**3. Conclusion**

To maximize the production of agricultural products, extended amount of insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and bactericides are used which eventually lead to contamination of water, soil, crops, animals, even humans. Many environmental studies are concerned with the bioavailability of these pollutants and their subsequent introduction into food chain. Pesticides, Persistent Organic Pollutants (OCs, PCBs, PBBs), toxins and heavy metals have been investigated worldwide as substances that contaminate man's food. Chemicals contaminate hive products like honey, wax, pollen, propolis and royal jelly, while residues may exceed the established MRLs, either because of the improper use of the products or the utilization of unauthorized products by the beekeepers.

Honeybees forage over a circular area, with radius more than 6 Km, visiting numerous plant species and various sources of water and are notorious for collecting materials contaminated with chemicals and bringing them back to the hive. In anyway, pollutants may reach the

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hive products and this justifies consumers' concern on this subject. According to research studies, the risk for bee products contamination with pesticides from the environment is low. Concentrations of pesticide residues detected are below LOQs in most studies, while there are only few cases that high concentrations of pesticides were detected in bee products. Moreover, antibiotics used as plant protection products can contaminate bee products, but the concentrations detected are low.

Besides the above indirect method of pesticides transferring into bee's nest, the bigger risk for bee products contamination is the beekeeping practices. Diseases attack bee colonies and the beekeepers use acaricides, antibiotics, fungicide and other chemicals inside the hive to control them.

Antibiotics played an important role as effective chemotherapeutics for bee diseases and have been used until recently. However, the use of antibiotics against any bee disease is not permitted in Europe anymore, because pharmaceutical companies did not apply and support the experimental data for MRLs in bee products as required by the European Medicinal Evaluation Agency (EMEA). Despite of this forbiddance, monitoring results indicate that antibiotic residues are still present in European honeys, but the detection frequency is decreasing after the European ban. Antibiotic residues are usually detected in honey and royal jelly, while the concentrations are very low comparing to other products such as milk, eggs etc.

Another source of contamination that is caused by beekeepers is the chemicals that they use against Varroatosis, a disease caused by the parasitic mite *Varroa destructor* Anderson and Trueman. Varroas' presence causes many troubles to the bees including appearance of other diseases like sacbrood, American and European foulbrood. If it is left untreated it could destroy the whole colony within 2-3 years period. Varroatosis is actually the only disease of bees against which the use of pharmaceutical products within the hive is permitted. In European countries, there are authorized chemicals that can be used and limits (MRLs) that should not be exceeded. The contamination of bee products by acaricides can be minimized by careful use of the chemotherapeutic products. As far as we know the percentage of honey samples containing residues exceeding MRLs is low. A major problem could be the use of unauthorized products in order to control Varroatosis.

Additional problem for the quality of bee products was the volatile insecticides and other chemicals that beekeepers used in storehouses to protect bee combs from the larvae of the insect *Galleria mellonella* (wax moth). This insect attacks the honeycombs during storage and can even damage the wooden frames in which they hang. The devastating activity of these insects is known to beekeepers all over the world. To save the combs, beekeepers use several chemical fumigants that are incorporated into wax and from there they are readily translocated into bee products. Some of those like PDCB, DBE and naphthalene pose a potential health hazard. Although beekeepers stopped using these compounds, residues were still in old combs for many years and readily transferred into honey. Volatile insecticide residues detected in bee products are below LOQ in countries like Greece, which had a major contamination problem the previous decade.
