Bill Truesdell said:

> any discussion about ppm or ppb has to get back to what
> happens to it in the wild. The food chain tends to concentrate
> so you can start with ppb go to ppm and soon come to amounts
> that are of concern.

Very true, but I was focusing on contaminants in honey.
I am at the top of the local food chain, but I can understand that
people who live in Maine face additional challenges (large bears,
giant lobsters, crazed moose, visiting Quebecois drivers) that may
make them feel more like "prey".

Of course, ministers should be extra careful, since they are always
"easy pray".

Allen Dick said:

> Right now, as I understand this, the concentration of imidacloprid below
> which no harm to bees is proven is considered to be about 20 ppb and
> beekeepers want to reduce this to 6 or so.

I'm not sure anyone really knows just how little imidacloprid will have
negative effects on bees.  From what our counterparts in France say,
even plants grown from seeds that were treated with imidacloprid killed
bees.  I don't know how to do the math for this, but it has to be smaller
than 20 ppb, I'd bet money that a French beekeeper would take issue
with 6 ppb.

Regardless of the current state of the science, it would appear that the
US Courts will soon rule on the question, which may have a ripple
affect on worldwide marketing of the stuff.

> What we have to ask ourselves is this: if -- as many maintain -- 6 ppb
> of imidacloprid (or 20 ppb) is harmful to known organisms, then is 5.46
> ppb of another man-made molecule necessarily a harmless amount?

If one considers how much honey and/or shrimp one might eat, and assumes
that all of it were contaminated with chloramphenicol (and nothing else)
at the level of 5.46 ppb, what percentage of one's TOTAL diet would this be?

For the average person, who does not eat much shrimp or honey, it would
be infinitesimal.  So for the specific case of chloramphenicol in honey, I'd
say the best approach to dealing with the problem would be buckle your
seatbelts, check your tire pressure, look both ways before crossing the
street, and treat all guns as "loaded" at all times.   :)

But that does not mean that I think that the honey should have been let
in to any importing country.  I think it should have been destroyed on the spot.