Two Ways Bird Declines Are Linked to Chemical PesticidesHeather Callaghan Neonicotinoids were always regarded as selective toxins. But our results suggest that they may affect the entire ecosystem, says Hans de Kroon of Radboud University and co-author of a study recently published in Nature journal. Its not just the bees. There are at least two ways that neonicotinoidpesticides dramatically affect the bird population. Neonicotinoids are growing in the world market to become the most widely used pesticides and are often used to treat seeds which makes the entire plant contain the chemical. (Yes, that means it doesnt wash off) This might be useful to the farmer who wishes to target multiple pests such as those that eat roots and others that devour leaves, but that also means pollinators like bees get exposed to contaminated pollen, butterflies to nectar and birds can become immobilized or die after consuming treated seeds. Furthermore, they get into surface water in a variety of ways and build up and persist in the soil for years. CBC News reports: The authors state: Furthermore: While their findings on bird decline linked to neonicotinoids in water and through the unintended eradication of their food source are compelling they stopped short of claiming direct cause. They do however, show that the correlation wasnt a coincidence. They are building a line of evidence and joining up with other scientists who have reported similar findings with other animals. Common explanations such as population changes, crop changes and urbanization did not hold water under their battery of tests. Kroon said: He told BBC: Bayer CropScience, leading maker ofimidaclopridadamantly denied the study findings, emphasizing lack of direct causeand substantiated evidence. In a response, they wrote:Neonicotinoids have gone through an extensive risk assessment which has shown that they are safe to the environment when used responsibly according to the label instructions. This is an all-too-common retort that seems to attempt placing the smoking gun in farmers hands. Lo and behold, Bayer is a part of the consortium funding an upcoming Canada-wide study to discover whats harming the bees. Hint: not their product. After the response from Bayer, they explained that for a direct cause to be determined,they would have to do landscape-scale experiments that would be difficult and probably very unethical. But it is not only environmental chemicals to consider for the bird populations birds are literally losing their way due to overpowering EMF signals. Interestingly, the symptoms of birds caught in EMF waves and the ingestion of neonicotinoid seeds are similar difficulty flying, immobilization. That is what the EPA discovered in 1992 while studying the pesticides effects on birds. This, however, did not lead to any thoughtful halt on the chemical approval before it entered the market. The European Union recently enacted a temporary moritorium on neonicotinoids but not without fierce fighting from theworlds biggest chemical producers including Bayer. Heather Callaghan is a natural health blogger and food freedom activist. You can see her work atNaturalBlaze.com and selfnewsPost.com. Like at Facebook. Recent posts byHeather Callaghan: 