Pesticide Deadly to Bees Now Easily Detected in Honey
upstart writes in with an IRC submission:
Pesticide deadly to bees now easily detected in honey:
Researchers at the University of Waterloo developed an environmentally friendly, fully automated technique that extracts pyrethroids from the honey. Pyrethroids are one of two main groups of pesticides that contribute to colony collapse disorder in bees, a phenomenon where worker honeybees disappear, leaving the queen and other members of the hive to die. Agricultural producers worldwide rely on honeybees to pollinate hundreds of billions of dollars worth of crops.
[...] "It is our hope that this very simple method will help authorities determine where these pesticides are in use at unsafe levels to ultimately help protect the honeybee population," said Pawliszyn.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency tests for chemical residues in food in Canada. Maximum residue limits are regulated under the Pest Control Products Act. The research team found that of the honey products they tested that contained the pesticide, all were at allowable levels.
Journal Reference:
Joao Raul Belinato, Jonathan J. Grandy, Abir Khaled, et al. Overcoming matrix effects in the analysis of pyrethroids in honey by a fully automated direct immersion solid-phase microextraction method using a matrix-compatible fiber. Food Chemistry, 2021; 340: 128127 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.128127
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