The Plight of the Bumblebee

by Janet Ritz

With all the focus on the disappearance of the honeybee, there has been little discussion about the plight of the bumblebee, one of the hardest workers in the wild world of agriculture, despite this warning issued by the National Academy of Sciences October 2006:

Long-term trends for several wild bee species -- especially bumblebees -- as well as some butterflies, bats, and hummingbirds... show population drops.

That focus may now change as word comes from scientists that at least one bumblebee species from the Northwestern region of the United States, Franklin's Bumblebee, may have gone extinct.

This is a serious development. Not only because the loss of any species due to human activity is, in this writer's opinion, unconscionable, but because we depend on this species more than we've taken the time to understand.

According to this newly released National Academy of Sciences report, the bumblebee is one of many pollinators losing their battle to survive because of 'habitat lost to housing developments and intensive agriculture, pesticides, pollution and diseases spilling out of greenhouses using commercial bumblebee hives.'

Like the honeybee, the bumblebee has been hurt by the introduction of a non-native parasite. Many pollinator declines are associated with habitat loss...

It turns out that our native American bumblebee (the honeybee was imported) does more than provide a pleasant bass note to the summer hum we hear outside our window amidst the lawn mowers, sprinklers and our children's laughter. The reality is that our humble bumblebee is one of the hardest workers in the wild, accounting for the pollination that provides food for bears and birds -- and for us -- by pollinating ~fifteen percent of U.S. crops. And that percentage has been growing as farmers turn to the lowly bumblebee to replace the disappearing honeybees.

Bumblebee advocates and the scientists raising the alarm about the disappearance of the Franklin's Bumblebee have begun to lobby congress for research money and are now asking farmers to set aside unused land for flowering plants. These requests, along with the new National Academy report, are vital calls to arms. For Franklin's Bumblebee, which has long added its bass note to the life and livelihood of the Pacific Northwest, it may be too late.

For the humble bumblebees still left, such measures are essential.

USDA recalls 143 million pounds of beef

by Janet Ritz
with Martin Muse

Cross-posted on Reuters, Chicago Sun-Times

The USDA has recalled 143 million pounds of beef produced from a Chino, CA slaughterhouse, making this the largest beef recall in the U.S.:

LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday recalled 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a Southern California slaughterhouse that is being investigated for mistreating cattle.

The federal agency said the recall will affect beef products dating [from] Feb. 1, 2006, that came from Chino, California-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., which supplies meat to the federal school lunch program and to some major fast-food chains.

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said his department has evidence that Westland did not routinely contact its veterinarian when cattle became non-ambulatory after passing inspection, violating health regulations.

The government shut Westland down on Friday after video revealed they were using forklifts to push sick cattle to slaughter. Two former employees are being charged with animal cruelty. The investigation will determine if further charges will be brought.

Jack in the Box, a San Diego-based company with restaurants in 18 states, told its meat suppliers not to use Hallmark until further notice, but it was unclear whether it had used any Hallmark meat. In-N-Out, an Irvine-based chain, also halted use of the Westland/Hallmark beef. Other chains such as McDonald's and Burger King said they do not buy beef from Westland. Link.

"We don't know how much product is out there right now. We don't think there is a health hazard, but we do have to take this action," said Dr. Dick Raymond, USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety.

There are 150 school systems, through the Federal National School Lunch Program impacted by the recall (through Westland's Hallmark Meat Brand). The concern is that non-ambulatory and crippled cattle are most at risk for "contamination from E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease because they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak."

Here are the links to the CNN and MSNBC reports.

Soft Drink-Cancer Link Lawsuit Settled

by Janet Ritz

What do soft drinks, cigarettes and gasoline have in common? Benzene.

That's right. Cancer causing Benzene.

Soft drinks: Two the nation's largest soft drink manufacturers have just agreed to reformulate their soft drinks to exclude the known carcinogen Benzene, which forms when Ascorbic Acid and Sodium Benzoate (a preservative) combine in one product:

Safeway settles benzene soft drink suit

The supermarket market chain, Safeway Inc., has agreed to reformulate soft drinks made with ingredients that can potentially form benzene, according to a recent settlement. The company is one of several soft drink manufacturers that have recently been sued in class action lawsuits over benzene, a known carcinogen. Coca-Cola, a former defendant, agreed to settle last month.

Exposure to significant levels of benzene can lead to increased rates of bone marrow diseases, including leukemia.

http://tinyurl.com/...

