Salama et al. 2019 - Western Libya honey metals

Salama et al. measured physicochemical properties and toxic metals in 24 bee-honey samples from eight locations in western Libya. The paper is direct honey occurrence evidence for lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic, reported as location-level means in mg/kg. Lead was the dominant toxic-metal signal, with location means from 2.42 to 10.98 mg/kg.

Key numbers

Table 2 reports all toxic-metal concentrations in mg/kg honey.

The abstract summarizes ranges as Pb 2.42-10.98 mg/kg, Cd 0.125-0.150 mg/kg, Hg 0.021-0.10 mg/kg, and As 0.006-0.018 mg/kg. Table 2 includes a lower Hg location mean of 0.014 mg/kg for TC, so the table range is 0.014-0.100 mg/kg. Essential-element means were also reported: potassium 1120.1-1980.6 mg/kg, sodium 506.8-804.6 mg/kg, and calcium 923.92-1117.5 mg/kg in the abstract; Table 2 includes an MS calcium mean of 1133.8 mg/kg.

Methods (brief)

The study collected three honey samples from each of eight western Libya locations. Samples were stored in glass jars at 4 degrees C. For metal analysis, 1 g honey was digested with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in a microwave unit. Sodium, potassium, and calcium were measured by flame photometer, while Pb, Cd, Hg, and As were measured by atomic absorption spectroscopy.

Implications

Certification: This is routeable occurrence evidence for honey, especially for lead and cadmium. Values are reported on a honey-as-sold basis in mg/kg and should not be mixed with ug/kg data without unit conversion.

Courses: The paper illustrates how honey can be used as a local environmental-contaminant matrix and how lead findings can dominate a toxic-metal profile.

App: The honey ingredient/product profile can use this source as non-US context for Pb, Cd, Hg, and total arsenic occurrence.

Microbiome (if applicable): Not addressed.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• honey
• honey
• lead
• cadmium
• mercury
• arsenic

Verification notes

The PDF title, authors, DOI, year, journal, methods, and Table 2 values were read from the auto-fetched PDF. The paper reports total arsenic and mercury by atomic absorption spectroscopy; it does not provide inorganic arsenic or methylmercury speciation.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.