Mercury levels in bee and honey samples from industrially contaminated and uncontaminated areas
1992
Toporcak, J. | Legath, J. (Univerzita Veterinarskeho Lekarstva, Kosice (CSFR)) | Kulkova, J.
Our work was aimed at the study of mercury levels in bees and their products. Mercury levels were determined in the head, abdomen and thorax of bees (Apis mellifera) from 20 bee populations coming from industrially contaminated areas with a dominant load of mercury (10 populations) and from uncontaminated areas. Mercury levels were determined simultaneously in honey coming from both contaminated and uncontaminated areas. The following mercury levels were found in bees from the contaminated area: heads 0.029-0.385 mg/kg, thorax 0.028-0.595 mg/kg and abdomen 0.083-2.255 mg/kg. Mercury levels in samples from uncontaminated areas ranged from 0.004 to 0.024 mg/kg in the heads, from 0.004 to 0.008 mg/kg in the thorax and from 0.008 to 0.020 mg/kg in the abdomen. In honey samples from the contaminated and uncontaminated areas mercury levels ranged from 0.050 to 0.212 mg/kg and from 0.001 to 0.003 mg/kg, respectively. It follows from the results of our investigations that bee populations and their products represent very sensitive indicators of environmental pollution and mercury loads of the environment both from the viewpoint of the bee population health and the safety of their products that enter the man's food chain.
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