May 22, 2015 For those who visit the Maryland State Fair each year, the honey and wax exhibit is always a highlight. A busy hive of bees can be viewed through a plastic window, there’s locally-produced honey and candles in a variety of shapes and sizes for sale, and members of the Maryland State […]
Read More… from Baltimore Sun Editorial: Scientists Know Enough to Be Alarmed
Can we take the sting out of pollinator losses? It requires state-level action. June 8, 2015 It is unfortunate that the U.S. Department of Agriculture findings that show Maryland beekeepers lost 61 percent of their colonies last year were not available just a few months earlier when the legislative committee I serve upon listened […]
Read More… from Del. Healey’s Letter to the Baltimore Sun – “MD Must Protect Bees”
by Jonathan Latham, PhD USDA researchers have identified the neonicotinoid insecticide clothianidin as a likely contributor to monarch butterfly declines in North America. The USDA research is published in the journal Science of Nature and was published online on April 3rd (Pecenka and Lundgren 2015). Monarch butterfly populations (Danaus Plexippus) have declined precipitously in […]
Read More… from New Research Links Neonicotinoid Pesticides to Monarch Butterfly Declines
St. Louis Post Dispatch, April 13, 2015 12:00 am Regarding “Monsanto lashes out at cancer agency’s finding on glyphosate” (March 25): Monsanto officials need to review the 1960s controversy over the misuse of DDT before discrediting the misuse of Roundup herbicide by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an agency of the World […]
Read More… from Effects of herbicides, insecticides need eternal scrutiny
Municipal pesticides bans not workable, says Jane Farquharson New provincial legislation allowing municipalities to control some cosmetic pesticide use doesn’t go far enough, says the P.E.I. chapter of the Canadian Cancer Society. Executive director Jane Farquharson told CBC News the society is asking the party that forms the next government to implement a province-wide […]
Read More… from Pesticide ban should be province-wide: Cancer Society
By Puneet Kollipara April 13 Pesticides bring major benefits to modern agriculture, keeping dangerous bugs and fungi and pathogens at bay while boosting yields and making farming more efficient. But what about risks? Like any chemicals — manmade or not — pesticides can be bad for human health and ecosystems if they’re toxic enough […]
Read More… from Pesticides are polluting our waters — and we often don’t know it
by Courtney Flatt Few people come into contact with farm chemicals the way agricultural workers do. That’s why a new health report on a commonly used herbicide is raising special concerns about farmworkers and cancer. For years, researchers have seen glyphosate as one of the least harmful herbicides. It doesn’t cause as many acute poisonings. […]
Read More… from Why There’s More Concern For Farmworkers After Pesticide Cancer Study
by Mark Bittman The issues surrounding G.M.O.s — genetically modified organisms — have never been simple. They became more complicated last week when the International Agency for Research on Cancer declared that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the widely used herbicide Roundup, probably causes cancer in humans. Two insecticides, malathion and diazinon, were also […]
By DAVID JOLLY April 8, 2015 | PARIS — An influential European scientific body said on Wednesday that a group of pesticides believed to contribute to mass deaths of honeybees is probably more damaging to ecosystems than previously thought and questioned whether the substances had a place in sustainable agriculture. The finding could have repercussions […]
Read More… from Pesticides Linked to Honeybee Deaths Pose More Risks, European Group Says
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2006/01/11/eline/links/20060111elin001.html Reuters January 12, 2006 By Charnicia E. Huggins NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – While infertility may be caused by a number of factors, new study findings suggest that exposure to nonpersistent, or short-lasting, insecticides may play a role in male infertility. “Environmental exposure to chlorpyrifos or its metabolite (TCPY) may be associated with reduced […]
Read More… from Insect spray may lower testosterone levels in men
We are advancing systemic change toward a sustainable pesticide-free Chesapeake region.
