Occurrence of pesticide residues in honey from apiaries with incidents of honeybee poisoning in East China and a corresponding risk assessment for honeybees and Chinese consumers

We investigated the occurrence of 80 pesticide residues in 96 honey samples from apiaries with honeybee poisoning incidences by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and subsequently conducted risk assessments of exposure for in-hive honeybees and Chinese consumers. Six pesticides were detected with residue concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 130.9 µg/kg. The mean concentrations of acetamiprid, dinotefuran, hexythiazox, propargite, semiamitraz, and carbendazim in positive samples were 7.9 ± 9.1, 5.9 ± 1.7, 3.0 ± 1.6, 44.2 ± 50.0, 9.0 ± 9.4, and 5.5 ± 4.1 µg/kg, respectively. Carbendazim, semiamitraz, and acetamiprid were the major contaminants in honey, with incidences of 99.0%, 93.8%, and 49.0%, respectively. The cooccurrence of pesticides (≥2 pesticides) was detected in 95.9% of the samples, with up to six residual pesticides found in one sample. The HQ (hazard quotient) values of the six pesticides to in-hive honeybees were from 4.7 × 10-8 to 0.021, less than 1, indicating their acceptable exposure risk to honeybees. In terms of the representative-case and worst-case scenarios, the sum of separate HQs of each pesticide yielding an HI (hazard index) ranged from 0.012 to 0.016 for in-hive worker honeybees and from 0.015 to 0.021 for in-hive larva honeybees, indicating an overall acceptable potential cumulative risk of multiple pesticides to in-hive honeybees. Both the %ARfD (acute reference dose) value (0.0001-0.075) and %ADI (acceptable daily intake) value (0.00002-0.0046) of risky pesticides were much less than 100, revealing acceptable risk exposure to risky pesticides via honey consumption for human health. Thus, our results showed that multipesticide residual honey from apiaries with honeybee poisoning incidents in East China was safe for humans and in-hive honeybees. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This analytical approach will be used in detecting multiple pesticide residues in honey and risk assessment for dietary exposure to pesticide residues. It can support various surveillance programs about honey safety and in-hive honeybee health evaluation.