUOTE=download;52417901]No they won't.

The author may be trying to spin it as neonicotinoid killing bees, but he later goes on to say there doesn't appear to be a correlation and at no point does the scientists who conducted the study say that. The fact they quote mined the scientists say "it's a cause for concern" and didn't include what else he/she was saying suggests to me that in context of something else.

Popsci journalism at its worst.[/QUOTE]

I'm reading the paper right now and they pretty clearly state that neonicotinoid use [I]can[/I] have negative effects on bee colonies, but that other factors that vary according to geographical location come into play, resulting in the observed variance. Even the article itself quotes the lead scientist as explaining some of the factors that might cause this variance.