Environment

Tainted Honey

A new study has found that most of the honey sampled from every continent except Antarctica during a recent five-year period was contaminated with a common class of bee-harming insecticides.

Researchers from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland found that 75 percent of the samples had “quantifiable amounts” of at least one of the neonicotinoids, which have also been linked to reduced colony growth and queen production in bumblebees.

The scientists say 86 percent of the samples collected in North America were contaminated, followed by 80 percent in Asia, 79 percent in Europe and 57 percent in South America.