The bad news? Not all companies are reformulating:

Other companies named in the lawsuit include: PepsiCo, Sunny Delight, Shasta and Polar.

Benzene:

What makes Benzene so scary? Here's what the CDC has to say:

Long-term exposure to high levels of benzene in the air can cause leukemia, particularly acute myelogenous leukemia, often referred to as AML. This is a cancer of the blood-forming organs. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined that benzene is a known carcinogen. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the EPA have determined that benzene is carcinogenic to humans.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/...

How do you tell if you're drinking Benzene? Here's Consumer Reports' link for determining if benzene is in your beverages.

Both Coke and Pepsi say they have reformulated their drinks by removing ascorbic acid (but not the Sodium Benzoate or Potassium Benzoate...hmmm), but have admitted they don't know how much of their old product is on the shelf.

Also, it's not just ascorbic acid that combines to create Benzene:

Benzene can form in beverages containing benzoate salts (anti­microbials) and either vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or erythorbic acid, a related substance, if certain minerals are present. Heat or light during shipping or storage can increase the amount of benzene formed.

And it's not just in soda:

Benzene exposure can be reduced by limiting contact with gasoline and cigarette smoke. Families are encouraged not to smoke in their house, in enclosed environments, or near their children.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/...

That's right. Cigarette smoke and gasoline.

And soda.

So what are government agencies doing about this? Not enough, according to this OP-ED in the SF Chronicle:

Too many agencies don't protect our food

GROUPS of consumers have prevailed in separate settlements announced over the past several weeks against Safeway stores and the Coca-Cola Co. in litigation aimed at forcing soft-drink manufacturers to reformulate their beverages so that a potential benzene-causing combination of ingredients will not be used in their drinks.

While news of the legal settlements is certainly good, there are many other manufacturers still hedging on their decision to reformulate. It shouldn't have to take legal battles filed by concerned consumers to stop an industry practice that is risky, can easily be avoided and should have been addressed by the government a long time ago. Why haven't the government agencies charged with protecting our food, beverages and water stepped in? Welcome to the alphabet soup of food safety regulation - where various agencies can impose varying rules that allow important safety issues to slip between agency jurisdictions...

http://www.sfgate.com/...

Hmm... Government agencies and food safety. Where have we heard this before?

Soft drinks, cigarettes and gasoline...

What does Consumer Reports think about all of this?

Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, thinks the FDA should restrict benzene in all beverages to the limit set for drinking water and require manufacturers to take steps to prevent benzene formation by changing the products’ formulation or manufacturing process.

Good idea.

Here's the link to the SF Chronicle Story.

Here's the link to the DHHS warning on Benzene in Soft Drinks.

Here's the link to the story about the lawsuit.

Here's the link to Consumer Reports' warning (this has product names)

I'm going to go make some fresh orange juice (from the oranges off the tree in my back yard) now.

Soda and gasoline and cigarettes, oh, my...

EU bans 30,000 chemicals used in the US

by Janet Ritz

New regulations on 30,000 chemicals, currently unregulated (according to the EU report) in the United States, went into effect in the European Union on June 1st under the acronym REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals). These chemicals, known as endocrine disrupters, are suspected of "increasing rates of breast and testicular cancer, male infertility, diabetes, even obesity."

Jun. 1--COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Are a group of modern chemicals present in everyday household products behind increasing rates of breast and testicular cancer, male infertility, diabetes and even obesity?

As new regulations on the chemicals, known as endocrine disrupters, go into effect in the European Union today, select scientists from around the globe met to share their research and growing concerns. Some of the chemicals -- found in plastic containers, dental sealants, soda and soup can linings, carpets, paints and pesticides -- remain virtually unregulated in the United States.

http://www.jsonline.com

What is an endocrine disrupter?

[Bisphenol A]

Endocrine disrupters have been defined as exogenous substances that alter function(s) of the endocrine system and consequently cause adverse health effects in an intact organism, or its progeny, or (sub)populations.

Endocrine disrupters interfere with the functioning of the endocrine system, in at least three possible ways:

• by mimicking the action of a naturally-produced hormone, such as oestrogen or testosterone, and thereby setting off similar chemical reactions in the body;
• by blocking the receptors in cells receiving the hormones (hormone receptors), thereby preventing the action of normal hormones; or
• by affecting the synthesis, transport, metabolism and excretion of hormones, thus altering the concentrations of natural hormones.

