Do we have to worry about the safety of honey now?

Kim Flottum of the Beekeeper notes the most recent studies about the bees' mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder: (my bold)

Recent work by the Penn State scientists is a case in point. These scientists tried an experiment where the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus was introduced to healthy honey bee colonies to see what would happen. It was shown quite dramatically that bees with that exposure pretty much all died. Moreover, they died away from the hive, just like in the cases of Colony Collapse Disorder. After about a month all that remained in the colonies were small clusters, many of them queenless. This certainly makes a case for this virus being extremely pathogenic, and perhaps associated with CCD, say the scientists. But they are quickto add that there’s more going on than just this virus.

[snip]

For both pollen and wax, the three most common pesticides found were Coumaphos, Fluvalinate and Chlorpyrifos. The first two compounds are chemicals beekeepers use to control varroa mites. The third is an agricultural insecticide.

The biggest surprise was that the researchers found that over the 20+ years that fluvalinate has been used to control varroa mites in beehives the formulation has changed significantly. This certainly scared me, and it should you, too - the toxicity of this once safe and benign chemical has increased from an LD50 of 65.85 micorgrams/honey bee (a non-toxic level) down to only 0.2 micrograms/honey bee (a highly toxic level). That means it has become over 300 times more toxic to honey bees, and there has been no change in instructions, that is, USE LESS nor has there been any warnings to beekeepers relative to this change. As a result, toxic levels of fluvalinate, toxic levels to honey bees that is, were found in the beeswax of some samples.

The interactions of the many other chemicals found, particularly Coumaphos, with each other to from toxic levels of poison is only now being looked at. Plus, the sub-lethal effects these chemicals (most of the rest are agricultural chemicals used by farmers and applied to crops including insecticides, fungicides and herbicides) have on honey bees, and on honey bee larvae remain unknown. And one more problem? What happens when these chemicals gather together in a beehive? Does a little of this and a little of that remain only a little, or, combined, do they become a monster that only kills? No one knows. What would you think?

Anyone taking a quick look at the levels and numbers of chemicals found in these beehives would not be surprised that honeybees are having troubles. Add in the now documented effects of IAPV and the problems seem to compound. Then stir in varroa mites, tracheal mites, that new Nosema disease, traveling thousands of miles all hours of the day and night, nutritional issues due to drought, substitute diets and those monoculture deserts to forage in, plus reduced acres to even try and earn a living on and it’s no wonder our bees have problems. Good Grief!

So... not only are we losing our bees due to overwork and overdosing on chemicals, are we poisoning ourselves as well?