Note: it costs over $400 to test for 1080 the article points out … similarly when I last looked it cost over $500 to test for glyphosate. This of course makes it cost prohibitive for the average person. It is also quite bizarre given the tonnage of 1080 (4,000 pa) that is dropped on our ‘clean green’ (the pellets are green) country.
A TEST FOR 1080 POISON IN HONEY FOUND – BUT IS IT ANY USE ?
By Carol Sawyer
A couple of weeks ago I shared a comment from beekeeper David Brown of Kati Kati, Bay of Plenty. David said :
“Bees have an average foraging range of 3 km and many of us put our hives in or near the bush to collect the lovely bush honey. The bees not only collect the nectar, they also collect sap and resin extracted by the trees and surrounding foliage. They need water as well. ……
The 1080 dust will be collected and taken back to the hive as a food for their young larvae.
1080 that is taken up by the plants is taken back to the hive in the form of nectar and resin that will be converted into honey and propolis
The water has many uses throughout the hive.
Are we putting 1080 into our honey that we feed our kids ?
“Are we putting 1080 into propolis products, which it’s said has many healing and medical uses ?”
I spoke to David Brown yesterday and he pointed out that beeswax products are also an issue.
It takes 7 gms of honey to make 1 gm of wax, he said, so if 1080 is present in the honey, the 1080 poison will be at 7 times greater concentration in the wax. We use beeswax to make lip balms, body lotions and cosmetics, and beeswax candles.
Another beekeeper who has long held concerns about 1080 in honey, Roy Arbon from Greymouth on the West Coast of the South Island, concurs with David Brown on this and, as he pointed out to me, beeswax candles are burnt in churches!
Roy Arbon has been trying to find out where he can get honey tested for 1080 residue. It has taken him three months and he says he has contacted every laboratory in the country. There are only five laboratories apparently. Even the government-owned lab, Asure Quality, has no test for 1080. (Interestingly, Roy tells me Asure Quality test all the NZ honey headed for the European Union.)
Eventually the government-owned Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) put Roy onto another Crown research institute, Landcare Research, and they have a test for 1080 in honey. Roy says they can test for 1080 in honey down to 0.005mcgs per kg. This costs $422 plus GST.
Scientist Sean Weaver, formerly of Victoria University, said in the film “Poisoning Paradise” that 1080 is an endocrine disruptor in parts per TRILLION.
0.005 mcgs per kg is 5 parts per BILLION. Therefore they need to be measuring in parts per trillion to satisfactorily prove the honey is safe for human consumption.
“Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can interfere with endocrine (or hormone) systems at certain doses. These disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. Any system in the body controlled by hormones can be derailed by hormone disruptors.” – Wikipedia
Surely the honey industry, as a whole, needs to look at this question seriously and demand to be notified well in advance of any 1080 drops in their area so they can move their hives. (1) I am sure there are many conscientious beekeepers who do just that, but it appears from a glance at comments on the NZ Beekeepers’ forum that quite a number are not aware of, or concerned about, the danger.
(1) However, Roy Arbon says “most departments dropping 1080 do notify the beekeeper if the beekeeper has his hives registered under the American Foul Brood Pest Management Plan (AFB PMP) and everyone is supposed to”, but, he continues, where, for example, do you move 450 hives?!! Good question.
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Don Mac posted this comment in NZ Beekeepers Forum on April 23, 2015 :
“There has been a documented connection between 1080 and poisoning of bees. Back in 1988 ‘jam bait’ containing 1080 for possum control was used around the Te Kuiti area. Unknown to the manufacturer the supplier of the raw material used sugar in a batch that attracted bees who took it back to the hives. Inspection of honey comb showed green cells from the dye used in the jam bait to prevent birds eating it.
“Wallaceville testing found 2.2mg/kg of 1080 in the green honey, but were unable to find the 1080 in the dead bees”. Pictures from John Bassett, retired beekeeper from the Te Kuiti area.
Today no sugar or sweeteners are used in vertebrate toxic baits for rats, possums and mustelids .”
( Link here – https://www.nzbees.net/…/5652-whats-the-connection-between…/ )
Don Mac has been incorrectly informed. I spoke to Bill Simmons, Sales and Marketing Executive, Animal Control Products, Whanganui, a year ago. ( ACP , now trading as Orillion, is the government-owned factory that produces NZ’s 1080 baits and other poison products). He assured me sweeteners are still used in 1080 baits. “How else would we attract possums ?! ” he said. He wouldn’t tell me the exact sugar percentage but said, cryptically, that it was in two figures and it wasn’t a three – which means, I presume, that the baits are between 20% and 30% sugar and will therefore be attractive to bees.
ACP ( trading as Orillion ) safety data sheets state :
(a)0.04% 1080 PELLETS
(b)0.08% 1080 RODENT PELLETS
(c)0.08% 1080 PELLETS
(d)0.10% 1080 FERAL CAT BAIT
(e)0.15% 1080 PELLETS
(f )0.2% 1080 PELLETS
Synonyms: 1080 pellets
Active Ingredient: Sodium fluoroacetate 0.04% -0.2%
Other Ingredients:
(a, b, c, e, f) Cereals, sugars and binders
(d) Fishmeal, fish oil and binder
So you can see they mention sugars.
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“Hungry Bees 1080 Poison Risk to New Zealand Honey Says DoC” – Film by The Graf Boys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQVj1mcBEPw
SOURCE
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Below are the photographs Don Mac mentions, plus photos of beehives near 1080 poison signs in various parts of the country – Ruapuke, Kaikoura, Collingwood and Coromandel.
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One third to to one half of a cinammon-flavoured 1080 bait, comprised of cereal and 25% sugar, and as you can see an attractive ‘lolly-green’ can KILL a preschooler. A nibble, or even a lick of a bait could make a child very ill.
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