SoylentNews

-- OriginalOwner_ [tinyurl.com] writes:

from the city-boys-doing-dumb-things-with-dangerous-stuff dept.

Common Dreams reports [commondreams.org]

Millions of honeybees are dead in Dorchester County, South Carolina, and local beekeepers say the mass death was a result of the county spraying the area with the controversial pesticide Naled [commondreams.org] on [August 28] in an effort to combat Zika-spreading mosquitoes.

[...]A single apiary in Summerville, South Carolina lost 2.5 million bees in 46 hives, according to a local resident [...] Kristina Solara Litzenberger.

[...]"Without honeybees, we have no food", Litzenberger added. "Additionally, one can only deduct that if that much damage was caused to the bees, how will this affect people, wildlife, and the ecosystem?"

Beekeepers are supposed to be warned prior to any pesticide spraying, so that they can cover their hives to protect them. But local bee owners say they were not given any warning about Sunday's spraying, according to [counton2.com] the local news station WCBD--and this was also the first time the community was subjected to aerial spraying, rather than spraying from trucks.

[...]Naled is a particularly dangerous pesticide, as the Miami Herald reported [miamiherald.com] earlier this month:

Several studies suggest that long-term exposure to even low levels of Naled can have serious health effects for children and infants as well as wildlife, including butterflies and bees, for whom exposure can be lethal. Some studies suggest it might have neurological and developmental effects on human fetuses, including on brain size, echoing the severe consequences that eradication of the Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries the Zika virus is meant to prevent.

[...]The EU banned the chemical's use in Europe in 2012.

Original Submission