Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in honeybees and bee products and their evaluation with ambient air concentrations

Abstract

Both quantitative and qualitative evaluation of pollutants can be achieved by biomonitoring, enabling the determination of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) with a natural substance. Similarly, passive air samplers (PASs) are among the commonly used methods for the determination of atmospheric POPs. However, in the literature, there are few studies in which both methods (Biomonitoring and PASs) are evaluated together. This study aims to determine the relationship between concentration values and sources of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) measured by PASs and biomarkers (honeybee, honey, and pollen). The total concentrations of 50 PCB congeners (Sigma(50)PCBs) in PASs (n = 10) were 2259.63 +/- 647.18 pg m(3) for the urban area and 2685.65 +/- 708.45 pg m(3) for the semi-urban area. Sigma(50)PCBs in the honeybee (n = 10), honey (n = 7), and pollen (n = 10) samples were 114.44 +/- 20.36, 104.89 +/- 31.48 and 65.89 +/- 13.54 ng g(-1) dry weight (dw) for the urban sampling area, respectively, and 119.41 +/- 45.13, 112.75 +/- 21.57 and 46.52 +/- 8.85 ng g(-1) dw for the semi-urban sampling area, respectively. Similar homologous group distributions between biomarkers and PASs were obtained. The plant/air partitioning coefficient (K-PA) was used to determine the exchange between pollen samples and PASs. The results indicated that high-molecular-weight PCBs moved from air to pollen media (deposition) and low-molecular -weight PCB congeners passed from pollen media to air (volatilization) in both sampling areas.