Antibiotic, Pesticide, and Microbial Contaminants of Honey: Human Health Hazards

Table 1

Types of honey’s contamination.

(A) The environmental contaminanants
(1) Heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury
(2) Radioactive isotopes
(3) Organic pollutants, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB’s)
(4) Pesticides (insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and bactericides)
(5) Pathogenic bacteria
(6) Genetically modified organisms
(B) The beekeeping contaminants
(1) Acaricides: lipophilic synthetic compounds and nontoxic substances such as organic acids and components of essential oils
(2) Antibiotics used for the control of bee brood diseases, mainly tetracyclines, streptomycin, sulfonamides, and chloramphenicol.
(3) Paradichlorobenzene, used for the control of wax moth and chemical repellents