o:288 Honey bees and their products as indicators of environmental element deposition en The aim of this study was to evaluate element (sodium, magnesium, potassium, calcium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic, cadmium, and lead) deposition in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) (worker bees, drone bees, and bee broods) and their products (wax and multifloral honey) in the central and north parts of Serbia using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The study was carried out during the spring and summer seasons when the honeybees were active (2019). Fifty-four colonies of honey bees from different apiaries (located in Rudnik, Lazarevac, and Ležimir) were used in this study. Significant differences in element concentrations were found among locations (P < 0.05). The highest deposition of elements (sodium, calcium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, zinc, arsenic, and cadmium) was found in worker bees. The most commonly detected elements in wax were chromium and lead. Mg had a significant (P < 0.01) correlation with K, Fe, Cu, and As. This study shows that honey bees (worker bees, drone bees, and bee broods) could be more useful as bioindicators of environmental element deposition (toxic and non-toxic) than multifloral honey. Also, this study shows that Serbian multifloral honey meets safety criteria concerning the concentrations of toxic elements. Honey, bee products, beeswax, environment pollution 1552099 10.1007/s12011-020-02321-6 2022-05-16T11:37:20.299Z 44 yes 46 Jelena Ćirić Institute of meat Hygiene and technology Honey bees and their products as indicators of environmental element deposition 0000-0002-8118-7676 Danka Spirić Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology Honey bees and their products as indicators of environmental element deposition person 0000-0002-6008-7625 Tatjana Baltić Institute of meat hygiene and technology Honey bees and their products as indicators of environmental element deposition person 0000-0002-0496-3133 Ivana Branković-Lazić Institute of meat hygiene and technology Honey bees and their products as indicators of environmental element deposition person 0009-0005-5844-9278 Dejana Trbović Instiute of meat hygiene and technology Honey bees and their products as indicators of environmental element deposition person 0000-0001-9357-7789 Nenad Parunović Institute of meat hygiene and technology Honey bees and their products as indicators of environmental element deposition person 0000-0002-8193-4715 Radivoj Petronijević Instiute of meat hygiene and technology Honey bees and their products as indicators of environmental element deposition person 0000-0002-3901-3824 Vesna Djordjević Institute of meat hygiene and technology Honey bees and their products as indicators of environmental element deposition person 0009-0008-5187-4089 application/pdf 1574720 https://unilib.phaidrabg.rs/o:288 no yes 1 70 92000001 71A01 Biological Trace Element Research 199 2312 2319 Springer nature 2021