> Is it possible to go over how Canada is handling the heavy metal side
> of the formic acid treatments and what they are doing and/or how
> regulating, to not worry about hive product contaminations of honey,
> wax, propolis, and pollen?

Commercial break, bottom of the 5th, 3-0, Red Sox!!!!!
(I expect to wake up at any moment to find that this is all a dream.)


In regard to heavy metal contamination as a result of formic acid treatments,
I don't see any basis for setting keyboards on "shrill".

It is rare to find "heavy metals" liberated from anything at temperatures
less than combustion temperatures, and most often, very high-temperature
combustion, such as industrial processes and waste incineration at 1200 F
and above.  There's a reason they're called "heavy metals".  They're heavy.

That said, bee smokers are not regulated in the least, and the long list
of toxic substances produced by smokers does include some trace amounts of
heavy metals that are produced in the smoke from the combustion of smoker fuel.

When one considers the frequency of smoker use as compared to the relative
infrequency of formic acid exposure for any one colony, a rational person
would regulate smokers long before worrying about formic acid "impurities".
(Catalytic converters for smokers, anyone?)

Another potential source of heavy metals in a hive would be the annoying
habit bees have of collecting things like road tar as "propolis", but again,
the heavy metals would stay in the "goo", and once again, would have a
very hard (dare I say "impossible"?) time getting "into" the honey from
this source.


    jim ("History" is the litany of things which could
         have been avoided had we been more careful)

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