Herbicides

The current distribution and recent population trends of the Great Bustard ( Otis tarda ) in Iran were investigated based on a literature review and unpublished data (1995–2008) followed by three years of census (2009–2011) in areas where the species is still breeding. Results suggest that Great Bustards have disappeared from a large part of their former distribution in the country, including East Azarbayjan, Hamedan and Kurdistan provinces. The surviving groups are concentrated in West Azarbayjan where numbers are rapidly declining.

New EPA documents have finally put hard numbers to the use of neonicotinoid insecticides, which have quietly grown to dominate corn and soybean acreage in the U.S. over the past five to six years. Data on the usage of clothianidin (Poncho, from Bayer), thiamethoxam (Cruiser, from Syngenta) and imidacloprid (Gaucho, from Bayer and Valent USA) has been scarce in the past, in part because the EPA does not regulate seed treatments in the same way it does foliar or soil applications of the same chemicals. Now pollinator and aquatic risk assessments on three neonicotinoids released on Jan.

Diethylstilbestrol oder DES. Die 1938 erstmalig synthetisierte nicht-steroidale Verbindung war das erste künstliche Estrogen und wird als endokriner Disruptor eingestuft. Von 1940 bis 1971 wurde es Millionen von schwangeren Frauen verabreicht, um Komplikationen im Schwangerschaftsverlauf zu verhindern, obwohl sich schon in den 1950er Jahren Anzeichen seiner weitgehenden Wirkungslosigkeit für diese Aufgabe häuften - mit Folgen für die behandelten Frauen. Die Substanz kam außerdem bei der Hormontherapie des Prostatakarzinoms und als Mastbeschleuniger in der Viehzucht zum Einsatz.

In the final weeks and months of the Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs issued a flurry of reports on some of the country’s most widely used pesticides. Decisions made on the basis of these environmental and health assessments will likely determine the level of pesticide residue allowed on the food we eat. They will affect children’s neurological health and development, particularly in agricultural communities. They will determine how farmworkers are protected from pesticide exposures.

Despite a steady rise in the manufacture and release of synthetic chemicals, research on the ecological effects of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals is severely lacking. This blind spot undermines efforts to address global change and achieve sustainability goals. So reports a new study in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Emma J. Rosi , a freshwater ecologist at the Cary Institute and a co-author on the paper, explains, "To date, global change assessments have ignored synthetic chemical pollution.

In a review of existing research, commissioned by a committee of the European Parliament, a group of European researchers has identified benefits of organic food production for human health. The researchers recommend the parliament to consider giving priority to certain organic production practices and their use also in conventional agriculture. This recommendation comes from a one-year study resulting in the report 'Human health implications of organic food and organic agriculture'. The experts list several advantages of methods used in organic agriculture that benefit human health.

Rund um den kleinen Ort Billafingen, wo Peter Berthold, einer der bekanntesten Vogelexperten Deutschlands wohnt, scheint die Welt noch in Ordnung zu sein: Malerisch umgeben Wiesen, Äcker und kleine Wälder den Ort im Bodenseekreis. Doch selbst hier zwitschert es immer weniger von Bäumen und Hecken – denn auch in dieser Gegend nimmt das globale Vogelsterben seinen Lauf. Seit Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts sind 80 Prozent der Vögel in Deutschland verloren gegangen, das hat Berthold für sein neuestes Buch recherchiert.