28 min video. Bayer and the bees | DW Documentary

Insecticides are sometimes necessary in farming. But some substances, like neonicotinoids, kill not only pests but bees as well. Now the Bayer Group, one of the main manufacturers of these pesticides, is coming under pressure. Scientists around the world have found that neonicotinoids are the main cause of mass bee deaths. Research has shown that a number of insecticides should have been banned long ago. For years, the Bayer Group has sought to silence the critics and pressure scientists into not publishing their findings. For more than two decades, experts have been warning of the negative effects of neonicotinoids, with a whole range of studies published on the subject. It would appear that the industry, aided by the authorities, managed to successfully delay any ban on these substances for years. Studies show that neonicotinoids not only kill pests, but also bees and other beneficial insects. Dutch toxicologist Henk Tennekes was among the first to recognize the problem. He believes neonicotinoids are the most toxic insecticides ever produced. He discovered a study carried out by Bayer itself, back in 1991, which found that a particular neonicotinoid had a negative effect on the nervous system of a fly species. These effects were said to be "irreversible”. Tennekes then confronted the company with his findings. He was taken aback by the response: "Bayer now claims” he says, "that the binding of critical receptors in the nervous system by neonicotinoids is reversible. So they’re contradicting the results of their own study. ... If they had considered what impact this substance has, they would have had to take it off the market." Scientists in France also analyzed mass bee deaths and likewise identified an insecticide made by Bayer as the culprit. Toxicologist Jean-Marc Bonmatin reveals how the company then sought to prevent the results from being published. Meanwhile, toxicologists in Japan discovered that neonicotinoids also harm other creatures, such as fish and river crabs. There too, Bayer sought to suppress publication.

As a child (born 1956) I was living close to a huge Bayer plant in North-Rhine Westphalia. From an early age, I was suffering badly from chest infections and chronic bronchitis. Over the following years, I remember my parents talking about the nasty yellow cloud that was combing our district whenever the winds allowed. It was kind of a yellow-brown and badly smelling gas-like cloud which settled down while lingering for hours if not days. Then, I soon began to realise that my condition worsened dramatically whenever this cloud appeared. My condition never improved for as long as I was living in Germany until 1989. Once during that time, my father took me for a ride in his car and showed me the production site of Bayer. I must have been about 12 years of age back then. The stench that hit me became unbearable when we came close to the site while I realised, that the whole area surrounding that dreaded site appeared in a yellow-brown colour which was left from the fumes that were produced by those incredible huge chimneys. Indeed, I not only smelled but also tasted the toxicity of their deadly chemicals. In addition to my own experiences, I later researched that area and its surroundings (the city of Krefeld, near Düsseldorf) and found out that most of the population living in close vicinity of the Bayer plant suffered from Asthma and Bronchitis. In addition, the river Rhine, which Bayer was using as sewage, was so intoxicated that it was declared 'biological dead in the seventies for decades to come. Again, later research brought to light that Bayer was not the only killer of biological life in our heavily industrialised area as there are Hoechst, Henkel, Thyssen and Krupp to name but just a few. The colour of the river Rhine used to be dark brown-green, and I am convinced that anybody, who would have been brought in contact with its water would have suffered from intoxication. As my condition never improved, I eventually gave in to my English friends in 1988 and relocated to England in 1989. Within six months of my arrival in Lancashire, my bronchitis disappeared for good. The power, these companies have over the governments and regulating bodies is frightening. Their 'killing spree' for the sakes of profit is insane, and to this date, I cannot understand, that people do not stand up to that madness.