Arsenic speciation analysis in honey bees for environmental monitoring

Arsenic can be toxic to living organisms, depending not only on the concentration, but also its chemical form. The aim of this study was to determine arsenic concentrations and perform arsenic speciation analysis for the first time in honeybees, to evaluate their potential as biomonitors. Highest arsenic concentrations were determined in the vicinity of coal fired thermal power plants (367 µg kg^-1), followed by an urban region (213 µg kg^-1), with much lower concentrations in an industrial city (28.8 µg kg^-1) and rural areas (41 µg kg^-1). Until now, honey bees have never been used to study different arsenic species in the environment. For this reason, four extraction procedures were tested: water, hot water at 90 °C, 20% methanol, and 1% formic acid. Water at 90 °C was able to extract more than 90% of the total arsenic from honey bee samples. Inorganic arsenic (the sum of arsenite and arsenate) accounted for 95% of arsenic species in bees from three locations, except the industrial city, where it represented only 80% of arsenic species, while 15% was present as DMA.