In reality, this "new study"  didn't demonstrate a single
bee in California's Central Valley has ever been killed or harmed
by selenium.

Researchers at the University of California at Riverside
merely conducted a lab (not real world field) study
http://eco.confex.com/eco/2008/techprogram/P14672.HTM
involving irrigating certain plants with 1.5 ppm and 3.0 ppm
NaSeO4 and later finding high ppm levels of selenium in the
pollen plus they noted plant effects like significantly reduced
floral display width, anther length and petal width.

From that bit of experimentation the researchers speculated
"Selenium uptake may negatively alter floral traits, rendering 
them unattractive to pollinators or even reducing pollen deposition
and reproduction. If pollinators cannot detect and avoid toxic 
Selenium compounds in the plant tissues they are foraging 
upon and collecting for their progeny, they may suffer similar
adverse effects to those reported in other insect guilds."

So this is a case of researchers looking for a honeybee health
problem before uncovering any real world field evidence
that a health problem exists in the first place.

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

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