Bees, Birth Control and Bayer

Cool things happen in the world of social networking and hyper-connectivity – previously disparate movements become connected and cross-pollinated. My post: Look Beyond Access – Demand Safe Birth Control was picked up by an environmentalist, active in the #BoycottBayer movement. It seems Bayer has an extended history of unleashing dangerous chemicals on the world and other egregious business practices dating back to before World War I. If there ever was a chemical company to boycott, Bayer just might be the one – maybe even a little worse than Monsanto and that is a high standard of callousness.

Most recently, Bayer is the purveyor of the most dangerous birth control options on the market – the Yasmin line or oral contraceptives, the frequently dislodging and vaginal tearing Mirena (no one has measured the hormone side-effects yet) and the just released and repackaged version of Mirena – Skyla. Repeated billion dollar class action lawsuits are just the cost of doing business, I guess.   According to financial reporting, their profits are down because:

Bayer faces lawsuits in the United States from women claiming the contraceptive caused blood clots that led to serious health consequences. Otherwise the [financial] picture was brighter. – silly women.

Imagine my surprise when I learn that Bayer may also be responsible for the collapse of honey bee colonies worldwide – social networks are cool.

Lest you think honey bees are of no import to health, think again. Without honey bees we have no agriculture – no food. Killing the honey bees is serious business, something only the most unscrupulous and short-sighted corporation would do, but that is exactly what Bayer and its ally Syngenta (formed by the merger of Novartis Agribusiness and Zeneca (AstraZeneca) Agrochemicals) are doing. They are killing honeybees. Although, they disagree vehemently and their own, company sponsored research supports their benevolence, health organizations and governments worldwide are beginning to ban the use of these pesticides and genetically modified seeds.

Not so in the US. We seem to wait generations before making the appropriate moves (remember DES) or at least until the same chemical company can introduce a ‘treatment’ for what they caused initially. Gotta love me some unbridled capitalism without tether to ethics or morals – except some skewed sense of moral hazard.

It’s time. Life and health must come before profits. These chemical companies must be stopped. And since there is no regulatory agency with the teeth to protect our health, we must use the means we have – stop buying their products. Just stop.

Environmentalists save the honeybees, but save human women too. We all should be boycotting Bayer and any other company that dares to poison us for a buck. Spread the word.