*3.2. Human Health Risk Assessment*

Prior to commenting on the health risk assessment results, a basic admission on the consumption of pollen was contemplated. Daily consumption of honey is established in the European Union at 5 g per day. On the contrary, due to the rarity of pollen consumption data, published works mostly on therapeutic uses of pollen were considered [22,29] and also embraced in previous work of our group [15]. Yet, an overestimation of the risk due to elevated pollen consumption is expected.

Regarding the health risk assessment, the average daily intake of each pesticide, ADI, and HQ values are presented in Table 3. The only active substance for which the health risk assessment showed (in two samples) alarming levels was coumaphos. More specifically, when mean coumaphos concentration in pollen was incorporated in respective endpoint calculations, it led to an HQ value for children above the threshold value. Similar conclusions were derived when HI values were subtracted.

Considering honey, an exemplary "worst-case" sample contained coumaphos (and coumaphos oxon as the sum, at 101.5 ng/g) accompanied by imidacloprid (286.8 ng/g) and acetamiprid (20.5 ng/g). Nevertheless, after individual calculations of HQs, their summation led to an HI value of 0.04 and 0.13 for adults and children, correspondingly. Consequently, no risk was posed for humans after the potential consumption of this honey.
