Problem is, you can Google ANYTHING and find that it causes cancer. Heck, the EPA is trying to tell us that CO2 now is toxic waste, never mind the fact it comes out of our noses every minute of every day. Does anyone here know a female that has had her fingers fall off or succumb to cancer known for a fact to have been caused from simply wearing fingernail polish these days? And sure, I'm sure you can find some really fun things in fingernail polishes in some countries, but here? No, sorry, I'm not going to fall for fear-mongering propaganda against nail polish for Pete's sake. And again, comparing a manicurist that breathes that in it's liquid, fumigating form for 20 years hardly compares with a bee having a dried dot of paint on her back for 2 to 5 years. Apples to oranges regardless. a bee's exoskeleton is nowhere near as porous or reactive to things as human skin.
Fear mongering propaganda...dang, I thought we were discussing an issue.
I bet it was fear mongering when the first person suggested that certain past widely used illegal off-lable chemicals not be used in the hives. Of course, now we realize that is was not fear-mongering, it was fact.
Funny thing is I simply ask for someone to show proof or supply a company willing to go on the record that their product be used for bees. I made the phone calls, I asked the question. Not one will state it so.
So I strike up a conversation that perhaps everything from testors paint, nail polish, and modeling super-glue, may be a topic for discussion, and it turns into "fear-mongering propaganda" statements.
10 years ago, I heard the same thing about the massive amounts of illegal off-label chemicals being used in the industry. Today through CCD testing of comb, and actually crawling out of the dark neanderthal position that beekeeper seem to remain, that those chemicals were doing damage.
I also hear the same from farmers after beekeepers try to suggest the damage being done to the bees by everything from pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc. And it is classic that the farmers do what some do here...stand behind the label, and make claims of "proof there is damage" and deny that they can not possibly be part of the problem. After all, the label says "bee friendly" in some form. They suggest that since the EPA approved it, it can not possible be doing damage. I wouldn't put too much into approved anything from the EPA.
But we DO know that fungicides in particular, has dire consequences once mixed with other chemicals. Since I do not think the average women wearing nail polish soaks her fingers in acid treatments, or is exposed to chemicals on the levels we know bees are, the whole "what's good for a women's nails is good for bees" is certainly not equal in any manner.
So we have farmers claiming beekeepers are running around crying wolf and denying their chemicals are part of the problem, and we have beekeepers doing the same. So slap on that paint, super glue and whatever else. Nobody ever proved damage. And those farmers will claim the same.
My next door neighbor who applies massive amounts of chemicals, also claims that he is doing nothing wrong. He claims every week when that lawn care truck pulls up that if it were bad for the environment, there would be no way that they would allow them to come and spray as they do. Really sad.
Funny thing is....nothing ever gets solved or improved such as chemicals without some well founded fear mongering and someone making it an issue.
I expect these statements. it's good to get them out in the open. Many still today say smoking never effected their health. Afterall, they smoked for so many years, and they have not died yet. But it usually takes an eye opening experience for some to change. I never said you should not be able to smoke (or mark queens) but please don't try to suggest that it does not harm anything. I can show you many products that this same claim was made, only to be found out later when actually tested, that is was detrimental. And that...is not fear-mongering. That is fact.