Seventy-five percent of honey samples taken from around the world contained traces of neonicotinoids — a class of insecticides harmful to honeybees, says a study published in the journal Science.
Researchers gathered a total of 200 samples between 2012 and 2016. Contamination rates were highest in North America, at 86 percent, followed by Asia (80 percent) and Europe (79 percent). South America, at 57 percent, had the lowest contamination levels. Many samples had more than one kind of neonic present.
Forty-eight percent of the samples exceeded the contamination threshold known to be seriously harmful to bees. Possible impacts include damage to “learning, behavior, and colony success,” says The Guardian. “In June, the largest-ever field trial showed that neonicotinoids damage the survival of honeybee colonies, as well as harming wild bees, and suggested a toxic ‘cocktail effect’ from multiple pesticides.”