Overview
Bayir and Aygun placed five honey bee colonies at each of eight sites around Konya, Turkey, and measured eight metals by ICP-AES in the honey, trapped pollen and bees. Tables 1 and 2 give location means ± standard error for honey and pollen. Pollen lead and most other metals were higher at the urban-fringe sites, while cadmium did not differ by site. This is a non-peer-reviewed preprint.
Key numbers
- Pollen lead 0.059 ± 0.005 mg/kg at rural L8 to 0.180 ± 0.009 mg/kg at urban L4 (Table 2).
- Pollen cadmium 6.535 ± 0.771 to 11.304 ± 1.331 µg/kg, not significantly different among sites (Table 2).
- Honey lead 0.073 ± 0.009 to 0.118 ± 0.014 mg/kg; honey cadmium 4.301 to 6.898 µg/kg (Table 1).
Methods (brief)
Pollen was oven-dried at 70 °C; 0.2 g of honey or pollen was digested with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in a microwave system and read by axial ICP-AES. A blank and NIST SRM 1547 peach leaves were included in each run, but recoveries and LODs are not reported. Cadmium and chromium are reported in µg/kg, other metals in mg/kg.
Evidence Fitness
Preprint (Research Square), not peer reviewed. Five colonies per site in one season gives a modest but structured site comparison. Pollen is dry weight; honey basis is not stated. No LOD or recovery data. The same urban colonies were later re-reported as pooled means by Ilhan et al. 2023, which should not be counted as independent data.