Potential human health effects caused by EDCs:

• For women: Breast and reproductive organ tissue cancers, fibrocystic disease of the breast, polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, uterine fibroids and pelvic inflammatory diseases. Declining sex ratio (fewer women)
• For men: Poor semen quality (low sperm counts, low ejaculate volume, high number of abnormal sperm, low number of motile sperm), testicular cancer, malformed reproductive tissue (undescended testes, small penis size), prostate disease and other recognised abnormalities of male reproductive tissues.
• Other potential effects: impaired behavioural/mental, immune and thyroid function in developing children; osteoporosis, precocious puberty.

Okay, I'm scared.

Now, the EPA does say they regulate endocrine disruptors (wiki), but the EU claim is that they're too many not on the EPA list. But do the new EU regulations provide a solution? That's a controversial question. Some of the EU says yes. Others say it doesn't go far enough. And in the US (on both sides of the ecological spectrum), there are significant questions regarding the industry self-policing nature of the new regulatory system (more on that below).

A link to the new regulations, acronym REACH [Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals], which were adopted by the European Union in 2006, went into effect yesterday.

The European Chemical industry stands on the cusp of a revolution in regulatory controls. The new EU regulatory network, known by the acronym REACH, comes in to force from 1st June 2007, after its initial publication in the European Commission's Official Journal on 30th December 2006. The official title of the regulatory controls is: REGULATION (EC) No 1907/2006 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of CHemicals (REACH). REACH runs to 849 pages and replaces over 40 pre-existing laws.

The two most important aims of REACH are to improve protection of human health and the environment from the risks of chemicals, while enhancing the competitiveness of the EU's chemicals industry. REACH will require a registration, over a period of 11 years, of some 30,000 chemical substances. The registration process requires the manufacturers and importers to generate data for all chemicals substances produced or imported into the European Union above one tonne per year. The registrants must also identify appropriate risk management measures and communicate them to the users. Amongst the myriad of controls and regulations facing chemical companies will be a requirement to take cognisance of the multiple language dimension of the European Union.

As mentioned above, REACH is not without critics on both sides of the ocean and ecological fence:

EU's REACH law enters into force amid controversy

The regulation on the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) continues to evoke controversy as it enters into force on 1 June. While the chemical industry appears ready to work with the new law, environmental groups continue to lament what they see as its shortcomings.

http://www.euractiv.com/...

"We have been and continue to be concerned about the REACH program for a number of reasons," said Mike Walls, managing director at the Virginia-based American Chemistry Council, the trade association that represents the U.S. chemical industry.

Walls called REACH "a very complex and complicated system," and one that is untested. "At a minimum we think it is inappropriate to look to REACH as a model when there is no experience under it."

[snip]

Frederick vom Saal, an endocrinologist at the University of Missouri, was concerned about the EU program's reliance on corporations and industry.

http://www.lef.org/...

Walls went on to say that the EPA was the correct regulatory agency for this within the U.S.

vom Saal's concern was that REACH relies too much on industry testing, as opposed to government and/or independent tests. A valid concern, given his experience with a chemical known as bisphenol-A, which was proclaimed by industry testing to be safe, but then, upon independent testing, showed up at a trace level in every American tested for it.

So, within the US, there seems to be a strange bedfellows moment -- independent research combined with government regulation as opposed to industry self-policing.

The question that REACH raises for the U.S. then, is not about method, as vom Saal's research seems to point to our independent model as a more secure test than industry self-policing.

It's why the EU has found so many endocrine disruptors to regulate that the report claims the U.S. is not currently regulating.

Classification

There are two classes of substances which can cause endocrine disruption:

Natural hormones, which include oestrogen (responsible for female sexual development), progesterone and testosterone (=androgens: responsible for male sexual development) found naturally in the bodies of humans and animals, and phytoestrogens, substances contained in some plants, such as alfalfa sprouts and soya beans, which display oestrogen-like activity when ingested by the body. Natural hormones are believed to be easily broken down in the human body; thus they do not accumulate in body tissues, which is the case with certain man-made substances.

Man-made substances which include:

1. Synthetically produced hormones, including those hormones which are identical to natural hormones, such as oral contraceptives, hormone-replacement treatment and some animal feed additives, which have been designed intentionally to interfere with and modulate the endocrine system; and
2. Man-made chemicals (thousands of new and existing man-made chemicals exist) designed for uses in industry, such as in industrial cleaning agents, in agriculture, in certain pesticides, and in consumer goods such as in plastic additives. This group also includes chemicals produced as a by-product of industrial processes such as dioxins, which are suspected of interfering with the endocrine systems of humans and wildlife. Some of the potential environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are persistent and ubiquitous in the environment (persistent organic pollutants – POPs ).

