Bee Plus: NRHS Senior’s Research Creating A Buzz

New Rochelle, NY—A New Rochelle High School student’s research into lead found in honey is now part of an international study on a new way to track and measure pollution. When NRHS senior Yaffa Segal began testing for heavy metals in honey from beehives around the Hudson Valley region, she couldn’t have known her work would lead to accolades from her mentors and peers and pave the way for a potential scientific breakthrough.

Now, her research, conducted for the NRHS Science Research Program, is a key component of a study from the University of British Columbia. The larger project examined specimens of bees’ nectar from hives stretching from Paris to New Zealand with the goal of seeing how the honeybee products might be used to better monitor pollutants in the environment.

Segal first became aware of the international project when she contacted the university for advice on her own study. Instead, she was eventually invited to contribute to the global scientific research project.

“They were excited to get honey from different sampling sites in the United States,” Segal explained.

The industrious teenager gathered nearly 50 samples from Manhattan, the Bronx, New Paltz and Long Island. She also collected specimens from nearby sites in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Segal is one of six authors named in the “Regional and Global Perspectives of Honey as a Record of Lead in the Environment” study. The paper was published in the prestigious Journal of Environmental Research this past January.

"Yaffa's accomplishment is so exciting,” director of the NRHS Science Research Program, Jeff Wuebber said. “She is now considered a co-equal among professional scientists. Yaffa shines a light upon distant shores, redefining what is possible for all future science research students."

The study concluded that lead, a heavy metal once found in automobile exhaust and paint in the not so distant past, remains concentrated in urban areas. Segal's research based in and around one of the largest cities on the globe helped to reinforce the data.

“For the New York data, they found the distance from urban centers has an effect,” Segal said. “The levels of heavy metals decrease almost exponentially as you move away from the urban areas.”

Segal's paper explains that bees and their honey are good indicators of heavy metal pollution because the insects can travel as far as three kilometers from their hive to collect pollen. This makes beehives a central source for studying a wide swath of the nearby environment.

“When a bee flies through the air, a lot of pollutants can get stuck on its fuzz and make its way into the honey,” Segal explained.

Fortunately, Segal feels comfortable around her stinging study subjects. She has served as a volunteer at the Greenburgh Nature Center for years. It was here that she first learned the ins-and-outs of beekeeping.

“I was definitely nervous when I first opened the hive, but I've always been kind of a tree hugger, and bugs never freaked me out too much,” she said. “Typically, bees are really docile, so much so that you can scoop them up in your hands and you won't get stung. I was also wearing a full bee suit, so the risk was fairly low.”