Honey as a biomonitor for metal distribution in the environment

Biomonitors are organisms or byproducts that are sampled to gather quantitative information about the environment. Honey, bees, and other have products have been successfully used as a biomonitor of metal content for decades. Recently, the use of lead (Pb) isotope ratios has been coupled with metal concentrations to elucidate trends in metal compositions by land use in Vancouver and other cities. Pb isotope ratios analyzed in tandem with metal concentrations allows for a more complete picture of anthropogenic sources of metals to be obtained from honey samples. A recent study analyzed honey from Vancouver, Canada, and Brussels, Belgium, to compare how a young North American city and a large, older European city with an extensive history of metal use recorded changes in Pb isotope ratios and metal concentrations throughout the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. This case works to define the limits of honey as a biomonitor and metal concentrations coupled with Pb isotope ratios as a geochemical metric for metal pollution.