Here's a PDF file on chemicals suspected to be EDCs.

Here's a list of some regulated EDCs:

• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxin and benzopyrene: Interfere with components in the steroid, thyroid and retinoid signalling pathways.
• Phthalates (plasticisers, e.g. in PVC).
• Bisphenol A (lacquers) [one w/ trace amounts found in EVERY American]
• Pesticides (insecticides such as DDT, endosulfan, dieldrin, methoxychlor, kepone, dicofol and toxaphene; herbicides such as alachlor, atrazine and nitrofen; fungicides such as benomyl, mancozeb and tributyl tin); nematocides such as aldicarb and dibromochloropropane).
• Ordinary household products such as alkylphenols (e.g. nonylphenol)
• Heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium).

Where the new law is now in effect:

Chemical companies wanting to sell their products in within EU will have to translate into 23 official EU languages. These are Bulgarian, Czech, Danish , Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French , German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish

Here's a link to an analysis of five EU countries on the chemical initiative from the University of Mass - Lowell.

I have not been able to slog through all the chemical lists to confirm which are or are not on each countries yes or no column. For reference, if anyone cares to check the stuff in their kitchen cabinet:

And here's the EPA's page on chemicals regulated in the US as of October 2006.

This link is to a PDF file (5 mg) of all EPA regulated chemicals.

This link is the the EU's official REACH homepage.

Here's a link to Ed Begley Jr's FAQ page, which has a link to a natural cleanser, for those who want to clean without ECDs.

It's Official: The HoneyBees are Gone [Congressional Testimony]

by Janet Ritz

Experts are gathering outside Washington, D.C. today for a two-day meeting to collectively scratch their heads about the Colony Collapse Disorder, aka 'Where have all the honeybees gone.'

The phenomenon was first noticed late last year in the United States, where honeybees are used to pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees have also been reported in Europe and Brazil.

Commercial beekeepers would set their bees near a crop field as usual and come back in two or three weeks to find the hives bereft of foraging worker bees, with only the queen and the immature insects remaining. Whatever worker bees survived were often too weak to perform their tasks.

There's been much speculation about this lately. Others have written extensively on their ideas as to the cause. I don't know the cause, so I thought I'd write an article that addresses what we do know, what questions are being asked, what is being done, and what has been reported, so far, in Congressional testimony.

The scientists and researchers meeting in Washington today have formed working groups from several universities, government agencies and research facilities. Here's an interesting quote from one of the team members, Rick Pettis of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service, about what they're saying is NOT causing the disorder:

If the bees were dying of pesticide poisoning or freezing, their bodies would be expected to lie around the hive. And if they were absconding because of some threat -- which they have been known to do -- they wouldn't leave without the queen.

But they are leaving without the queen, which is incredible, given their societal structure (God save the queen could be their motto):

Colonies are established not by solitary queens, as in most bees, but by groups known as "swarms" which consist of a mated queen and a large contingent of workers. This group moves en masse to a nest site that has been scouted by workers beforehand, and once they arrive they immediately construct a new comb and begin to raise a new worker brood

http://en.wikipedia.org/...

They're not swarming anymore, according to Rick Pettis, who says that one-third of the U.S. diet depends on the honeybee:

"They're the heavy lifters of agriculture," Pettis said of honeybees. "And the reason they are is they're so mobile and we can rear them in large numbers and move them to a crop when it's blooming."

Honeybees are used to pollinate some of the tastiest parts of the American diet, Pettis said, including cherries, blueberries, apples, almonds, asparagus and macadamia nuts.

"It's not the staples," he said. "If you can imagine eating a bowl of oatmeal every day with no fruit on it, that's what it would be like" without honeybee pollination.

Wait a minute. I like cherries. I get my anti-oxidants from blueberries. An apple a day keeps my doctor away. Asparagus is my favorite vegetable and Almond milk is my substitute for that cow stuff.

So, what's being done about it?

On March 26, 2007, the Congressional Research Service compiled a report for Congress entitled:

Recent Honey Bee Colony Declines

Honey bee colony losses are not uncommon. However, current losses seem to differ from past situations in that

• colony losses are occurring mostly because bees are failing to return to the hive (which is largely uncharacteristic of bee behavior),
• bee colony losses have been rapid,
• colony losses are occurring in large numbers, and
• the reason why these losses are occurring remains still largely unknown.

