Overview
Maragou and colleagues validated a cold vapor AAS method with microwave digestion and applied it to 32 beehive samples from northern and western Greece. Mercury was below the method detection limit in every honey, pollen, propolis and bee sample.
Key numbers
- Pollen (12 samples): mercury < 0.06 μg g-1 (method LOD) in all samples (Section 3.2).
- Honey (9 samples): mercury < 0.05 μg g-1 in all samples (Section 3.2).
- Propolis (6 samples): mercury < 0.3 μg g-1 in all samples (Section 3.2).
Methods (brief)
Samples (0.1 to 1 g) were digested with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in closed vessels and read by CVAAS with sodium borohydride reduction. Method LODs were 0.05 (honey), 0.06 (pollen), 0.3 (propolis) and 0.8 μg/g dw (bees). Spike recoveries were 64 to 129%; pollen recovery was not tested and no CRM was used.
Evidence Fitness
All results are non-detects at high LODs (60 µg/kg for pollen), so the study only bounds mercury below that level and cannot show typical pollen levels, which the cited literature puts in the low µg/kg range. The pollen moisture basis is not stated. The DOI is not printed in the PDF and was taken from the manifest.