Dr. Fumio Matsumura was passionate about exploring environmental impacts of agrochemicals as evident in his textbook classic 'Toxicology of Insecticides.' Recently we have shown that honey bees are unusually sensitive to organosilicone surfactants, nonylphenol polyethoxylates and the solvent N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), widespread co-formulants used in agrochemicals and frequent pollutants within the beehive. Effects include learning impairment for adult bees and chronic toxicity in larval feeding bioassays. Multi-billion pounds of synthetic organic chemicals used and released into US environments are formulation ingredients like NMP, generally recognized as safe, having no mandated tolerances, and whose residues remain largely unmonitored. These �inerts� overwhelm the chemical burden from active pesticide, drug and personal care ingredients with which they are formulated. Why most formulations are more toxic to bees than respective active ingredients and how pesticides interact to cause pollinator decline cannot be answered without understanding the prevailing environmental chemical background to which bees are exposed.

Honey bees as a prime bioindicator of agrochemical pollution

248th National Meeting (2014)

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