The use of honey bees in environmental monitoring of 137Cs

Bees are excellent random samplers of relatively defined areas. A bee typically flies up to 1.5 km from the hive, covering an area of approximately 7 km2. Within this area the bee forages from many plants and collects water from various sources. Bee products, such as pollen and honey, therefore reflect the conditions of the immediate environment. In this study we were interested in the transfer of the anthropogenically produced isotope 137Cs from environmental sinks into the bee products. 137Cs originates principally from the atmospheric thermonuclear bomb tests conducted in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Minute quantities could also originate from nuclear establishments (such as ANSTO in Australia) where it is used in scientific research. Once released into the environment 137Cs is known to bind tightly with the clay component and organic fractions in soil and its distribution largely reflects the physical transport of soil. In this work we compared the 137Cs levels from the Sydney region and other parts of NSW against Ireland (which were high as a result of the Chernobyl reactor accident)