Toxic forever chemicals can build up in bees and be transferred to their honey, posing an existential threat to colonies, according to new research.
The University of New England (UNE) study has revealed that prolonged exposure to environmental levels of perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS) affects cell production in European honey bees.
Published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the study also found PFOS could be transferred to honey in a controlled laboratory setting.
However, lead researcher Carolyn Sonter said further research was needed to show how forever chemicals were distributed in the real world, through plant uptake and translocation to flower nectar.
“Our next steps are to understand exposure pathways for bees in the field because if PFAS is taken up and translocated to flower nectar by plants, this poses implications for all pollinators and honey consumers,” Dr Sonter said.
She said the biggest PFOS impacts were seen on the next generation.
“As the concentration increased, less bees develop and emerge in the next generation and those bees were smaller and had a lower weight,” Dr Sonter said.
“A lower body weight indicates a smaller bee with smaller glands, including the hypopharyngeal gland, which produces royal jelly to feed the next generation of bees.”
Royal jelly is a liquid used to feed larvae and if its quality is reduced, the health and longevity of future colonies are at risk, according to Dr Sonter.
Researchers say in the long-term, honey production may be impacted. (ABC Mid West Wheatbelt: Jo Prendergast)
On a larger scale, she said populations would gradually decrease and crop pollination would be affected.
“Any threat to bees threatens food security,” Dr Sonter said.
“Over time a colony would probably eventually die out.
“Most agricultural crops rely on bees for pollination, and without them, production of foods like berries, fruit, and most vegetables would be severely reduced.”
The NSW Food Authority has been contacted for comment.
‘Urgent’ message
PFOS is just one of thousands of per and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (known collectively as PFAS), otherwise known as “forever chemicals”.
Bees can be exposed to PFOS through contaminated dust, water, paint on bee hives, crop protection products and pollen from plants growing in contaminated soil and water.
Though PFOS is no longer used in Australia, Dr Sonter said legacy PFOS contamination continued to pose risks.
“The legacy of PFOS is permanent, at least in our lifetime,” she said.
European honey bees are crucial for crop pollination and food security. (Supplied:Â Tobias Smith, University of Queensland)
University of Adelaide native bee researcher Katja Hogendoorn said the research was important.
“The PFOS they are talking about is part of a conglomerate of nearly 40,000 chemical compounds that are all forever chemicals,” she said.
“Similar results have been found for other insects for bumble bees, mosquitoes, for may flies … it’s all been found that PFOS affects development and reproduction of those insects.
“The honey bee is so important for us people because they are our main crop pollinator and that makes the message more urgent.”
Dr Hogendoorn hopes further research will lead to more regulation to protect not only bees, but other insects.
“It is important for politicians and regulators to listen to these scientists who say that this is a serious threat,” she said.
Next steps
While Dr Sonter’s experiments were run in a controlled setting she said there was evidence from other countries that bees were exposed to PFOS in the wild.
“Quite recently there’s been research that’s come out of Austria that shows that foraging bees from managed hives foraging in countryside areas are accumulating various PFAS in their bodies,” she said.
Dr Sonter hopes her research will bring more awareness around the impacts of forever chemicals on bees. (Supplied: University of New England)
Researchers hope the results will lead to protective guidelines for bees.
Dr Sonter now hopes to secure funding to further investigate the uptake of PFOS in flower nectar.
“Even though bees are such an important insect, they’re poorly researched and understood when it comes to threats from environmental contaminants,” she said.