The concentrations of the enviromental pollutant 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin were measured in the blood of 44 infertile women with endometriosis (study group), and in 35 age-matched women with tubal infertility (control group). Eight women with endometriosis (18%) were dioxin positive as compared to one woman (3%) in the controls (P = 0.04). Although the concentrations of dioxin did not seem to be directly correlated with the severity of endometriosis, these observations contribute to the accumulating data linking dioxin to endometriosis in humans.

Beehive products such as honey, beeswax and recently pollen have been regarded for many years as appropriate sentinels for environmental pesticide pollutions. However, despite yearly application of hundreds of approved pesticides in agricultural fields, only a minor fraction of these organic compounds were actually detected in honey and beeswax samples. This observation has led us to question the general suitability of beehive products as a sentinel for synthetic organic pesticides applied in the field. The aim of the present study was to experimentally determine the distribution (logarithmic ratio of beeswax to honey pesticide concentration, LogD) and depletion kinetics (half-life) of selected pesticides in honey and beeswax as a measure of the latter matrixes to serve as a pesticide sentinel. The obtained parameters were used to extrapolate to pesticide burden in honey and beeswax samples collected from German and Israeli apiaries. In addition, we aimed to establish a mathematical model, enabling us to predict distribution of selected pesticides between honey to beeswax, by utilizing simple substance descriptors, namely, octanol/water partitioning coefficient, molar weight and Henry coefficient. Based on the present results, it appears that pesticides with LogD values > 1 and half-life in beeswax > 1 day, were likely to accumulate and detected in beeswax samples, and less likely to be found in honey. On the other hand, pesticides with negative LogD values were highly likely to be found in honey and less so in beeswax samples. Finally, pesticides with LogD values between 0–1 were expected to be found in both matrixes. The developed model was successfully applied to predict LogD values, thereby identifying octanol/water partitioning and molar weight as the most prominent substance descriptors, which affect pesticide distribution between honey and beeswax.

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Dehydro pyrrolizidine alkaloids (dehydro PAs) are carcinogenic phytotoxins prevalent in the Boraginaceae, Asteraceae and Fabaceae families. Dehydro PAs enter the food and feed chain by co-harvesting of crops intended for human and animal consumption as well as by carry-over into animal-based products such as milk, eggs and honey. Recently the occurrence of dehydro PAs in teas and herbal teas has gained increasing attention from the EU, due to the high levels of dehydro PAs found in commercially available teas and herbal teas in Germany and Switzerland. Furthermore, several tropane alkaloids (TAs, e.g. scopolamine and hyoscyamine) intoxications due to the consumption of contaminated herbal teas were reported in the literature. The aim of the present study was to determine the dehydro PAs and TAs levels in 70 pre-packed teabags of herbal and non-herbal tea types sold in supermarkets in Israel. Chamomile, peppermint and rooibos teas contained high dehydro PAs levels in almost all samples analysed. Lower amounts were detected in black and green teas, while no dehydro PAs were found in fennel and melissa herbal teas. Total dehydro PAs concentrations in chamomile, peppermint and rooibos teas ranged from 20 to 1729 μg/kg. Except for black tea containing only mono-ester retrorsine-type dehydro PAs, all other teas and herbal teas showed mixed patterns of dehydro PA ester types, indicating a contamination by various weed species during harvesting and/or production. The TA levels per teabag were below the recommended acute reference dose; however, the positive findings of TAs in all peppermint tea samples warrant a more extensive survey. The partially high levels of dehydro PAs found in teas and herbal teas present an urgent warning letter to the regulatory authorities to perform routine quality control analysis and implement maximum residual levels for dehydro PAs.

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