To date, the potential causes of CCD, as reported by the scientists who are researching this phenomenon, include but may not be limited to

• parasites, mites, and disease loads in the bees and brood;
• known/unknown pathogens;
• poor nutrition among adult bees;
• level of stress in adult bees (e.g., transportation and confinement of bees, or other environmental or biological stressors);
• chemical residue/contamination in the wax, food stores and/or bees;
• lack of genetic diversity and lineage of bees; and
• a combination of several factors

On March 29th, Diana Cox-Foster, Professor Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, testified before the House Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture:

Honey bees are essential for the pollination of over 90 fruit and vegetable crops worldwide. The economic worth of the honey bee is valued at more than $14.6 billion in the U.S. In Pennsylvania alone, honey bees and pollination are worth $65 million annually through fruit crops, forage, and bee products (most notably honey). In addition to agricultural crops, honey bees also pollinate many native plants in the ecosystem.

[snip]

In colonies experiencing CCD [Colony Collapse Disorder], we have found that individual bees are infected with an extremely high number of different disease organisms. However, we have found little evidence of parasitization by varroa or tracheal mites. Many of these known bee diseases are commonly associated with stress in bees. Of particular note, we have found all adult bees in CCD colonies are infected with fungal infections. These findings may indicate that the bees are being immunosuppressed, but none of the organisms found in these bees can be attributed as the primary culprits in CCD.

Here are three research questions Cox's working team is investigating:

• Are there new or reemerging pathogens responsible for CCD?
• Are environmental chemicals causing the immunosuppression of bees and triggering CCD?
• Is a combination of stressors (e.g., varroa mites, diseases, nutritional stress) interacting to weaken bee colonies and allowing stress-related pathogens such as fungi to cause final collapse?

Another working team scientist, May Berenbaum of the University of Illinois, is exploring behavioral reasons for the disappearance:

"The main hypotheses are based on the interpretation that the disappearances represent disruptions in orientation behavior and navigation," said May Berenbaum, an insect ecologist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Orientation behavior and navigation...

Or, as one of the team members said: "The HoneyBees are Gone and we don't know where."

There are multiple working teams gathering in Washington this week. As a testament to how seriously this is being taken, they say they intend to pool their resources to determine the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder. They'd better do it soon, because it turns out that the honeybees might just be the proverbial canary in the coal mine:

Honeybees are not the only pollinators whose numbers are dropping. Other animals that do this essential job -- non-honeybees, wasps, flies, beetles, birds and bats -- have decreasing populations as well.

Cherries, blueberries, apples, almonds, asparagus and macadamia nuts, approximately 84 other crops, and honey, beeswax and royal jelly and, of course, William Butler Yeats:

"I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade."

Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture
Dennis A. Cardoza, (D-CA) Chairman

Jurisdiction: fruits and vegetables; honey and bees; marketing and promotion orders; plant pesticides, quarantine, adulteration of seeds, and insect pests; and organic agriculture.

Majority

• Dennis A. Cardoza, CA
• Bob Etheridge, NC
• Lincoln Davis, TN
• Tim Mahoney, FL
• John Barrow, GA
• Kirsten E. Gillibrand, NY

Minority

• Randy Neugebauer, TX
• John R. "Randy" Kuhl, NY
• Virginia Foxx, NC
• Kevin McCarthy, CA
• K. Michael Conaway, TX

Congressional Hearing on Colony Collapse Disorder:
THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2007
Witness List (w/links to opening statements):

Panel I

• Associate Administrator Caird E. Rexroad, PhD, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, Washington, D.C.
• Dr. Diana Cox-Foster, PhD, Professor, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
• Dr. May R. Berenbaum, Professor and Head, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois

Panel II

• Mr. Paul Wenger, First Vice President, California Farm Bureau Federation, Modesto, California
• Mr. David Ellingson, Commercial Bee Keeper, Ortonville, MN
• Mr. Gene Brandi, Legislative Chairman, California State Beekeepers Association, Los Banos, California
• Mr. Jim Doan, Commercial Bee Keeper, Hamlin, New York
• Mr. Richard Adee, Legislative Committee Chairman, American Honey Producers Association, Bruce, South Dakota

The next congressional hearing is set for June 24-30 during National Pollinator Week (really).
Live Audio link: http://agriculture.house.gov/...

Let's hope there are some pollinators left to attend.

Link to the Congressional Research Service's March 26, 2007 Report
Lint to the CNN/Reuter's article cited above.